Systematics, evolution and larval morphology of world hydradephaga (coleoptera)

世界水螅类（鞘翅目）的系统学、进化和幼虫形态

• 批准号: 152978-2006
• 负责人: Alarie, Yves
• 金额: $ 1.65万
• 依托单位: Laurentian University of Sudbury
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Discovery Grants Program - Individual
• 财政年份: 2008
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2008-01-01 至 2009-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=391639
• 关键词: Systematics; evolution; larval; morphology; world

Understanding of all life stages of insects is of critical importance to ecological and environmental management.  However, encounters with immature insects are relatively uncommon compared with adults, yet larvae undoubtedly cause more direct injury to crops and other materials valued by human than do adults.  This is true because most feeding is done in the larval stage whereas adults are primarily involved in dispersal and reproduction. My research emphasizes the study of larval morphology of aquatic beetles. Emphasis is placed on these insects because they are abundant, diverse and provide many challenging taxonomic problems.  Although water beetles are among the most common insect inhabitants of freshwaters, knowledge of their larval morphology is scanty throughout the World.  The identification of larvae is usually a regular and continuing problem for many because the literature available to accomplish this is widely scattered, limited to certain groups, outdated, difficult to use or non-existent.  This situation has been an obstacle to ecological work.  Because of this, I developed a framework, that facilitates comparison among species.  My system of analysis focuses on study of body sensilla (setae and pores).  I demonstrated that the characteristics of setae and pores are useful and important both for diagnoses and study of the genealogical (= phylogenetic) relationships among taxa. Study of larval features should allow more comprehensive classifications to be constructed.  Most classifications of groups of insects are based on study of adult stages only.  Subsequent to publication, these classifications are rarely tested or evaluated.  A way to test these preliminary classifications is to study the larval morphology.  Larvae are under differing selection pressures and therefore show quite different features. A long-term goal of my research is to produce a more rigorous and stable classification by combining characters from larvae with other data sets including adult and molecular characters.

了解昆虫的所有生命阶段对于生态和环境管理至关重要。  然而，与成虫相比，遇到未成熟昆虫的情况相对较少，但幼虫无疑比成虫对农作物和其他人类重视的物质造成更直接的伤害。  这是事实，因为大多数摄食是在幼虫阶段完成的，而成虫主要参与传播和繁殖。我的研究重点是水生甲虫幼虫形态的研究。重点关注这些昆虫，因为它们丰富、多样，并提供了许多具有挑战性的分类学问题。  尽管水甲虫是淡水中最常见的昆虫居民之一，但全世界对其幼虫形态的了解却很少。  对许多人来说，幼虫的识别通常是一个经常性和持续性的问题，因为可用于完成这一任务的文献广泛分散，仅限于某些群体，过时，难以使用或不存在。  这种情况已经成为生态工作的障碍。  因此，我开发了一个框架，促进物种之间的比较。  我的分析系统侧重于身体感觉器（刚毛和毛孔）的研究。  我证明了刚毛和毛孔的特征对于诊断和研究类群之间的谱系（=系统发育）关系是有用且重要的。对幼虫特征的研究应该能够构建更全面的分类。  大多数昆虫类群的分类仅基于对成虫阶段的研究。  发布后，这些分类很少经过测试或评估。  测试这些初步分类的一种方法是研究幼虫形态。  幼虫处于不同的选择压力下，因此表现出截然不同的特征。我研究的长期目标是通过将幼虫的特征与包括成虫和分子特征在内的其他数据集相结合来产生更严格和稳定的分类。