Collaborative Research: Extreme polyphagy, extreme diversity or both? Armored scale insects of tropical rainforests on four continents

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The investigators will survey the armored scale insects of tropical rainforest sites on four continents. They will build a reference collection of specimens and their DNA. Using both DNA sequences and anatomical features, they will discover and describe new species, investigate their evolutionary history, and produce an online interactive key. Many armored scale insects are invasive pests, costing an estimated $2 billion per year in the US. Many of these pests can feed on an extraordinarily large diversity of plants, and are probably native to areas with high plant diversity such as tropical rainforests. However, the armored scale insect fauna of tropical rainforests is unknown. In a pilot study, the investigators found that several of these worldwide pest species are common in a Panama rainforest canopy. These may be some of the most abundant herbivores on earth. This project will investigate them for the first time in their probable ancestral habitat, and will likely discover other species that are not yet invasive pests but that are likely to become invasive pests in the future. At the same time the investigators will develop tools that will enable inspectors to identify these pests if and when they show up in plant quarantine.