Revisionary systematics of Nerioidea and Sphaeroceroidea (Diptera)

双翅目可以说是最大的生物目，在对人类健康和经济的影响方面，肯定是最重要的高等分类单元。尽管如最近的双翅目手册(中美洲双翅目手册、非热带双翅目手册)所概括的那样，双翅目分类在过去十年中取得了巨大的进步，但双翅目的许多属、亚科甚至科仍有待充分的定义，大多数苍蝇种类仍有待描述。要解决地球生物多样性的这一重要部分，需要收集足够的标本；只有这样，才能描述和诊断有用的单系类群。经过几十年的定向实地考察和仔细的标本保管，圭尔夫大学昆虫收藏中心现在收藏了100多万份双翅目昆虫标本，其中大部分是雀科和球虫总科的标本。因此，我们能够回顾和纠正这些超家族的更高分类，同时识别和彻底修订重要的支系或单系亚群。到目前为止，我和我的学生们已经发现并正式描述了1000多个新物种和几个更高的分类群，但要将这些完全不同的成分结合到一个连贯的系统发育和多样性图景中，并对这些主要苍蝇支系进行现代分类，还有很多工作要做。我们无与伦比的标本收藏和已经完成的分类基础的结合为一个团队提供了一个完善的平台，目前团队包括外部合作者和从事微孔动物总科和球藻总科不同亚群工作的博士生，以专著研究这些分类单元的主要部分。微体动物总科和球体动物总科都为比较形态提供了足够的结构复杂性，为描述、详细说明诊断和系统发育假说提供了基础。形态分析产生的物种和主要分支概念将用细胞色素氧化酶1序列(“条形码”)进行测试，然后用作更广泛整合的分子/形态系统发育的基础。虽然我们的工作的基础是仔细的比较形态学，重点是复杂的内部特征系统，但分子、生态和形态数据将被仔细比较和整合，结果将在动物地理学和保护生物学的背景下产生。

The order Diptera is arguably the largest order of living things and is certainly the most important higher taxon in terms of its impact on human health and economy. Despite tremendous advances in Diptera taxonomy over the past decade, as encapsulated in the recent Diptera Manuals (Manual of Central American Diptera, Manual of Afrotropical Diptera), many of the genera, subfamilies and even families of Diptera remain to be adequately defined and most fly species remain to be described. Resolution of this important portion of the planet's biodiversity requires adequate specimen collections; only then can useful monophyletic groups be described and diagnosed. As a result of decades of directed fieldwork and careful specimen curation the University of Guelph Insect Collection now houses over a million Diptera specimens, mostly in the large superfamilies Nerioidea and Sphaeroceroidea. We are thus positioned to review and correct the higher classification of these superfamilies, while identifying and thoroughly revising significant clades or monophyletic subgroups. My students and I have so far discovered and formally described over a thousand new species and several higher taxa, but much remains to be done to combine these disparate components into a cohesive picture of phylogeny and diversity, and to produce a modern classification of these major fly clades. The combination of our unparalleled specimen collection and the taxonomic foundation already completed has provided a sound platform for a team, currently including external collaborators and doctoral students working on different subgroups of the Micropezoidea and Sphaeroceroidea, to monograph major parts of these taxa. Both Micropezoidea and Sphaeroceroidea offer enough structural complexity for comparative morphology to provide the basis for descriptions, thoroughly illustrated diagnoses and phylogenetic hypotheses. Species and major clade concepts generated by morphological analyses will be tested with cytochrome oxidase one sequences (“barcodes”) and then used as the basis for the development of more broadly integrated molecular/morphological phylogenies. Although the basis of our work is careful comparative morphology with an emphasis on complex internal character systems, molecular, ecological and morphological data will be carefully compared and integrated, with the results cast in contexts of zoogeography and conservation biology.