Morphology and Cladistic Relationships of North American Gracillariid Genera (Lepidoptera)

细蛾属是一种微小的彩色飞蛾，在世界范围内有1500多种。在它们发育的早期阶段，它们以“采叶虫”的身份生活在木本植物上，在一些地区构成了经济害虫。与大多数动物不同，纤毛虫发育的早期阶段比后期阶段更加多样化和结构复杂（特别是对于汁液捕食形式），后者收敛于蛾的一般形态。大卫·瓦格纳博士提出了一种该科的北美物种的分类修订。地理范围、生活史、宿主关联和饲养标本的形态学数据将被合成。这些数据还将用于重建北美物种之间的进化关系。这项提议的研究的意义超出了格拉菲亚专家的范畴。拟议的修订将促进生态研究，并将有助于控制这种经济上重要的害虫。由此产生的谱系框架将使未来的研究能够探索不同生活史和发育途径的进化。这个小组和这个研究项目将吸引发育生物学家、生态学家、系统学家、功能形态学家和进化生物学家的注意。

Gracillariids are a family of minute colorful moths comprising more than 1500 species world.wide. In their early developmental stages they live as "leaf miners" on woody plants, and they constitute an economic pest in some areas. Unlike most animals, the early stages of gracillariid development are more diversified and structurally complex (especially for sap.feeding forms) than the later stages, which converge on the generalized morphology of a moth. Dr. David Wagner proposes a taxonomic revision of the North American species of the family. Geographic ranges, life histories, host associations, and morphological data from reared specimens will be synthesized. These data will also be used to reconstruct the evolutionary relationships among North American species. The proposed research has implications beyond gracillariid specialists. The proposed revision will facilitate ecological research and will help attempts to control this economically important pest. The resulting genealogical framework will allow future studies to explore the evolution of different life histories and developmental pathways. This group and this research project will attract the attention of developmental biologists, ecologists, systematists, functional morphologists, and evolutionary biologists in general.