RUI: Biodiversity Inventory: Gregarines Parasitizing North American Cockroaches

该项目对北美蟑螂及其寄生虫的生物多样性进行了调查和记录。这是自1917年以来首次对北美蟑螂进行全面调查，该项目将发现并描述60-120种新的寄生虫物种。这些昆虫寄生虫虽然与人类的疟疾寄生虫关系密切，但不会感染脊椎动物。在北美已知的72种蟑螂中，只有8种侵扰人类。该项目通过实地调查、准备永久博物馆藏品以及形态和分子数据的生成和分析来发现和记录蟑螂和甲虫的多样性。该项目通过寄生虫发展和寄生虫在宿主物种间的实验交叉感染的对照研究，量化了宿主物种多样性和环境对物种形成的影响。该项目研究了生物多样性的一个基本问题：宿主多样性和环境条件在寄生虫物种的形成和持续中发挥了什么作用？这些问题是所有生物多样性调查的基础，它们的解决是理解生物多样性的形成和持久性以及快速发现和描述新物种的技术的关键。务实地，该项目建立了一个样本库，以调查和监测气候变化对生物多样性的影响：蟑螂的分布由气候划定，但近一个世纪没有进行过调查。PI在一个小型的农村本科生机构。该项目将培训几名本科生，他们可能会因为自己的研究经验而直接选择从事科学职业。

The project surveys and documents the biodiversity of North American cockroaches and their gregarine parasites. This is the first comprehensive survey of North American cockroaches since 1917 and the project will discover and describe 60-120 new parasite species. These parasites of insects, although closely related to the malarial parasites of humans, do not infect vertebrates. Of the 72 cockroach species known in North America, only 8 infest humans. The project discovers and documents cockroach and gregarine diversity through field survey, preparation of permanent museum collections, and the generation and analysis of morphological and molecular data. The project quantifies the effects of host species diversity and the environment on speciation using controlled studies of parasite development and experimental cross-infection of parasites among host species.The project examines a basic question of biodiversity: what roles do host diversity and environmental conditions play in the formation and persistence of parasitic species? These questions underlie all biodiversity survey and their solution is key to understanding the formation and persistence of biodiversity as well as techniques for rapidly discovering and describing new species. Pragmatically, the project builds a specimen base to investigate and monitor the effects of climate change on biodiversity: cockroach distributions are delimited by climate but have not been surveyed in almost a century. The PI is in a small, rural, undergraduate institution. The project will train several undergraduate students who will likely choose to pursue careers in science as a direct result of their research experience.