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

Tachinidae科包含近10,000种描述的有益寄生苍蝇。作为其他昆虫，特别是食草动物的天敌，小卷蛾是自然和农业生态系统中寄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。尽管它们的多样性和生态重要性，我们对它们与宿主的相互作用以及这些作用是如何随着时间的推移而发展的知之甚少。分类上的困难和缺乏强有力的分类阻碍了基础和应用研究。该项目的目标是使用分子和传统方法重建寄生蝇类群体之间的关系，然后使用这些结果来产生稳定的分类，并了解寄主使用模式和其他生活史特征。另一个关键目标是向研究人员和从业者广泛传播关于寄生虫的分类学和生物学信息。小蜂科是除黄蜂外最重要的寄生类群。对它们的历史和可靠的分类基础设施的正确把握对于了解它们作为敌人的作用、它们多样化攻击策略的演变以及它们迅速和猖獗的多样化的原因是必要的。这种认识可以指导在农业和森林系统中选择最有效的寄生生物防治剂，并限制对非目标的潜在负面影响。它还将为生物学中的广泛问题提供信息，如生物地理学、生态专门化和适应性多样化的原因。

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.