PEET: Monography, Phylogeny, and Historical Biogeography of Austral Staphylinidae (Coleoptera)

在大多数陆地生态系统中，绿甲虫是一个庞大而丰富的甲虫家族，但在中欧以外的地区，它们并不为人所知。我们将研究几个亚群，每个亚群发生在南半球的三到四个不同的地区（澳大利亚、新西兰、智利和阿根廷南部、南非）。利用现有的博物馆标本和新收集的材料，我们中的一个人将研究每个选定的亚群：确定有多少和哪些物种属于它，描述（许多）新物种并绘制它们的分布，并分析物种之间的系统发育（进化）关系。每项研究都试图重建其亚群的生物地理历史。我们将把这些结合起来，寻找不同地区之间历史联系的重复模式，将这些模式与其他群体中发现的模式进行比较，并考虑它们是由古代地质变化（例如，开始于1.7 - 1.5亿年前的冈瓦纳大陆分裂）和/或其他原因（例如，后来在分开的地区之间分散或从北方分散）造成的。结果将包括：(1)对每个亚群进行详细说明的修订研究；(2)对所有生物（和其他生物群）的生物地理历史进行更全面的介绍；(3)建立一个网站，展示这些结果——用彩色照片和交互式识别工具进行增强——并提供广泛的补充信息，如所研究标本的分类目录和数据库。更好地了解粉甲虫将允许在进化和生态研究中使用这种超级多样化的群体：如果不考虑这种非常多样化的、主要是掠食性的组成部分（每个地点大约有100-200种），对几乎任何陆地自然群落的全面了解都是不完整的。许多完全属于南温带的生境的减少程度甚至超过了热带雨林，正受到严重威胁。这使得研究它们独特的居民变得紧迫起来，其中包括许多鲜为人知的和进化上孤立的物种。我们对几个葡萄球菌类群的数据也可以为南温带地区动植物的整体进化史提供有价值的见解。我们将培养一名博士后和一名研究生，在现代系统学的理论和实践方面（包括实地工作和使用外部和内部结构特征，DNA测序和许多计算机工具），并将他们介绍给博物馆和大学的策展人和研究人员的国际网络。每年都会有一名本科生实习生参与这个项目，让他们接触到系统的研究和节肢动物惊人的生物多样性，也许还会激发他们从事相关学科的职业。在四个南温带地区的实地工作将包括一名当地学生或其他个人，作为建立国际伙伴关系的一部分。我们将通过存放新标本（来自鲜为人知的栖息地）和整理和鉴定现有藏品，改善东道国博物馆和菲尔德博物馆的藏品。这些改进将在未来很长一段时间内结出硕果，不仅适用于甲虫的研究，也适用于其他节肢动物的研究。

Rove beetles (Staphylinidae) are a huge and abundant beetle family in most terrestrial ecosystems, but outside Central Europe they are not well known. We will study several subgroups, each occurring in three or four separate areas in the southern hemisphere (Australia, New Zealand, Chile and southern Argentina, South Africa). Using existing museum specimens and newly collected material, one of us will study each selected subgroup to: determine how many and which species belong to it, describe the (many) new species and map their distributions, and analyze phylogenetic (evolutionary) relationships among the species. Each study seeks to reconstruct the biogeographic history of its subgroup. We will combine these, seeking repeated patterns of historical connections among the different areas, compare the patterns with those found in other groups, and consider whether they resulted from ancient geological changes (e.g., breakup of Gondwana, starting 170-150 million years ago) and/or other causes (e.g., later dispersal between separated areas or from the north). Results will include (1) a well-illustrated revisionary study of each subgroup, (2) a more general paper about the biogeographic histories of all (and other groups of organisms), and (3) a web site presenting these results -- enhanced with color photos and interactive identification tools -- with extensive supplementary information, such as taxonomic catalogs and databases of the specimens studied. Better knowledge of rove beetles will permit using this megadiverse group in evolutionary and ecological studies: full understanding of nearly any land-based natural community is incomplete without considering this very diverse, mostly predatory, component (easily 100-200 species per site). Many wholly southern temperate habitats have been reduced in extent even more than tropical rainforest, and are under serious threat. This lends urgency to studying their unique inhabitants, which include many poorly-known and evolutionarily isolated species. Our data on several staphylinid groups can also provide valuable insights into the overall evolutionary history of the southern temperate areas' fauna and flora. We will train a post-doctoral fellow and a graduate student in theory and practice of modern systematics (including field work and use of external and internal structural features, DNA sequencing, and numerous computer tools) and introduce them to the international network of museum- and university-based curators and researchers. Each year an undergraduate intern will help in the project, gaining exposure to systematic research and to the dramatic biodiversity of arthropods, and perhaps the inspiration to pursue a career in a related discipline. The field work in the four southern temperate areas will include a local student or other individual as part of international partnership-building. We will improve collections at host-country museums and the Field Museum by depositing new specimens (from poorly known habitats) and by sorting and identifying existing holdings. These improvements will bear fruit far into the future for studies not just of rove beetles, but of other arthropods as well.