ARTS: SG: Diversity, taxonomy, and systematics of flightless sand dune weevils, Trigonoscuta, in western North America

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Detecting how species differ from each other (also known as species delimitation) is one of the foundational areas of biology, because species are fundamental units of biodiversity in planning, management, and conservation. Correctly delimiting species has far-reaching consequences; for example, recognizing agricultural pest species is necessary for effective management and avoiding damaging economic consequences. Determining whether populations belong to an endangered species is crucial for conservation planning and has long-lasting impacts on biodiversity. This research focuses on desert weevils, native to the U.S. and Mexico, as the model system. High-quality species delimitation research on weevils is particularly important given their economic importance as pest species. The process of delimitation involves integrating data from diverse sources such as genetics and external characteristics, a time-consuming and meticulous process. Moreover, traditional methods of taxonomy often neglect ecological and natural history information that is vital for correct delimitation. This research will improve the species delimitation process by integrating phenological information, which is the timing of activities such as breeding season length, new environmental data collected using geographical information systems, morphological characteristics, and genetic data. The research will also introduce new methods of automation of species delimitation research using newly developed software. How phenology, biogeography, and environment intersect is of key importance to delimiting species boundaries. Biogeographic and environmental barriers have received the most attention, however in habitats that have punctuated seasonality (e.g., deserts or tropical deciduous forests), phenology is likely to be equally important. This project will integrate across these sources of data utilizing novel custom-built environmental layers, tailored for the phenology of each species or putative species. This information will be used to evaluate the results of various delimitation methods. Further, by accessing genomic data, the work will test the hypothesis that historical geological processes (especially change in sea level) account for present diversity and distribution. Additionally, the research will advance the use of integrative approaches to describe species in a rapid fashion, including further development of R-based software for species descriptions, through which taxonomic studies can be formatted rapidly and uniformly. This research will also provide a predictive classification through use of phylogenetic analyses.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.