exploring litter bug diversity: the challenges of collecting and ...€¦ · assemble the largest...

Exploring litter bug diversity: the challenges of collecting and curating some of the smallest Heteroptera

Christiane Weirauch and Rochelle Hoey-Chamberlain Entomology Department University of California, Riverside

1. Tiny, but understudied and cool: background on Dipsocoromorpha

2. NSF project goals

3. Litter bugs in the field

4. Museum work: residues and more

5. Organizing, extracting, imaging

Schizopteridae: Hypselosomatinae sp. New Zealand Prague October 2013

Ceratocombidae: Issidomimus sp. Tanzania Prague October 2013

Schizopteridae: Humpatanannus sp. Tanzania Prague October 2013

Schizopteridae: Hypselosomatinae sp. Papua New Guinea, Bismarck Archipelago Prague October 2013

Schizopteridae: Pinochius sp. India Prague October 2013

Schizopteridae: Biturinannus sp. Brazil Prague October 2013

5 morphologically divergent families

~320 described species

Monophyly of infraorder is controversial

Tiny, cryptic bugs

Symmetrical to asymmetrical and uniquely modified male genitalia

Sexual dimorphism slight to extreme, with females often coleopteroid

Schizopteridae ~ 240 described spp.

Ceratocombidae ~ 50 described spp.

Dipsocoridae ~ 25 described spp. 0.5mm

?

5 morphologically divergent families

~320 described species

Monophyly of infraorder is controversial

Tiny, cryptic bugs



Images: Alex Knyshov, Rochelle Hoey-Chamberlain, Christane Weirauch



Schizoptera sp. male Schizoptera spp. females?

Chinannus sp. male Chinannus sp. female Nannocoris sp. male Nannocoris sp. female

Data: 28S rDNA & 18S rDNA

Taxa: 87 terminals (all

infraorders); 35 are

Dipsocoromorpha

MAFFT alignments; TNT and

RAxML

Weirauch & Stys, in press, Insect Systematics & Evolution

Dipsocoridae:

Cryptostemma spp. only:

monophyletic

Ceratocombidae:

Ceratocombus spp. only:

monophyletic

Schizopteridae: all three

tribes: monophyletic


tc 1 2 3

4 5

Kokeshia sp.

tc 1 2 3

4

Corixidea sp.

Wing images: Stephanie Leon

1. Assemble the largest worldwide collection of Dipsocoromorpha or litter bugs (~15,000 specimens).

2. Produce integrative taxonomic revisions of genera and species of Schizopteridae.

3. Test family-level concepts of the 5 recognized families of Dipsocoromorpha, the monophyly of the infraorder, and the classification of Schizopteridae.

4. Test hypotheses on the stepwise evolution of elytra (Fig.1) and genital and abdominal asymmetry

NSF project goals

Three-year project; starting date July 1, 2013

Petr Baňař Dimitri Forero http://www.ndsu.nodak.edu/ndsu/ri

der/Pentatomoidea/Researchers/Fernandes_Jose.jpg

Jose Antonio Fernandes

..in schizopterid heaven…

Alex Knyshov

Daniela Takiya

David Rédei http://www.ndsu.edu/ndsu/rider/Pentatomoidea/Researchers/Redei_David.jpg

Dimitri Forero

UCR crew

Stephanie Léon Rochelle Hoey-

Chamberlain

Main collaborators (taxonomic projects,

coparative morphology; specimen acquisition)

Pavel Štys

OTS course: Costa Rica, 2010

Litter sifting

light “Traditional”

collecting methods

Litter bugs in the field

YPT Malaise

Images: Plant Bug PBI

Beating vegetation

Cameroon, 2013

Mt. Cameroon, 2013

Mt. Cameroon, 2013

Trinidad, 2013

Pinochius sp.

Schizoptera sp.

Dundonannus sp.

Ceratocombus sp. – Honduras 2013

Hand collecting

Schizoptera sp. – Honduras 2013

Issidomimini sp. – Cameroon 2013

I. Ceratocombinae 1 Ceratocombini

Ceratocombus Signoret (3 subgenera; 25 spp.) Leptonannus Reuter (3 spp.; Nearct; Neotr.; Afrotrop Feshnia Stys (1 sp.; Zaire)

2 Issidomimini Issidomimus Poppius (2 spp.; Oriental, Papua) Kvamula Stys (4 spp.; Vietnam) Muatianvuaia Wygodzinsky (5 spp.; Afrotrop.)

