RUI: Microbiological Survey and Inventory: Eugregarinida (Protista: Apicomplexa) Parasitizing Selected Mandibulate Arthropods of the Nebraska Sandhills

9705179克莱普顿这个项目支持教职员工和本科生对栖息在昆虫、千足虫、蜈蚣和甲壳类(大型节肢动物)消化道中的某些微小寄生性原生动物的多样性进行研究。这些原生生物被称为“优等生物”，它们所栖息的生物是地球上所有生物中最特殊的。在该项目期间，预计将从46个科的125个节肢动物物种中回收来自12个不同科的150-200种优节动物；这些生物将从内布拉斯加州沙丘的12个不同栖息地收集。由于节肢动物类群在这些学科中的重要性，该项目对生态学、农业和医学都有影响。此外，目前北美没有博物馆收藏优等生植物，也从未对该大陆进行过对这些生物的调查。该项目的产品将包括将保存在内布拉斯加州州立博物馆的标本收藏，内布拉斯加州沙丘中的优格利加属植物及其宿主的分类目录，一个在线标本数据库，以及将提供优格列格利属植物的识别关键字、图像和描述的WWW页面。此外，12名本科生将参与这项研究，因此将接受实地经验和系统学培训。该项目由生物调查和清查计划和环境生物学集群长期项目共同资助。

9705179 Clopton This project supports integrated faculty and undergraduate student research on the diversity of certain microscopic parasitic protists that inhabit the digestive tracts of insects, millipedes, centipedes, and crustaceans (macroarthropods). These protists are known as "eugregarines," and the organisms they inhabit are the most speciose of all organisms on earth. During the project, it is expected that 150-200 species of eugregarines from 12 different families will be recovered from 125 arthropod species representing 46 families; these organisms will be collected from a range of 12 different habitats in the Nebraska sandhills. The project has implications for ecology, agriculture, and medicine, because of the importance in those disciplines of the arthropod groups to be studied. Further, there is currently no museum collection of eugregarines in North America, and no survey of these organisms has ever been carried out for this continent. Products of this project will include specimen collections that will be deposited at the Nebraska State Museum, taxonomic catalogs of eugregarines and their hosts in the Nebraska sandhills, an online specimen database, and WWW pages that will provide identification keys, images, and descriptions of the eugregarines. Also, 12 undergraduate students will be involved in the research, and thus will receive field experience and training in systematics. The project is jointly funded by the Biotic Surveys and Inventories Program and the Long Term Projects in Environmental Biology Cluster.