Americas Program: Exploring the Diversification of Microgastrine Wasps (Braconidae) from the Area de Conservacion Guanacaste (Costa Rica)

该奖项为博士生Josephine Rodriguez女士和一名将接受培训以帮助她的本科生提供旅行支持，她在伊利诺伊大学香槟分校James Whitfield博士的指导下，在哥斯达黎加瓜纳卡斯特地区(ACG)进行微胃虫亚科寄生蜂群的研究。丹·詹森博士将成为她在ACG的当地导师。计划是评估物种的总体多样性和丰富度，增加对分类学的理解，并使用分子系统发育学来解决具体的假设。该提案的研究活动将有助于增进对昆虫生物学和生物多样性问题的了解，并为增加关于热带昆虫生物多样性的数据提供机会。项目活动将涉及一名本科生和30名哥斯达黎加副分类学家，并将促进对一名女科学家的培训。这项研究产生的材料将与ACG的其他研究人员共享，并将为该领域的进一步研究做出贡献。

This award provides travel support for doctoral student Ms. Josephine Rodriguez, and an undergraduate who will be trained to assist her, working under the guidance of Dr. James Whitfield, of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, to conduct research on the parasitoid groups of the Microgastrinae at the Area de Conservacion Guanacaste (ACG) in Costa Rica. Dr. Dan Janzen will be her local mentor at ACG. Plans are to assess the overall diversity and richness of the species, increase taxonomic understanding and use molecular phylogenetics to address specific hypotheses. The research activities of this proposal will serve to advance understanding of issues in insect biology and biodiversity and provide opportunities for increasing data on tropical insect biodiversity. The project activities will involve an undergraduate and 30 Costa Rican parataxonomists, and will advance the training of a female scientist. Materials generated from this research will be shared with other researchers at ACG, and will contribute to further studies in the field.