Survey and Inventory of Selected Arthropods in the MidSouth Coastal Plain

对中南部沿海平原独特和受威胁的生境进行螨类、小鳞翅目（飞蛾）和球蝇的调查，它们是土壤和水生微生境以及植物寄主生物多样性的主要组成部分。在阿拉巴马州、路易斯安那州和密西西比州调查的独特栖息地包括内陆和沿海草原、沿海稀树草原和沙丘、洼地阔叶林、黄土丘陵上的中生森林，以及选定的溪流和其他水生栖息地。这些栖息地受到城市化、森林砍伐、农业实践、拟议的区域危险废物倾倒地点、河流渠化和污染的威胁。来自密西西比州立大学的四名高级研究人员将在合作者的协助下，使用多种收集方法记录动物群。将饲养叶虫和茎根蛀虫的幼虫，以获得寄主植物和生活史的数据。这次调查将会产生一些出版物，记录了美国中南部地区螨虫、小鳞翅目和毛翅目的形态学、生态学、生物地理学和系统学。该调查还将提供生物多样性数据，以记录生境保护的必要性。

Unique and threatened habitats in the midsouth Coastal Plain will be surveyed for mites, Microlepidoptera (moths), and caddisflies, which are major components of the biodiversity present in soil and aquatic microhabitats and on plant hosts. Unique habitats to be surveyed in Alabama, Louisiana, and Mississippi include inland and coastal prairies, coastal savannahs and dunes, bottomland hardwood forest, mesophytic forests on loessal hills, and selected streams and other aquatic habitats. These habitats are threatened by urbanization, clear- cutting of forests, agricultural practices, proposed placement of regional hazardous waste dumps, and stream channelization and pollution. Four senior researchers from Mississippi State University will be assisted by collaborators to document the fauna with use of a wide array of collecting methods. Larvae of leafminers and stem-root borers will be reared to obtain data on host plants and life histories. The survey will result in publications that document morphology, ecology, biogeography, and systematics of mites, microlepidoptera, and Trichoptera in the midsouth. The survey also will provide biodiversity data for documenting the need for habitat conservation.