PEET: World Monograph of the Therevidae (Insecta: Diptera)

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

9521925 Irwin The Therevidae (Insecta: Diptera: Asiloidea) is a speciose group of flies inhabiting particularly fragile, xeric environments. The family radiated in warm desert regions of the world, and its species are particularly abundant in Australia, western North America, southwestern South America, the Mediterranean area, and southwestern Africa. Larvae are voracious predators of soil-dwelling arthropods. Thus, these flies are critical to the functioning of natural and managed systems, are potential control agents of fossorial pests, and are probable indicators of environmental heterogeneity and productivity. Yet, worldwide, the family Therevidae is among the poorest known and least understood of the flies because the larvae are difficult to locate and the adults are secretive, frequenting habitats rarely sampled. The family contains an estimated 3,000 species worldwide, of which fewer than one-third have been described. The poor state of knowledge of this family is a major constraint to its potential use for protecting agriculture and for gauging habitat health. %%% This grant proposes to further the task of comprehensively elucidating the world Therevidae. The team that has been assembled is talented, complementary in function, and well integrated in approach. The grant will create and manipulate comprehensive databases of specimen character, collection, and geographic information, produce monographic treatments of genera, initiate a higher level classification of the family, organize and disseminate knowledge contained in databases and monographs to targeted clientele, and educate five next-generation Diptera systematists through a combination of formal and informal training, including participation in field expeditions. Molecular character sets will test and extend hypotheses derived from morphological character analyses. Diskettes and CD-ROMs that contain descriptions and expert keys will be disseminated to museum curators. A larger audience will be targeted for more ge neralized information through a home page on WWW, where anyone with access to the Internet can browse and learn about the Therevidae. ***