Inferred Phylogeny of Carabid Tribes with Focal Studies on Taxa of Harpalinae: a Synthesis of Morphological and Molecular Data, and a New Classification

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This project will reconstruct the phylogeny of carabid beetles (Coleoptera: Carabidae), one of the dominant groups of small predators. The focus will be on relationships of the tribes of this large family, with a concentration on the relationships within the largest subfamily, the Harpalinae, a group which has radiated into over 25,000 species since the Cretaceous. Within the Harpalinae, the basal pterostichite lineages will be examined in detail, as will the abundant lebiomorphs, which have ascended vegetation and radiated into the rainforest canopy. A matrix of morphological characters from both adults and larvae of over 200 taxa will be constructed that draws on plentiful published accounts, newly sampled taxa and novel character systems. Molecular sequence data for 28S rDNA and the wingless gene will be gathered for these same taxa, expanding existing information about these genes by adding taxa critical to understanding carabid evolution in general and harpaline radiation in particular. The project will yield not only knowledge of the evolutionary history of carabids, but a classification of the family based for the first time on an explicit, and comprehensive, phylogenetic analysis.