Dissertation Research: Phylogenetic analysis of the family Calamoceratidae (Trichoptera), and a revision of the Neotropical genera Phylloicus and Banyallarga

毛翅目Holzenthal和PratherCaddisys(毛翅目)是世界各地河流和湖泊中常见和丰富的生物。作为水生食物网的重要成员，它们以有机物质和其他水生无脊椎动物为食，以鱼为食。卡迪蝇对污染非常敏感，是水质的重要生物指标。在新热带地区，对该类群的分类和鉴定状况不佳，阻碍了它们用于水质监测。对它们的进化、生物学和生态学的研究也受到我们有限的物种识别能力的阻碍。Banyallarga和Phylloicus属(Calamoceratidae)的尸蝇是这些鲜为人知的类群之一。这些种类是新热带石斑蝇动物群中引人注目的成员，体型相对较大，与大多数石斑蝇不同，成虫阶段的翅膀颜色醒目。它们的显着性和丰富性使其成为潜在的非常有用的生物指示剂。不幸的是，已发表的描述和插图(其中许多可以追溯到上个世纪)不足以进行物种鉴定。过去几十年的收藏品中，许多疑似新物种都没有被描述出来，这些物种之间的进化关系也从未被研究过。研究生艾莎·普拉瑟在明尼苏达大学拉尔夫·霍尔森塔尔博士的指导下，对这两个属和相关属的博物馆标本进行了联合的形态和分子分析，以进行分类修订和属水平的系统发育分析。从所有已知物种的幼虫和成虫阶段以及从疑似新物种的博物馆藏品中测量的形态特征将为物种的分类描述、建立可靠的识别检索表、地理分布的范围图以及说明生物的关键识别特征提供主要材料。线粒体细胞色素氧化酶I基因的DNA序列数据和形态特征将为这两个属与其他葫芦科的关系以及该科在相关科中的位置提供信息。该项目将提供一个分类基础和系统发育框架内的这一类的身体，以推动未来的研究，在系统学，生态学，行为，和水质监测。

9972724Holzenthal and PratherCaddisflies (Trichoptera) are common and abundant organisms in rivers and lakes world wide. As important members of aquatic food webs, they feed on organic material and other aquatic invertebrates and themselves are fed upon by fish. Caddisflies are very sensitive to pollution and are important biological indicators of water quality. In the Neotropics, the poor state of taxonomic classification and identification for the group hinders their use for water quality monitoring. Research into their evolution, biology, and ecology is also hampered by our limited ability to identify species. Caddisflies in the genera Banyallarga and Phylloicus (family Calamoceratidae) make up one of these poorly known groups. These species are conspicuous members of the Neotropical caddisfly fauna, being relatively large and, unlike most caddisflies, with strikingly colored wings in the adult stage. Their conspicuousness and abundance make them potentially very useful as bioindicators. Unfortunately, published descriptions and illustrations, many dating back to the last century, are inadequate for species identification. Many suspected new species are undescribed from collections made over the last several decades, and evolutionary relationships among these species have never been examined.Graduate student Aysha Prather, under the direction of Dr. Ralph Holzenthal at the University of Minnesota, is conducting a combined morphological and molecular analysis of museum specimens of the two genera and of related genera, to produce a taxonomic revision and genus-level phylogenetic analyses. Morphological characters measured from larval and adult stages of all known species and from museum collections of suspected new species will provide the major materials for the taxonomic description of species, the construction of reliable identification keys, range maps of geographic distributions, and illustrations of critical identifying features of the organisms. DNA sequence data from the mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase I gene and morphological characters will provide information on the relationships of the two genera to other calamoceratid caddisflies and the placement of the family among related families. This project will provide a taxonomic foundation and phylogenetic framework within this group of caddisflies to advance future research in systematics, ecology, behavior, and water quality monitoring.