Systematics and ecology of diptera

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Names are the currency of biodiversity. Knowing the name of an organism not only allows one to identify it, but provides access to all other knowledge about that organism. Although we share the planet with millions of species of insects, only a fraction of those species has scientific names, and the percentage of species for which we have reasonable ecological and evolutionary knowledge is vanishingly small. The primary objective of my research program is the systematics of flies (Diptera), one of the four largest insect orders on Earth, and Canada's most species-rich group of insects. We describe new species in a range of Diptera families and provide identification tools that allow other workers to attach names to specimens.The description of species is, however, a beginning, not an end. Systematic knowledge is the foundation for the other primary foci of my program. Once species are known, reconstructing their phylogenetic relationships provides a predictive framework for understanding the evolution of other traits of those species. I will generate phylogenetic hypotheses on two large, widespread tribes of grass flies (Chloropidae) that occupy a broad range of ecological roles, in order to frame hypotheses on the origins and evolution of that ecological diversity.The ability to identify flies to the species level also gives greater resolution in ecological studies. We have found that higher Diptera are very diverse in apparently homogeneous habitats, but those assemblages can be made up of very different sets of species from site to site. I will explore the underlying reasons for this pattern by studying the dispersal ability and colonization patterns of chloropid flies and related Diptera in habitat patches at multiple scales from small, similar, local patches (bird nests) through habitat fragments (peatlands, old field quadrats) up to continental scales (an east-west transect in North America) to test whether patterns apparent at one scale apply at other scales, and to determine to what extent phylogenetic history, ecological similarity, and neutral processes contribute to the assembly of species assemblages of flies.