Weevils of Sonora: Discovering species distributions and historical patterns of symbiont associations

这个项目解决了我们对美国西南部和邻近地区昆虫生物多样性理解的空白。墨西哥索诺拉州与亚利桑那州有375英里长的边境线，那里有大量的昆虫动物群，但人们对它们的了解却很少。以象鼻虫超科的甲虫为例，只有不到100种被记录在案，但近1000种——其中许多是科学上的新物种——预计将在索诺拉出现。象鼻虫在经济上很重要；数以千计的物种对生态系统产生有害（作物害虫）或有益（生物防治）的影响。该项目将在亚利桑那州立大学和两所墨西哥大学的研究人员和学生之间建立一个新的合作关系，目的是对索诺拉的象鼻虫多样性进行彻底采样，并将结果发布在一个动态的、公开的在线清单上。关于象鼻虫多样性的进化及其与肠道细菌和寄主植物饮食的关系的长期问题也将得到解决。该项目将指导两名博士生和本科生学习现代系统学和生物多样性数据科学的概念和方法。一个多方面的教育和推广计划将包括创建一个基于抽认卡的K-3教科书，介绍区域昆虫多样性和功能自然史。该项目包括广泛的实地工作和收集管理部分，预计将产生至少5,000个独特物种/地方象鼻虫（鞘翅目：象鼻虫总科）的研究标本。从现场到数据的传播工作流程将受益于Symbiota软件平台的进一步改进，并提供向外部期刊发布数据包的新选项。该清单将包括最新的分类名称、所有标本、物种分布图、寄主植物记录、图像、物种简介页面以及目前公认的索诺兰象鼻虫属的交互式识别密钥。一项结构良好的宏基因组测序研究将对8个目标象鼻虫谱系中100多个物种的肠道内容物进行研究，以确定它们的植物宿主和细菌共生体特征。该数据集将有助于发现许多共生分支，并测试有关象鼻虫系统发育、生物地理、宿主关联和其他环境梯度对象鼻虫观察到的共生剖面的相对影响的新假设。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This project addresses a gap in our understanding of insect biodiversity within and adjacent to the southwestern United States. The Mexican State of Sonora shares a 375 miles-long border with Arizona, and has a large biodiversity of insect fauna that remains very poorly known. In the case of beetles in the weevil superfamily, less than 100 species have been documented, yet nearly 1,000 species - many of them new to science - are expected to occur in Sonora. Weevils are economically important; thousands of species have either detrimental (crop pest) or beneficial (biocontrol) ecosystem impacts. This project will create a new collaboration between researchers and students at Arizona State University and two Mexican universities, with the goal of thoroughly sampling the weevil diversity of Sonora and publishing the results in a dynamic and openly accessible on-line checklist. Longstanding questions about the evolution of weevil diversity, and its relationship to their gut-inhabiting bacteria and host plant diets, will also be addressed. The project will mentor two doctoral students and undergraduate students in the concepts and methods of modern systematics and biodiversity data science. A multi-faceted education and outreach program will include the creation of a flashcard-based K-3 textbook on regional insect diversity and functional natural history. The project includes an extensive field work and collection curation component, expected to yield at least 5,000 unique species/locality instances of research-ready specimens in the weevils (Coleoptera: Curculionoidea). Field-to-data dissemination workflows will benefit from further improving the Symbiota software platform, with new options to publish data packages to external journals. The checklist will include updated taxonomic names, all specimens, species distribution maps, host plant records, images, species profile pages, and an interactive identification key to the Sonoran weevil genera as currently recognized. A well-structured metagenomics sequencing study of the gut content of more than 100 species in eight targeted weevil lineages will identify both their plant hosts and bacterial symbiont profiles. This dataset will facilitate the discovery of numerous symbiont clades, and test novel hypotheses regarding the relative impact of weevil phylogeny, biogeography, host associations, and other environmental gradients on the weevils' observed symbiont profilesThis award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.