ARTS: Deploying integrative systematics to untangle Lucidota, the Gordian knot of Neotropical firefly taxonomy.

这个项目将记录南美洲主要的萤火虫群。记录和了解地球上生命的多样性是在面临全球威胁时保护生物多样性的重要一步，特别是对于那些鲜为人知的生物。即使是萤火虫也是如此，这种魅力非凡的甲虫几个世纪以来一直激发着儿童的记忆和诗歌，并为生物技术和医学的进步做出了贡献。萤火虫科包括来自世界各地的约2200种已命名的物种，但据认为存在的物种数量是其两倍。大约25%的已知物种出现在南美洲，很可能还有同样数量的物种有待发现。该项目将通过发现新物种，揭示它们与世界各地其他萤火虫的进化关系，并创造工具来促进对萤火虫和其他甲虫的未来研究，从而记录南美洲萤火虫的多样性。所有阶段的学生都将接受广泛的培训，以便能够在未来领导生物多样性的探索。为公众准备的一系列教育视频将让人们一窥科学家研究生活的幕后，深入了解物种是如何被描述的，以及生物多样性是如何被记录的。该项目将通过突破南美区系研究的最大障碍，显著推进Lampyridae的分类状况。博物馆收藏的标本和巴西和哥伦比亚合作者网络提供的新材料将用于利用DNA序列和形态数据对南美萤火虫的新和令人困惑的群体进行系统发育分析。研究人员将使用综合分类学方法，纠正最令人烦恼的南美萤火虫属——Lucidota的混乱分类。研究人员将为所有南美属和目标物种群开发强大的识别工具。他们将生成丰富多样的生物多样性数据，其他研究人员、公民科学家和公众可以通过一个方便的、基于互联网的南美羊蛉分类学中心资源，轻松、免费地使用这些数据。通过评估所有主要新热带地区的纹蛉多样性，该项目将突出值得进一步关注的地理区域，并确定具有大量未描述物种的高级类群，这些类群将成为未来分类学研究的目标。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This project will document the major firefly groups across South America. Documenting and understanding the diversity of life on Earth is an essential step towards preserving biodiversity in the face of global threats, especially for organisms that are poorly known. This is true even for fireflies, charismatic beetles that have inspired childhood memories and poetry for centuries, and contributed to advances in biotechnology and medicine. The firefly family Lampyridae includes about 2200 named species from all over the world, but twice as many species are thought to exist. About 25% of known species occur in South America, and it is likely that an equal number still remain to be discovered there. This project will document firefly diversity in South America by discovering new species, revealing their evolutionary relationships with other fireflies worldwide, and creating tools to facilitate future research on fireflies and other beetles. Students at all stages will be broadly trained to be capable of leading biodiversity exploration in the future. A series of educational videos for the public will allow a glimpse behind the scenes into the research life of scientists, insight into how species are described, and how biodiversity is documented. This project will significantly advance the state of taxonomy for Lampyridae by attacking the biggest barriers to research on the South American fauna. Specimens in museum collections and newly available material provided by a network of Brazilian and Colombian collaborators will be used to conduct phylogenetic analysis of novel and confusing groups of South American fireflies using DNA squences and morphological data. The researchers will rectify the confusing taxonomy of Lucidota, the most vexing South American firefly genus, using integrative taxonomic approaches. The researchers will develop powerful identification tools for all South American genera and targeted groups of species. They will generate a rich variety of biodiversity data that can be easily and freely used by other researchers, citizen scientists, and the public via a convenient, internet-based, central resource for South American lampyrid taxonomy. By assessing lampyrid diversity across all major neotropical regions, this project will highlight geographical areas that deserve additional attention, and identify higher-level groups with a large proportion of undescribed species that will be the target of future taxonomic studies.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.