Inventory of Caterpillars, Parasitoids and Food Plants of a Costa Rican Dry, Cloud, and Rain Forest: Caterpillar and Species Discovery, and Setting Them Up for Society

该项目为期5年（2005-2010年），对所有9600种大型毛虫（占世界毛虫生物群的4%）、它们的食物植物关系以及它们的拟寄生物（飞蛾、寄生蜂、线虫、真菌）进行持续的生物多样性清查（=建立供社会各界使用）。在哥斯达黎加西北部瓜纳卡斯特保护区（ACG） 470平方英里的热带干燥森林及其毗邻的雨林和云雾森林中，这实际上是一个巨大的国家公园。它的范围从0-2000米海拔，包括所有三个主要的热带陆地生态系统，除了沙漠和paramo。这些毛毛虫是由19名经验丰富的哥斯达黎加副分类学家组成的团队在PI的培训和指导下发现和饲养的。由此产生的数据——数以万计的图像及其相关的自然历史——在项目的公共网站http://janzen.sas.upenn.edu.The上公布和提供，收集到的信息是a)一个全球试点项目的基础，该项目展示了通过当地社会的非破坏性生物多样性发展来保护热带地区；b)通过互联网提供了世界上4%的蝴蝶和蛾子生物多样性的自然历史和营养关系。c)对世界物种进行DNA条形码的新举措的主要刺激和数据，以便任何人随时随地快速地轻松识别，从而大幅提高全球生物素养。

The project is 5 years (2005-2010) of an ongoing biodiversity inventory (= setting up for use by all sectors of society) of all 9,600 species of macrocaterpillars (4% of the world caterpillar biota), their food plant relationships, and their parasitoids (tachinid flies, parasitic wasps, nematodes, fungi), in the 470 square miles of tropical dry forest and its contiguous rain forest and cloud forest in the Area de Conservacion Guanacaste (ACG) in northwestern Costa Rica - effectively a huge national park. It ranges from 0-2000 m elevation and includes all three of the major tropical terrestrial ecosystems other than desert and paramo. The caterpillars are found and reared by a team of 19 experienced Costa Rican parataxonomists with training and guidance by the PI. The resulting data - tens of thousands of images and their associated natural history - is both published and available on the project public web site http://janzen.sas.upenn.edu.The information gathered is a) the base of a global pilot project demonstrating tropical conservation through non-damaging biodiversity development by local society, b) the provision of the natural history and trophic relationships of 4% of the world's butterfly and moth biodiversity via the internet, and c) major stimulus and data for the new initiative to DNA barcode the world's species for easy identification by anyone anywhere anytime, fast, leading to a massive increase in global bioliteracy.