Inventory of the Lepidoptera Larvae and their Parasitoids ina Tropical Dry Forest

这是哥斯达黎加西北部瓜纳卡斯特保护区热带干燥森林中所有毛毛虫、它们的寄主植物关系和它们的拟寄生物的3年清单的主要部分。调查结果旨在为生态学、系统学、行为学、生理学和进化的基础研究以及天然产物化学、教育和病虫害管理等方面的应用提供依据。总体目标是建立这一生物系统，使其成为科学和哥斯达黎加社会对复杂的热带荒地进行非破坏性可持续利用的一个组成部分。具体而言，本项目将完成以下工作。对至少另外500种巨蛾（和一些蝴蝶）和至少另外335种小鳞翅目的毛虫进行定位、追踪和特征描述，从而得出该森林特征的总共约1450种。这大约是其毛虫动物群的一半。所有资料将储存在计算机化数据库中；维持和扩大目前所有饲养凭证材料的收集，并增加副本的数量，以便能够方便地捐赠标本用于毛虫和蛹的分类和形态学研究；用西班牙语和英语出版这个森林里毛毛虫的野外指南，一个家庭一个家庭地出版，因为每个家庭的饲养已经完成或接近完成；发表调查论文，列出所有养殖物种的寄主植物记录，列出从田间采集的毛虫中饲养的拟寄生物，以及毛虫和拟寄生物自然史的论文。

This is a 3-year major portion of the inventory of all caterpillars, their host plant relationships, and their parasitoids in the tropical dry forest of the Guanacaste Conservation Area in northwestern Costa Rica. The inventory results are designed to make caterpillars and their trophic relationships with food plants and parasitoids available to basic studies in ecology, systematics, behavior, physiology and evolution, and to applied users in natural products chemistry, education, and pest management. The overall goal is to establish this biological system as an integral part of the non-destructive sustainable use of a complex tropical wildland by science and by Costa Rican society. Specifically, this project will accomplish the following. Locate, rear and characterize the caterpillars of a minimum of another 500 species of macromoths (and some butterflies), and a minimum of another 335 species of microlepidoptera, so as to yield a total of approximately 1450 species characterized for this forest. This is approximately half of its caterpillar fauna. All information will be stored in computerized data bases; Maintain and enlarge the current collecting of voucher material for all rearings, and increase the number of duplicates so as to be able to easily donate specimens to studies of taxonomy and morphology of caterpillars and pupae; Publish field guides in Spanish and English to the caterpillars of this forest, family by family, as the rearing for each family is complete or nearly so; Publish survey papers listing the host plant records for all of the species reared, papers listing the parasitoids reared from the caterpillars collected in the field and papers on caterpillars and parasitoid natural history.