The World of Jewel Beetles

Assembling the Beetle Tree of Life - project website

The Buprestoidea TWiG (Taxonomic Working Group)

Chuck Bellamy (TWiG) leader, California Dept. of Food & Agriculture, Sacramento, California

Svata Bílý, National Museum, Prague, Czech Republic

Amanda Evans, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts

Henry Hespenheide, University of California, Los Angeles

Mark Volkovitsch, Institute of Zoology, Russian Academy of Sciences, St. Peterburg

Project Description

Beetles comprise the largest single branch in the Tree of Life. Since they arose in the Lower Permian, they have undergone an explosive radiation into more than 350,000 species, or one-quarter of described organisms. In species numbers, beetles dominate most terrestrial ecosystems. They collectively represent nearly every feeding habit among insects, from saprophagy, herbivory and predation to fungivory and parasitism. Though there are insect groups that are more specialized in each way of life, beetles probably have a larger impact on our forests and fields than any other group (except possibly ants!). Because of their species richness, beetles present an excellent context for evaluating correlates of diversity.

Reflecting in part their sheer numbers and enormous morphological diversity, few attempts have been made to decipher the phylogeny of beetles as a whole, leaving us with only marginal knowledge of their history.

The focus of the proposed research is to provide a robust phylogenetic hypothesis for beetle families and subfamilies, by gathering molecular sequences from over 3000 species, and morphological data from over 400 species. We anticipate that this will provide a phylogenetic framework enabling future research on beetle systematics, ecology, and evolution, and will represent a major leap forward in deciphering what is arguably among the most important phenomena in the Tree of Life's last 300,000,000 years: the diversification of beetles.

Objectives

We propose to:

* Infer the relationships among the suborders, superfamilies, families, and subfamilies of beetles:
o Assemble a collection of beetles for comparative morphological and molecular studies with representatives of adults and larvae for almost every currently recognized subfamily.
o Gather complete mitochondrial genomes, 8 nuclear genes and one mitochondrial gene, and 500 morphological characters for 75 species, with grades of lesser amounts of data to 3300 more species.
o Establish an online, high quality, vouchered database of morphological character states and species, complete with images.
* Develop the necessary bioinformatics tools to make this efficient and practical:
o Build a DNA sequence workflow solution that will feature a graphical user interface; storage in databases; an automated processing of sequences, including quality checks, that will take one directly from chromatograms to alignments; and connections to various inference engines.
o Extend Mesquite's collaborative matrix editing tools to allow remote editing of a morphological database to allow for (1c).
* Use the inferred relationships of beetles to study the evolution of beetle life histories and the and the processes of this diversification, including estimating divergence times of major beetle subgroups/feeding types by using fossil information and molecular dating.
* Make our results known to a broader audience:
o Develop the Tree of Life Web Project for Coleoptera, adding pages for all subfamilies and families.
o Develop an English/Spanish traveling exhibit regarding beetles and the Tree of Life at the Harvard Museum of Natural History for travel to museums (e,g., the Field Museum, Santa Barbara Museum) within the U.S.A. and abroad.
o Expand the Lawrence et al. (1999) CSIRO CD ROM illustrated keys to beetle families and subfamilies.
o Provide training in integrated insect systematics and evolution to students and other researchers, reinforcing ties within the community of beetle researchers, among AToL projects, and with the larger community of scholars and the public.