Classification, biodiversity and biogeography of insects

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Biodiversity is critical to ecological understanding and environmental management. Insects are critical components of biodiversity as they are often the most abundant organism in terms of species and individuals performing various ecological functions. However, for insects, the total number of species on earth can only be crudely estimated and only preliminary syntheses are available for the Canadian fauna including species richness for particular habitat types. Insects are useful because of the diverse opportunities they provide for analysis of numerous highly complex systems providing insight into the relationship among taxa and the function of communities. Therefore systematics of insects is of critical importance for biodiversity studies. Work in systematics must consist of separate projects contributing to a program of the inventory of biodiversity. The sheer number of specimens and taxa require specialization for development of authoritative expertise. My systematic research emphasizes study of the Canadian fauna because it is accessible to me and my students; it is sufficiently known to provide a foundation for research, yet many problems have not received attention for decades. Secondary emphasis is placed on other North American regions (particularly Churchill, Manitoba) and adjacent Russian and the Neotropics. In systematic projects, I study one taxon in many kinds of habitats. I specialize in the study of aquatic Adepahga (Coleoptera) with emphasis on the family Dytiscidae because they are locally abundant and often form the numerically dominant predators in many aquatic systems; they are one of the most diverse families in Canada with 276 species ranking them 7th/118 families;and, they present challenging taxonomic and phylogenetic problems. In biodiversity projects, I study many taxa in one kind of habitat. I specialize in biodiversity of grassland habitats types, notably various kinds of prairies or grasslands. Grasslands were locally abundant and widespread, had an enormous unique and interesting insect fauna which remains largely unknown and underexplored.