Grants

PEET: Monography, phylogeny, and historical biogeography of austral Staphylinidae (Coleoptera)

Margaret K. Thayer (PI) and Alfred F. Newton (co-PI)
2002-2006
U.S. National Science Foundation, Systematics PEET program (Partnerships for Enhancing Expertise in Taxonomy) Grant No. 0118749

The Project

Rove beetles (Staphylinidae) are a huge and abundant beetle family in most terrestrial ecosystems, but outside Central Europe they are not well known. We will study several subgroups, each occurring in three or four separate areas in the southern hemisphere (Australia, New Zealand, Chile and southern Argentina, South Africa; green areas on map). Using existing museum specimens and newly collected material from our trips to Chile, South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand, a project participant will study each selected subgroup to: determine how many and which species belong to it, describe the (many) new species and map their distributions, and analyze phylogenetic (evolutionary) relationships among the species. Each study seeks to reconstruct the biogeographic history of its subgroup. We will combine these, seeking repeated patterns of historical connections among the different areas, compare the patterns with those found in other groups, and consider whether they resulted from ancient geological changes (e.g., breakup of Gondwana, starting 170-150 million years ago) and/or other causes (e.g., later dispersal between separated areas or from the north). Results of the project will include:

1. a well-illustrated monographic (revisionary) study of each subgroup and ancillary papers
2. a more general paper about the biogeographic histories of all study taxa and other groups of organisms
3. a web site presenting these results with color photos, interactive identification tools, and supplementary information such as taxonomic catalogs and databases of specimens studied

Southern temperate forests (green), home to many unique rove beetles

Benefits

Better knowledge of rove beetles will permit using this megadiverse group in evolutionary and ecological studies: full understanding of nearly any land-based natural community is incomplete without considering this very diverse, mostly predatory, component (easily 100-200 species per site). Many wholly southern temperate habitats have been reduced in extent even more than tropical rainforest, and are under serious threat. This lends urgency to studying their unique inhabitants, which include many poorly-known and evolutionarily isolated species. Our data on several staphylinid groups can also provide valuable insights into the overall evolutionary history of the fauna and flora of southern temperate areas. We are training a post-doctoral fellow and a Ph.D. student in theory and practice of modern systematics (including field work and use of external and internal structural features, DNA sequencing, and numerous computer tools) and introduce them to the international network of museum- and university-based curators and researchers. Each year an undergraduate intern helps in the project, gaining exposure to systematic research and to the dramatic biodiversity of arthropods, and perhaps the inspiration to pursue a career in a related discipline. The field work in the four southern temperate areas will include a local student or other individual as part of international partnership-building. We will improve collections at host-country museums and the Field Museum by depositing new specimens (from poorly known habitats) and by sorting and identifying existing holdings. These improvements will bear fruit far into the future for studies not just of rove beetles, but of other arthropods as well.