PEET: Monography And Phylogeny Of New World Scarabaeoid Beetles

金龟子是昆虫区系的重要成员，是重要的生物控制媒介、传粉媒介、农业害虫和生境指示者。尽管它们的经济重要性，多样性和生态意义，但只有不到50%的新世界金龟子属可以可靠地识别。新大陆热带地区拥有最丰富的圣甲虫物种，但在分类学上却是最贫乏的。 从这个地区的圣甲虫群体被选中进行专题研究、遗传学和生物信息学的培训。拟议中的研究将创建全面的目录和电子数据库，包括字符数据，地理和时间分布，寄主植物协会和图像。它将编写专题论文、新大陆金龟子属鉴定指南和可通过电子方式检索的新大陆金龟子属数据库。系统发育研究将以神秘和鲜为人知的群体为目标，稳定金龟子总科的高级分类。这项研究将有助于发展用于组织和访问有关金龟子的知识的计算机基础设施，并为金龟子系统学的未来工作提供基础。这项研究扩展了我们以前的NSF-PEET支持的目标，通过创建新世界金龟子的所有属（约600）的关键字和数据库，它建立在我们现有的金龟子系统学的基础上，专着鲜为人知的新世界金龟子组和培训学生在金龟子系统学。这些活动将直接有助于培养新一代系统分类学家，并增进我们对一个重要（但鲜为人知）的昆虫超科的了解。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、交互式检索表和新培训的系统学家。专题研究最重要的好处之一是一个预测性的分类系统。系统发育分析的结果将被用来稳定目前的金龟子在这项研究中的分类。金龟子群体的自然分类可以用来解决其他问题，包括：父母照顾的进化，角的进化，昆虫学，食蚁性的进化等。所有新大陆金龟子属的联机检索和生物信息学资源将为金龟子总科系统学建立基准。它将对从事农业、研究、教育和自然资源管理的人有用。该指南将成为全世界金龟子总科钥匙的基础，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.