PEET: Monography And Phylogeny Of New World Scarabaeoid Beetles

圣甲虫是昆虫区系的重要成员，是重要的生物防治剂、传粉者、农业害虫和生境指示物。尽管它们具有重要的经济意义、多样性和生态意义，但只有不到50%的新世界圣甲虫属可以可靠地识别。新世界热带地区是圣甲虫种类最丰富的地区，但在分类学上却是最贫乏的。选择该地区的圣甲虫类群进行专论、系统发育和生物信息学方面的培训。建议的研究将建立全面的目录和标本级信息的电子数据库，包括特征数据、地理和时间分布、寄主植物关联和图像。它将出版专著、新世界圣甲虫属鉴定指南和新世界圣甲虫属数据库，以电子方式检索。系统发育研究将通过针对神秘和鲜为人知的群体来稳定金龟子总科的高级分类。该研究将有助于发展用于组织和获取有关圣甲虫知识的计算机基础设施，并为今后的圣甲虫系统学工作奠定基础。本研究扩展了我们以前NSF-PEET支持的目标，通过创建新世界圣甲虫所有属（大约600种）的密钥和数据库，它建立在我们现有的圣甲虫分类学基础上，专门研究鲜为人知的新世界圣甲虫群，并培养学生的圣甲虫分类学。这些活动将直接有助于培养新一代系统学家，并增进我们对一个突出的（但鲜为人知的）昆虫超级家族的认识。为了满足全球对生物多样性知识的需求，并加强生物学所有领域的基础，需要专题著作、电子数据库、交互式密钥和新训练的系统学家。专著研究最重要的好处之一是分类的预测系统。系统发育分析的结果将用于稳定本研究中圣甲虫的现有分类。圣甲虫群的自然分类可以用来解决其他问题，包括：亲代抚育的进化、角的进化、生物地理学、蚁学的进化等等。所有新世界金龟子属的联机密钥和生物信息学资源将为金龟子总科分类学提供基准。它将对从事农业、科研、教育和自然资源管理的人们有用。该指南将成为全球Scarabaeoidea的关键基础，这是一个未来的项目，将涉及来自世界各地的参与者。

Scarab beetles are prominent members of the insect fauna and are important biocontrol agents, pollinators, agricultural pests, and habitat indicators. Despite their economic importance, diversity, and ecological significance, less than 50% of the New World genera of scarabs can be identified with reliability. The New World tropics contains the greatest diversity of scarab species, yet it is the poorest known taxonomically. Scarab groups from this region were selected for training in monography, phylogeny, and bioinformatics. The proposed research will create comprehensive catalogs and electronic databases of specimen-level information, including character data, geographic and temporal distributions, host plant associations, and images. It will produce monographs, an identification guide to genera of New World scarabs, and a database of New World genera of scarabs that are retrievable electronically. Phylogenetic research will stabilize the higher-level classification of the Scarabaeoidea by targeting enigmatic and poorly known groups. The research will contribute to the development of computer infrastructure for organizing and accessing knowledge about scarab beetles, and it will provide the foundation for future work in scarab systematics. This research extends the goals of our previous NSF-PEET support by creating keys and databases to all genera of New World scarab beetles (approximately 600), and it builds on our existing foundation in scarab systematics to monograph poorly known groups of New World scarab beetles and train students in scarab systematics. These activities will contribute directly to the training of a new generation of systematists as well as advance our knowledge of a prominent (but poorly known) superfamily of insects. Monographic works, electronic databases, interactive keys, and newly trained systematists are needed in order to meet the global needs for knowledge of biodiversity and to strengthen the foundation for all fields of biology. One of the most important benefits of monographic research is a predictive system of classification. Results of the phylogenetic analyses will be used to stabilize the current classification of scarabs in this study. A natural classification of scarab groups can be used to address other questions that include: evolution of parental care, evolution of horns, biogeography, evolution of myrmecophily, and others. The on-line key and bioinformatics resources for all New World scarab genera will create the bench-mark for Scarabaeoidea systematics. It will be useful to people engaged in agriculture, research, education, and natural resource management. The guide will form the foundation for keys to all world Scarabaeoidea, a future project that would involve participants from around the world.