II. Trichotonanninae 3 Trichotonannini Trichotonannus Reuter (6 spp.; Palaeotrop.)

….no jumping…………...., but adhesion?

Museum work: residues and more

http://media-cdn.tripadvisor.com/media/photo-s/03/47/dc/65/natural-history-museum.jpg http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/02/California_Academy_of_Sciences_pano.jpg

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/15/Natural_History_Museum_of_Geneva.JPG

http://www.natur.cuni.cz/eng/about-the-faculty/faculty1.jpg/@@images/acdc5638-d7be-4a55-b34b-e0f8f64abe51.jpeg

Planned visits (next 12 months): FMNH, AMNH, USNM, FSCA, BMNH, SAMC

LACM CAS

MHNG CUNY

Curated collections and types: mostly AMNH, USNM, and BMNH

Semi-curated collections : mostly CUNY

Semi-sorted (Heteroptera) wet samples: mostly MHNG

Unsorted bulk and residue samples: various collections

MHN Geneva The (?) largest leaf litter sample collection >30 countries, all biogeographic regions >1,500 Dipsos “pulled” (5 days) ~1,300 are Schizopteridae

Weirauch Lab sample sorting 1130 samples sorted since April 2013 20 countries, focus on Thailand and Neotropics 1,151 Schizopteridae 5,817 Ceratocombidae

American Samoa

Argentina

Australia

Bermuda

Bolivia

Brazil

Cameroon

Colombia

Costa Rica

Ecuador

French Guyana

Guatemala

Guyana

Honduras

Karamea

Madagascar

Mexico

New Zealand

Peru

Rep. of Congo

Thailand

Trinidad

USA

Samples sorted: some insights

American SamoaArgentinaAustraliaBermudaBoliviaBrazilCameroonColombiaCosta RicaEcuadorFrench GuyanaGuatemalaGuyanaHondurasKarameaMadagascarMexicoNew ZealandPeruRep. of CongoThailandTrinidad

Thailand (= TIGER)

Colombia

Brazil

Honduras

Costa Rica

Dipsocoromorpha Ceratocombidae Dipsocoridae Schizopteridae

# of successful traps 791 693 5 217

# of unsuccessful traps 339 437 1125 913

TOTAL 1130 1130 1130 1130

Argentina

Thailand

Colombia Madagascar

Proportion of samples with Schizopteridae per country Proportion of samples per country sorted

Argentina

Brazil

Cameroon

Trinidad

Honduras

61% 19%

Percentage of samples with Dipsocoromorpha

All Pan traps

BL

S

BT

GC

LL

MT

MV

PFT

Sorted samples, by collecting method

Malaise (MT)

Pan traps

sweep

Leaf Litter

0

500

1000

1500

2000

2500

3000

3500

4000

4500

5000

All Pantraps

BL S BT GC LL MT MV PFT

Ceratocombidae (#) by trap type

0

100

200

300

400

500

600

700

All Pantraps

BL S BT GC LL MT MV PFT

Schizopteridae (#) by trap type

Samples sorted: some insights

Bridget Gonzales

Bryan Vanderveer

Andrew Freedman

Keeping track of bulk sample sorting

Preliminary IDs

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/da/Pcr_machine.jpg

Habitus imaging (Leica MZ16)

DNA extractions Specimen databasing

Confocal SEM

Compound microscope

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/da/Pcr_machine.jpg

What’s next….?

Start taxonomic projects

Keep sorting, imaging, extracting, databasing….

…..and have a lot of fun!

Schizoptera Fieber 62 described spp.; many

new spp.

Subgeneric limits?

Chinannus Wygondzinsky 2 described spp.; several new spp.

Male/female association?

Corixidea Reuter genus group 6 genera and 16 described

spp.; many new spp.

Generic limits?

Male/female association?

Acknowledgements

NSF for financial support – Litter Bug ARTS project

Lots of collaborators and colleagues for access to specimens

Fieldtrip logistics: Oliver Schlein, Rachid Hanna, Maurice Tindo, Tom Smith, Kevin Njabo and many others

All Weirauch lab members for help with collecting, sorting, imaging, etc.

Istvan Miko for advise on confocal imaging

The Heraty Lab for use of their GT Vision System

exploring litter bug diversity: the challenges of collecting and ...€¦ · assemble the largest...

Documents