Systematics of the Inquilinous Hister Beetle Complex Mesynodites (Histeridae: Hetaeriinae)

掠食性甲虫科是一个多样化的科，大约有4000种，占据着各种各样的生态位。蚁亚科中的所有物种都是蚂蚁或白蚁群落的客人，并与各种各样的宿主一起进化。这个亚科是蚂蚁和白蚁相关的昆虫分类群中最多样化的一个，大约有315种被描述。该项目的重点是对鲜为人知的与蚂蚁有关的Mesynodites属进行实地研究，该属有大约55种已被描述的物种和至少两倍于未被描述的物种。该项目将汇集有关该属复合体的所有分布和宿主信息，并通过一个互联网项目网站提供给感兴趣的研究人员。该数据库将对分类学和生物多样性研究具有重要意义，也可作为研究蚂蚁和白蚁关联进化的研究人员的信息来源。将对南美洲收集不足的地区进行实地考察，以获取标本，并填补分布和宿主数据方面的空白。

ABSTRACTDEB 9815394CarltonLouisiana State Univ.The Histeridae is a diverse family of approximately 4,000 species of predatory beetles that occupy a wide variety of ecological niches. All species within the subfamily Hetaeriinae are guests of ant or termite colonies and have evolved in association with a wide variety of hosts. This subfamily is one of the most diverse ant- and termite-associated insect taxa, with approximately 315 described species. The project is focused on field research on the poorly known ant-associated genus Mesynodites, with about 55 described species and at least twice that number of undescribed species. The project will bring together all distributional and host information on the genus complex and make it available to interested researchers via an internet project website. The database will be important for taxonomic and biodiversity suties, and may also be used as a source of information by researchers conducting studies of the evoution of ant and termite associations. Field expeditions to poorly collected regions of South America will be conducted to procure specimens, and to fill gaps in distributional and host data.