Coleoptera
Carabidae (Dr. Kipling Will)
http://nature.berkeley.edu/~kiplingw/
Coleoptera of Chile (Dr. Elizabeth Arias, Dr. Kipling Will)
Our current NSF project (to ET Arias & KW Will) main objective is to conduct a survey of endemic taxa of Chile that developed from ancient Gondwanian elements, resulting in a native fauna unlike anywhere else on Earth. Faunal inventories must be done before we lose our chance to understand the historical factors that shaped the Chilean biota and are interconnected with the origins of life on Earth.
Southern Chile region remained unallocated during the most recent glacial advance and so have a remarkable number of precinctive and presumed ancient lineages. Understanding their distribution and diversity is fundamental to building the context of biotic change in the southern continents. Additionally, it is widely recognized that this region is under-protected and rapidly succumbing anthropic activities, namely fragmentation and land conversion.
Coleoptera, which exemplify biodiversity, are a logical and effectual as focal taxa. This project will result in specimens from many arthropod groups that will be used by numerous researchers for systematic, biogeographic and conservation studies.
http://www.coleopterosdechile.cl
http://www.coleopterosdechile.cl/research.html
Coleopteros de Chile. Elizabeth Arias. 2000. Dr. Elizabeth Arias published Coleopteros de Chile in 2000, a Spanish-language book featuring numerous photographs and illustrations of a diverse array of Chilean beetles. The book also provides information for each beetle pictured, including its family, habitat, and geographic distribution in Chile. Copies of the book are available for sale. Please contact Dr. Arias for information.
Aquatic Byrrhoidea (Dr. William D. Shepard, Cheryl Barr)
Within the Superfamily Byrrhoidea there are two major family groups - one group has mostly terrestrial representatives while the other has mostly aquatic representatives. This latter group contains the families Dryopidae, Elmidae, Lutrochidae and Psephenidae. Representatives of these four families are found in rivers, streams, springs, lakes, and other waters. They are commonly called riffle beetles, cascade beetles, water penny beetles and travertine beetles.
In both the terrestrial and aquatic family groups there is a large number of known, but as yet undescribed, genera and species, and it is likely that there is an even larger number of as-yet-uncollected species. The Byrrhoidea fauna is particularly poorly known in the Ethiopean, Oriental and Neotropical zoogeographic regions. Given the large number of undescribed taxa, most research with aquatic byrrhoids involves alpha taxonomy. Only recently have there been attempts to construct phylogenies with subgroups within Byrrhoidea.
The aquatic Byrrhoidea are valuable as indicators of water quality. Most live in mountainous streams typified by low pollution, high dissolved oxygen, cool temperatures, fast flow, low sediment loads, etc. Hence, their presence usually indicates high water quality. Many elmids are associated only with unpolluted streams exiting primary forests.
Worldwide Bibliography of Aquatic and Semiaquatic Byrrhoidea (Insecta: Coleoptera). 2007. William D. Shepard.
This bibliography is an ongoing project to record the literature on aquatic and semiaquatic Byrrhoidea (Dryopidae, Elmidae, Eulichadidae, Limnichidae, Lutrochidae, Psephenidae and Ptilodactylidae). Papers included herein are those that deal predominantly with byrrhoids. Periodically more citations are added; check the date at the bottom of the Introduction to see when the latest update was performed. Feel free to use this in whatever way is useful.
View as a PDF (450k).
Phylogeny of Psephenidae (Coleoptera: Byrrhoidea) Based on Larval, Pupal and Adult Characters. 2007. Lee, Satô, Shepard, Jäch.
View as a PDF (5.1mb).
