Systematics, evolution and larval morphology of world hydradephaga (coleoptera)

了解昆虫的所有生命阶段对生态和环境管理至关重要。 然而，与成虫相比，遇到未成熟的昆虫相对较少，但幼虫无疑比成虫对作物和人类珍视的其他材料造成更直接的伤害。 这是真的，因为大多数喂养是在幼虫阶段完成的，而成年人主要参与传播和繁殖。我的研究重点是水生甲虫幼虫形态学的研究。重点放在这些昆虫，因为它们是丰富的，多样的，并提供了许多具有挑战性的分类问题。 虽然水甲虫是淡水中最常见的昆虫居民之一，但世界各地对其幼虫形态的了解甚少。 幼虫的识别通常是一个经常和持续的问题，因为可用于完成这一目标的文献广泛分散，仅限于某些群体，过时，难以使用或不存在。 这种情况一直是生态工作的障碍。 正因为如此，我开发了一个框架，便于物种之间的比较。 我的分析系统集中在研究身体感受器（刚毛和毛孔）。 我证明了刚毛和孔的特征对于分类群之间的系统关系的诊断和研究是有用的和重要的。对幼虫特征的研究应能建立更全面的分类。 大多数昆虫类群的分类都是基于对成虫阶段的研究。 这些分类在公布后很少进行测试或评价。 检验这些初步分类的一种方法是研究幼虫的形态。 幼虫在不同的选择压力下，因此表现出完全不同的特征。我的研究的一个长期目标是通过将幼虫的特征与其他数据集（包括成虫和分子特征）相结合来产生更严格和稳定的分类。

Understanding of all life stages of insects is of critical importance to ecological and environmental management.  However, encounters with immature insects are relatively uncommon compared with adults, yet larvae undoubtedly cause more direct injury to crops and other materials valued by human than do adults.  This is true because most feeding is done in the larval stage whereas adults are primarily involved in dispersal and reproduction. My research emphasizes the study of larval morphology of aquatic beetles. Emphasis is placed on these insects because they are abundant, diverse and provide many challenging taxonomic problems.  Although water beetles are among the most common insect inhabitants of freshwaters, knowledge of their larval morphology is scanty throughout the World.  The identification of larvae is usually a regular and continuing problem for many because the literature available to accomplish this is widely scattered, limited to certain groups, outdated, difficult to use or non-existent.  This situation has been an obstacle to ecological work.  Because of this, I developed a framework, that facilitates comparison among species.  My system of analysis focuses on study of body sensilla (setae and pores).  I demonstrated that the characteristics of setae and pores are useful and important both for diagnoses and study of the genealogical (= phylogenetic) relationships among taxa. Study of larval features should allow more comprehensive classifications to be constructed.  Most classifications of groups of insects are based on study of adult stages only.  Subsequent to publication, these classifications are rarely tested or evaluated.  A way to test these preliminary classifications is to study the larval morphology.  Larvae are under differing selection pressures and therefore show quite different features. A long-term goal of my research is to produce a more rigorous and stable classification by combining characters from larvae with other data sets including adult and molecular characters.