ARTS: Revising Ceraphronoidea (Hymenoptera), a possible link between sawflies and apocritan wasps

蠓是一种小型寄生蜂，其幼虫以其他昆虫为食并最终杀死其他昆虫。许多种类的蠓在农业系统的生物害虫防治计划中具有重要意义。膜翅目似乎也是我们理解膜翅目昆虫进化过程中缺失的一环，膜翅目昆虫是一个由100多万种昆虫（占所有生物的10%）组成的谱系。该项目将带来广泛可获取的资源，扫除未来研究这些昆虫的障碍，包括：基于分子和解剖数据的系统发育、修订的高级分类、标本图像、数万个标本的数据、农业相关类群的种级专著，以及使用分子和解剖数据进行物种鉴定的强大工具。该项目还将测试一种描述物种的新方法。这种新方法增加了生物多样性数据的开放性和可及性，并允许人们对颜色、质地、形状和其他表型进行分析，以寻找生态模式并协助诊断物种。该方法具有广泛的适用性，并且可以连接任何生物的分类处理数据，这是分类学上的第一次。当代形态学方法研讨会将促进这种新方法的培训和传播。两名研究生将被培养为综合系统学家和Ceraphronoidea专家，这是十多年来的第一次。

Ceraphronoidea are small, under-studied parasitoid wasps whose larvae feed on and eventually kill other insects. Many species of Ceraphronoidea are important in biological pest control programs in agricultural systems. Ceraphronoidea also appear to be the missing link that is critical for our understanding of the evolution of Hymenoptera, a lineage of insects represented by more than a million species (10% of all organisms). This project will result in broadly accessible resources that lift barriers to future research on these insects, including: a phylogeny based on molecular and anatomical data, a revised higher-level classification, images of specimens, data for tens of thousands of specimens, species-level monographs for agriculturally-relevant groups, and robust tools that use molecular and anatomical data for identification of species. The project will also test a novel approach for describing species. This new method increases the openness and accessibility of biodiversity data and allows one to do analyses of color, texture, shape, and other phenotypes in order to look for ecological patterns and to assist in diagnosing species. The approach is broadly applicable and stands to connect data from taxonomic treatments of any organism, a first for taxonomy. A workshop in contemporary morphology methods will facilitate training and dissemination of this new approach. Two graduate students will be trained as integrative systematists and experts of Ceraphronoidea, the first in over a decade.