PEET: Monography, Phylogeny, and Historical Biogeography of Austral Staphylinidae (Coleoptera)

隐翅虫科（Staphylinidae）是大多数陆地生态系统中数量庞大且数量丰富的甲虫科，但在中欧以外，它们并不为人所知。 我们将研究几个亚组，每个亚组发生在南半球的三个或四个不同的地区（澳大利亚，新西兰，智利和阿根廷南部，南非）。 使用现有的博物馆标本和新收集的材料，我们中的一个将研究每个选定的亚组：确定有多少和哪些物种属于它，描述（许多）新物种和地图他们的分布，并分析物种之间的系统发育（进化）关系。 每一项研究都试图重建其亚群的地理历史。 我们将把这些联合收割机结合起来，寻找不同地区之间历史联系的重复模式，将这些模式与其他群体中发现的模式进行比较，并考虑它们是否是古代地质变化的结果（例如，冈瓦纳大陆的分裂，开始于1.7 - 1.5亿年前）和/或其他原因（例如，后来分散在不同的地区或从北方）。 结果将包括（1）每个亚组的一个有很好说明的修订研究，（2）关于所有（和其他生物群）的地理历史的更一般的论文，和（3）一个网站展示这些结果-用彩色照片和交互式识别工具增强-与广泛的补充信息，如分类目录和研究标本的数据库。 更好的知识，将允许使用这个巨大的群体在进化和生态学研究：充分了解几乎任何陆基自然群落是不完整的，如果不考虑这个非常多样化的，主要是捕食性的，组成部分（容易100-200个物种每个网站）。 许多完全属于南部温带的生境的减少程度甚至超过热带雨林，并受到严重威胁。 这就迫切需要研究它们独特的居民，其中包括许多鲜为人知和进化上孤立的物种。 我们对几个隐翅虫类群的研究也为了解南温带地区动物群和植物群的整体演化历史提供了有价值的信息。 我们将培训一名博士后研究员和一名研究生，学习现代系统学的理论和实践（包括实地考察和使用外部和内部结构特征，DNA测序和许多计算机工具），并将他们介绍给博物馆和大学的馆长和研究人员的国际网络。 每年都会有一名本科生实习生参与该项目，接触系统研究和节肢动物的戏剧性生物多样性，也许还能获得在相关学科从事职业的灵感。 在四个南部温带地区的实地工作将包括一名当地学生或其他个人，作为国际伙伴关系建设的一部分。 我们将改进东道国博物馆和菲尔德博物馆的收藏，办法是存放新的标本（来自鲜为人知的生境），并对现有标本进行分类和鉴定。 这些改进将在未来的研究中结出硕果，不仅是对甲虫的研究，也是对其他节肢动物的研究。

Rove beetles (Staphylinidae) are a huge and abundant beetle family in most terrestrial ecosystems, but outside Central Europe they are not well known. We will study several subgroups, each occurring in three or four separate areas in the southern hemisphere (Australia, New Zealand, Chile and southern Argentina, South Africa). Using existing museum specimens and newly collected material, one of us will study each selected subgroup to: determine how many and which species belong to it, describe the (many) new species and map their distributions, and analyze phylogenetic (evolutionary) relationships among the species. Each study seeks to reconstruct the biogeographic history of its subgroup. We will combine these, seeking repeated patterns of historical connections among the different areas, compare the patterns with those found in other groups, and consider whether they resulted from ancient geological changes (e.g., breakup of Gondwana, starting 170-150 million years ago) and/or other causes (e.g., later dispersal between separated areas or from the north). Results will include (1) a well-illustrated revisionary study of each subgroup, (2) a more general paper about the biogeographic histories of all (and other groups of organisms), and (3) a web site presenting these results -- enhanced with color photos and interactive identification tools -- with extensive supplementary information, such as taxonomic catalogs and databases of the specimens studied. Better knowledge of rove beetles will permit using this megadiverse group in evolutionary and ecological studies: full understanding of nearly any land-based natural community is incomplete without considering this very diverse, mostly predatory, component (easily 100-200 species per site). Many wholly southern temperate habitats have been reduced in extent even more than tropical rainforest, and are under serious threat. This lends urgency to studying their unique inhabitants, which include many poorly-known and evolutionarily isolated species. Our data on several staphylinid groups can also provide valuable insights into the overall evolutionary history of the southern temperate areas' fauna and flora. We will train a post-doctoral fellow and a graduate student in theory and practice of modern systematics (including field work and use of external and internal structural features, DNA sequencing, and numerous computer tools) and introduce them to the international network of museum- and university-based curators and researchers. Each year an undergraduate intern will help in the project, gaining exposure to systematic research and to the dramatic biodiversity of arthropods, and perhaps the inspiration to pursue a career in a related discipline. The field work in the four southern temperate areas will include a local student or other individual as part of international partnership-building. We will improve collections at host-country museums and the Field Museum by depositing new specimens (from poorly known habitats) and by sorting and identifying existing holdings. These improvements will bear fruit far into the future for studies not just of rove beetles, but of other arthropods as well.