CAREER: Phylogenetic Revisions of South American Water Beetles (Coleoptera: Adephaga: Hydradephaga): A Model for Teaching Systematic Biology

本计画将探讨南美水甲虫（Hydrodephaga）的系统分类，包括潜水甲虫、穴居水甲虫及旋转甲虫。 潜水甲虫以其体积和复杂的色彩图案而闻名。它们还表现出雄性和雌性之间有趣的差异;雄性的身体上有粘性盘，使它们在交配时粘在雌性身上，而雌性则有凹槽，使它们能够抵制交配。 该项目将确定这组甲虫中有多少种，以及它们之间的关系。 该项目将测试男性粘性盘的变化是否反映在女性凹槽的相应变化上。DNA序列也将被用来确定哪些幼虫将在哪些成虫中生长。 这项工作的一个产品将是一个互动的，充分说明，在线识别新热带区的水甲虫的关键。 本项目将为一名博士提供专题和修订系统学方面的培训。学生，两个硕士生，四个本科生，后者至少两年。 将为当地高中教师提供暑期讲习班，使他们能够将系统学知识带回课堂。 阿尔伯克基的公立学校系统和新墨西哥州的大学是重要的少数民族服务机构，西班牙裔和美洲原住民是主要的选民。 此外，还将开设两门大学课程，其中一门课程将在夏季学期开设，以便学生能够前往南美洲收集与拟议研究的修订部分有关的昆虫。 这些藏品将由学生处理，并存放在UNM的西南生物博物馆。

This project will investigate the systematics of South American water beetles (Hydradephaga), including diving beetles, burrowing water beetles, and whirligig beetles. Diving beetles are remarkable for their size and intricate color patterns. They also exhibit interesting differences between males and females; males have adhesive disks on their bodies that let them stick to the females during mating, whereas females have grooves that allow them to resist mating. This project will determine how many species there are in this group of beetles, and how they are related to each other. The project will test whether changes in male adhesive disks are mirrored by corresponding changes in the grooves on the females. DNA sequences will also be used to determine which larvae will grow in to which adults. One product of this work will be an interactive, fully illustrated, on-line identification key for the water beetles of the Neotropics. This project will provide training in monographic and revisionary systematics for one Ph.D. student, two master's students, and four undergraduates, the latter for at least two years each. Summer workshops will be provided for local-area high-school teachers so they may take knowledge of systematics back to their classrooms. The public school system in Albuquerque and the University of New Mexico are significant minority-serving institutions with Hispanics and Native Americans as major constituents. In addition, two university courses will be developed, one of which will be offered during the summer term, so that students can be taken to South America to collect insects relevant to the revisionary part of the proposed research. These collections will be processed by the students and deposited at the Museum of Southwestern Biology at UNM.