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虫、它们的寄主植物关系和它们的寄生蜂清单的三年主要部分。清单结果旨在使毛虫及其与食用植物和寄生虫的营养关系可用于生态学、分类学、行为学、生理学和进化的基础研究，并可供天然产品化学、教育和虫害管理的应用用户使用。总的目标是建立这一生物系统，作为科学和哥斯达黎加社会对复杂热带荒地的非破坏性可持续利用的组成部分。具体地说，该项目将完成以下工作。确定至少另外500种大型蛾(和一些蝴蝶)和至少335种小鳞翅目昆虫的毛虫的位置、位置和特征，以便产生总共约1450种为这片森林所特有的物种。这大约是其毛毛虫动物群的一半。所有资料将储存在计算机化的数据库中；维持和扩大目前收集的所有饲养的凭证材料，并增加副本的数量，以便能够轻松地将标本捐赠给毛虫和幼虫的分类和形态研究；发布西班牙语和英语的野外指南，逐个家庭地介绍这片森林中的毛毛虫，因为每个家庭的养育已经完成或接近完成；出版调查文件，列出所有饲养物种的寄主植物记录，列出在野外收集的毛虫饲养的寄生蜂的文件，以及关于毛虫和寄生蜂自然历史的文件。

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.