REVSYS: Finishing the ant-decapitating flies, genus Apocephalus (Insecta, Diptera, Phoridae)

REVSYS：完成蚂蚁斩首苍蝇属 Apocephalus（昆虫纲、双翅目、蝇科）

• 批准号: 1025922
• 负责人: Brian Brown
• 金额: $ 60万
• 依托单位: Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History Foundation
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2010
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2010-09-01 至 2014-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1025922&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: REVSYS; Finishing; ant; decapitating; flies

The family Phoridae is a large group of small (0.5-6.0 mm long) flies that are found worldwide. The 4,000 species that are currently known may represent as little as 10% of the actual total number of species. In the phorid genus Apocephalus, 275 described species are found only in North, Central, and South America. These flies are parasitic, mostly on ants, and the larvae feed on ant tissue and often decapitate their ant host. In addition, the parasitic flies may have profound effects on a variety of ant behaviors. In this project, approximately 400 species of Apocephalus will be revised (the rest of the genus having been previously treated by the PI). Many new species will be described, their relationships investigated using both DNA sequences and body structure, and a new classification proposed. Field work in North America (Arizona, Texas) and the New World tropics (Argentina, Costa Rica, Peru) will uncover additional new species and host-parasite associations. These flies have a strong potential to be used as biological control agents of their host ants. This project will make Apocephalus species available as possible biocontrol tools by providing published and online keys for identifying the species, and making web pages so that information about them is generally available. Two new graduate students will be trained in the project, providing more expertise on phorid fly identification and broadening the scope of the project.

凤凰家族是一大群小（0.5-6.0毫米）的苍蝇，在全球范围内发现。当前已知的4,000种物种可能仅占实际物种实际总数的10％。在凤凰属apocephalus中，仅在北部，中部和南美发现了275种描述的物种。这些苍蝇是寄生虫，主要是在蚂蚁上，幼虫以蚂蚁组织为食，并且经常斩首其蚂蚁宿主。此外，寄生蝇可能会对各种蚂蚁行为产生深远的影响。在这个项目中，将修改大约400种apocephalus（其余的属已由PI处理）。将描述许多新物种，使用DNA序列和身体结构进行研究，并提出了新的分类。北美（德克萨斯州亚利桑那州）和新世界热带地区（阿根廷，哥斯达黎加，秘鲁）的实地研究将发现其他新物种和寄宿寄生虫协会。这些苍蝇具有强大的潜力，可以用作其宿主蚂蚁的生物控制剂。该项目将通过提供发布和在线钥匙来识别该物种并制作网页，从而使有关生物防治的工具成为可能的生物防治工具，从而使有关它们的信息通常可用。将在该项目中对两名新研究生进行培训，从而提供有关Phorid Fly识别的更多专业知识，并扩大了该项目的范围。