PBI: Phytophagous Insects as a Model Group for Documenting Planetary Biodiversity (Insecta: Heteroptera: Miridae: Orthotylinae, Phylinae)

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ABSTRACT: DEB-0316495PLANT BUG PLANETARY BIODIVESITY INVENTORYA grant has been awarded to Drs Randall Schuh and Gerasimos Cassis at the American Museum of Natural History and their colleagues to conduct a global study of plant-feeding insects in the true bug family Miridae. The work will bring together biodiversity information on a world-wide group of insects important in agriculture and as biodiversity indicators. Materials for the project will consist of approximately 5300 species represented by 550,000 specimens currently lodged in the world's major natural history museums and an additional 100,000 specimens acquired as a result of project-funded field work. New materials will be collected primarily in the southern hemisphere because that part of the world is the least well known, but nonetheless, by every indication, shows tremendous species diversity. Potential findings of the project are the description of more than 1000 species new to science, the documentation of approximately 4000 host plants, and the documentation of distributional patterns within the group on a global basis.The broader impacts of this study will include the development of international partnerships including the USA, Australia, Canada, China, Japan, Russia, and South Africa. Three postdoctoral investigators and six PhD students will be trained in techniques relevant to systematic biology in the 21st Century . Each of these individuals will receive substantial international exposure through field work, in museums, and at professional meetings. Scientific results will be disseminated through a project website which will include interactive mapping of distributions, interactive identification keys, a digital library of literature pertaining to the study group, as well as other research and information tools. Project results and concepts will be made available to the general public via a traveling exhibit to be shown at the American Museum of Natural History in New York and the Australian Museum, Sydney. In conjunction with creation of the exhibit, specialized web materials for use as educational aids, will be developed. The project is co-funded by NSF's Office of International Science and Engineering.