CAREER: Microcaddisflies, Morphology, and Modern Molecular Methods: Using Collections-Based Research to Establish the Microcaddisfly Phylogeny and Create Educational Opportunities

毛翅目是一种在生态上很重要的水生昆虫目，在淡水栖息地的食物网中为营养物质的加工和能量的流动做出贡献。由于对污染和干扰的耐受程度不同，卡迪蝇也是用于水质生物监测的主要无脊椎动物群体之一。水蝇科，由于身体小，只有1.5-5毫米，被称为“微型身体苍蝇”，是一个极其多样化的身体苍蝇家族，有超过2600个已知物种出现在世界各地，可能还有数百个未被描述的物种。微型蝉在生态、形态和行为上表现出广泛的多样性，并以有趣的分布格局出现在世界各地，但没有一种是在该科内进化关系的背景下进行探索的。目前对微足蝇进化史的理解缺乏统计支持的分析，形态特征的使用不一致，分子数据的收录很少。这项研究将专注于重建这一多样化但未得到充分研究的昆虫群体的进化史。这项研究的更广泛影响包括现代分类学和分类学方面的一名博士生和多名本科生的培训；博物馆研究项目中的一门新课程，将向学生介绍昆虫多样性的重要性，提供标本收集和收藏的实践经验，并提高对收藏相关法律和伦理问题的认识；以及一门探索昆虫生物多样性的非学分课程，将向终身学习者社区提供。分子和形态数据的综合方法，首次应用于现代统计方法和分析技术，将被用于评估微型昆虫(毛翅目：水龙纲)的进化史，这是一种尚在研究中的不同分类群。研究人员将(1)推断出水蛇科的第一个全证据系统发育，这将包括第一次对整个家族的同源性的形态评估，以及第一个利用靶向浓缩技术覆盖整个家族的分子数据集；(2)利用构建的系统发育图来阐明需要分类学更新、修订专著和新物种描述的亚科和属；以及(3)确定生物地理和分歧时间估计，这将增加对水蛇科进化史的更详细的描述。这些方法将为水母类的系统发育提供新的见解，并允许未来研究水母科内的特征进化、相对于毛翅目其他物种的多样性和物种形成率，以及在整个目中应用的更大的进化问题。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Caddisflies (Trichoptera) are an ecologically-important order of aquatic insects that contribute to the processing of nutrients and the flow of energy through food webs in freshwater habitats. Due to their varying levels of tolerance to pollution and disturbance, caddisflies are also one of the primary invertebrate groups used for biological monitoring of water quality. The family Hydroptilidae, known as the “microcaddisflies” due to their small body size of 1.5-5 mm, are an extremely diverse family of caddisflies with over 2,600 known species occurring around the world and potentially many 100s of undescribed species. Microcaddisflies display a wide range of ecological, morphological, and behavioral diversity and occur in interesting distributional patterns around the world, none of which has been explored in the context of the evolutionary relationships within the family. Current understanding of the microcaddisfly evolutionary history suffers from a lack of statistically-supported analyses, inconsistent use of morphological features, and very little inclusion of molecular data. This research will focus on reconstructing the evolutionary history of this diverse, yet under-studied, group of insects. The broader impacts of this research include the training of one PhD student and multiple undergraduates in modern taxonomy and systematics; a new course in the Museum Studies program that will introduce students to the importance of insect diversity, provide hands-on experience with specimen collection and curation, and increase awareness of related legal and ethical issues surrounding collections; and a noncredit course exploring insect biodiversity to be offered to a community of lifelong learners.A combined approach of molecular and morphological data, applied for the first time with modern statistical methods and analytical techniques, will be used to assess the evolutionary history of the microcaddisflies (Trichoptera: Hydroptilidae), a diverse yet under-studied taxon. Researchers will (1) infer the first total-evidence phylogeny of the family Hydroptilidae, which will include the first morphological assessment of homology across the family and the first molecular dataset to cover the entire family using targeted enrichment techniques; (2) use the constructed phylogeny to shed light on subfamilies and genera in need of taxonomic updates, revisionary monographs, and new species descriptions; and (3) determine biogeographic and divergence time estimates that will add to a more detailed profile of hydroptilid evolutionary history. These approaches will provide new insight into hydroptilid phylogenetics and allow for future research on character evolution within Hydroptilidae, diversification and speciation rates relative to the rest of Trichoptera, and larger questions of evolution applied across the order.This 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.