Assassin bugs: evolutionary history of the Reduvioidea, a diverse clade of predatory and hematophagous insects

进化研究探索了塑造生物多样性的过程。刺客昆虫有近7000个物种为科学所知，是大多数物种捕食其他昆虫的最大进化谱系之一。刺客昆虫能够以这种规模繁殖的因素尚不清楚，但某些猎物有机体的专门化以及向各种陆地栖息地的过渡被认为是导致这一现象的原因。这些假说在很大程度上仍未得到检验，因为无法获得全面的进化树。刺客昆虫包括用于控制植物害虫、传粉者捕食者和传播恰加斯病病原体的强大人类疾病媒介的有益物种。由加州大学河滨分校的研究人员领导的一个国际团队将调查刺客昆虫的进化史，将广泛的遗传和形态数据与收集自然历史数据的创新方法结合起来。将培训一名博士后研究人员和一名博士生，几名本科生研究人员将从事研究和推广，两个关于真正的昆虫生物多样性的短期课程将培训学生、研究人员和其他参与农业和公共卫生相关研究和监测的人。现有的刺客昆虫或猎食总科的系统发育不足以解决许多进化问题，描述良好的化石的缺乏使得很难建立事件的时间表，包括从捕食性生活方式向食血生活方式的转变，复制总科的分类也是混乱的。这个项目将：1)测试系统发育假说，重点放在解决不好的高等Reduviidae和有争议的食血性恰加斯病病媒Tritopinae之间的关系，同时最大限度地扩大分类学覆盖，并整合转录、锚定杂交浓缩、传统分子和形态数据集；2)描述和重新描述化石Reduviidae，以弥合化石记录中的分类学和地质差距，并测试关于关键生物事件发生时间的假说；3)应用代谢编码方法在昆虫肠道内容物中应用代谢编码方法，以补充现有的猎物数据；4)跨Reduoidae研究多样化，侧重于多样化比率变化和相关的关键创新的假说，以及在捕食和吸血之间的转变中所涉及的形态、生理和生态特征；5)利用本项目中产生的系统发育信息，提出一个新的Reduvioidae分类。

Evolutionary research explores processes that have shaped biodiversity. With close to 7,000 species known to science, assassin bugs are one of the largest evolutionary lineages of animals where the majority of species hunt other insects. The factors that have allowed assassin bugs to speciate at this scale are unknown, but specializations on certain prey organisms and transitions into a variety of terrestrial habitats are assumed to have contributed to this phenomenon. These hypotheses have largely remained untested, because comprehensive evolutionary trees are unavailable. Assassin bugs include beneficial species used to control plant pests, pollinator predators, and powerful human disease vectors that transmit the causative agent of Chagas disease. An international team led by researchers at the University of California, Riverside will investigate the evolutionary history of assassin bugs, tying together extensive genetic and morphological data with innovative approaches to gather natural history data. One postdoctoral researcher and one PhD student will be trained, several undergraduate researchers will engage in research and outreach, and two short courses on true bug biodiversity will train students, researchers, and others involved in agricultural and public health related research and monitoring. Existing phylogenies of the assassin bugs or Reduvioidea are inadequate to address many evolutionary questions, the paucity of well-described fossils has made it difficult to establish timelines for events including the transition from predatory to blood-feeding life styles, and the classification of Reduvioidea is in disarray. This project will: 1) test phylogenetic hypotheses with emphasis on the poorly resolved Higher Reduviidae and contentious relationships of the hematophagous Chagas disease vectors Triatominae, while maximizing taxonomic coverage and integrating transcriptomic, anchored hybrid enrichment, traditional molecular, and morphological datasets; 2) describe and redescribe fossil reduvioids to bridge taxonomic and geological gaps in the fossil record and test hypotheses on the timing of key biological events; 3) apply metabarcoding approaches to assassin bug gut contents to complement available prey data; 4) study diversification across Reduvioidea, focusing on hypotheses of diversification rate shifts and correlated key innovations, and morphological, physiological, and ecological traits involved in the transition between predation and blood-feeding; 5) use the phylogenetic information generated during this project to propose a new classification of Reduvioidea.