COLLABORATIVE RESEARCH: THE PHYLOGENY AND EVOLUTION OF WORLD TACHINIDAE (DIPTERA)

合作研究：世界寄蝇科（双翅目）的系统发育和进化

• 批准号: 1146269
• 负责人: John Stireman
• 金额: $ 42.98万
• 依托单位: Wright State University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2012
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2012-02-15 至 2016-01-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1146269&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: COLLABORATIVE; RESEARCH; PHYLOGENY; EVOLUTION; WORLD

The family Tachinidae contains nearly 10,000 described species of beneficial parasitic flies. As enemies of other insects, particularly herbivores, tachinids are important regulators of host populations in natural and agricultural ecosystems. They help in the natural control of numerous pest insects and have been effectively used in biological control of invasive pests. Despite their diversity and ecological importance, we know little about their interactions with hosts and how these have developed over time. The taxonomic difficulty and lack of a robust classification of tachinids has hindered both basic and applied research. The goals of this project are to reconstruct relationships among groups of tachinid flies using molecular and traditional methods and then use these results to produce a stable classification and to understand patterns of host-use and other life history traits. Another key goal is to broadly distribute taxonomic and biological information on tachinids to researchers and practitioners. Tachinidae are the most important group of insect parasitoids outside of the wasps. A sound grasp of their history and a reliable taxonomic infrastructure are necessary to understand their roles as enemies, the evolution of their diverse attack strategies, and the causes of their rapid and rampant diversification. Such an understanding can guide the selection of the most effective tachinid biological control agents in agricultural and forest systems and limit the potential negative impacts upon non-targets. It will also inform broad issues in biology such as biogeography, ecological specialization, and the causes of adaptive diversification.

寄蝇科包含近10，000种描述的有益寄生蝇。作为其他昆虫，特别是草食性昆虫的天敌，寄蝇是自然和农业生态系统中宿主种群的重要调节者。它们有助于自然控制许多害虫，并已有效地用于入侵害虫的生物防治。尽管它们具有多样性和生态重要性，但我们对它们与宿主的相互作用以及它们如何随着时间的推移而发展知之甚少。分类学上的困难和缺乏一个强大的分类tachinids阻碍了基础和应用研究。该项目的目标是使用分子和传统的方法重建不同群的寄蝇之间的关系，然后使用这些结果来产生一个稳定的分类，并了解主机使用和其他生活史特征的模式。另一个关键目标是向研究人员和从业人员广泛传播关于寄蝇类的分类和生物学信息。 寄蝇科是除胡蜂外最重要的寄生性昆虫类群。对它们的历史和可靠的分类基础设施的良好掌握对于了解它们作为敌人的角色，它们不同攻击策略的演变以及它们迅速和猖獗多样化的原因是必要的。这种认识可以指导农业和森林系统选择最有效的寄蝇生物控制剂，并限制对非目标的潜在负面影响。它还将告知生物学中的广泛问题，如地理学，生态专业化和适应性多样化的原因。