CAREER: Phylogenetic Revisions of South American Water Beetles (Coleoptera: Adephaga: Hydradephaga): A Model for Teaching Systematic Biology

该项目将对南美水甲虫(Hydradephaga)进行系统学研究，包括潜水甲虫、穴居水甲虫和涡虫。潜水甲虫以其体型和复杂的颜色图案而引人注目。它们还在雄性和雌性之间表现出有趣的差异；雄性在交配时身体上有粘性盘，让它们在交配时粘在雌性身上，而雌性有凹槽，让它们可以抵抗交配。这个项目将确定这组甲虫中有多少物种，以及它们之间的关系。该项目将测试公胶粘盘的变化是否反映在母胶盘上凹槽的相应变化上。DNA序列也将被用来确定哪些幼虫将生长在哪些成虫身上。这项工作的一个产品将是一个互动的，充分说明的，新热带地区水甲虫的在线识别钥匙。该项目将为一名博士生、两名硕士生和四名本科生提供专题和修正系统学方面的培训，后者每人至少为期两年。将为当地高中教师提供暑期讲习班，以便他们可以将系统学知识带回教室。阿尔伯克基和新墨西哥大学的公立学校系统是重要的少数群体服务机构，拉美裔和美洲原住民是主要组成部分。此外，还将开发两门大学课程，其中一门将在夏季学期开设，以便学生可以被带到南美洲收集与拟议研究的修订部分相关的昆虫。这些藏品将由学生进行处理，并存放在新墨西哥大学西南生物学博物馆。

This project will investigate the systematics of South American water beetles (Hydradephaga), including diving beetles, burrowing water beetles, and whirligig beetles. Diving beetles are remarkable for their size and intricate color patterns. They also exhibit interesting differences between males and females; males have adhesive disks on their bodies that let them stick to the females during mating, whereas females have grooves that allow them to resist mating. This project will determine how many species there are in this group of beetles, and how they are related to each other. The project will test whether changes in male adhesive disks are mirrored by corresponding changes in the grooves on the females. DNA sequences will also be used to determine which larvae will grow in to which adults. One product of this work will be an interactive, fully illustrated, on-line identification key for the water beetles of the Neotropics. This project will provide training in monographic and revisionary systematics for one Ph.D. student, two master's students, and four undergraduates, the latter for at least two years each. Summer workshops will be provided for local-area high-school teachers so they may take knowledge of systematics back to their classrooms. The public school system in Albuquerque and the University of New Mexico are significant minority-serving institutions with Hispanics and Native Americans as major constituents. In addition, two university courses will be developed, one of which will be offered during the summer term, so that students can be taken to South America to collect insects relevant to the revisionary part of the proposed research. These collections will be processed by the students and deposited at the Museum of Southwestern Biology at UNM.