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The principal objectives of this NSF-funded research project are:
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1. Collect intensively in numerous localities in Mexico, Guatemala, and Belize using multiple collecting methods.
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2. Create an electronic database for all the study area Dynastinae residing in research collections in Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, and North America and amalgamate it with that maintained by CONABIO for the Mexican fauna.
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3. Assemble and deposit authoritatively identified collections in Mexico, Guatemala, Belize and the United States.
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4. Produce a highly illustrated monograph to the 30 genera and approximately 200 species that occur in Mexico, Guatemala, and Belize. Describe new taxa.
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5. Train students and parataxonomists in Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, and the U.S. on the methods of field collecting, curation, collection management, and electronic databasing.
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..........Scarab beetles are prominent members of the entomofauna, and the family Scarabaeidae has ca 30,000 species. The Dynastinae is one of the most conspicuous subfamilies of Scarabaeidae because of their rich species diversity, often large size, and presence of impressive horns in some species. The Dynastinae is comprised of about 1,400 species, and more species are found in the New World tropics than in any other realm. The New World tropical fauna remains poorly studied except for the area of Panama to Honduras, which was covered in large monographs resulting from two prior projects in this series.
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..........This current research will continue the series by monographing all the Dynastinae in Mexico, Guatemala, and Belize. The proposed survey will provide the first extensive documentation (and only the third for Latin America) of the taxonomic, geographic, and temporal distribution of dynastines in these countries and will provide the means to identify all the taxa with both English and Spanish keys. To accomplish this, dynastines already residing in systematics research collections in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Guatemala, and Belize will be intensively surveyed in order to gather data on spatial and temporal distribution and life history or habitat information associated with the specimens. Extensive collecting will be conducted in Mexico, Guatemala, and Belize utilizing a program designed to provide complete geographic coverage and taking into account seasonality as it affects activity of adult dynastines. Authoritatively identified collections of Dynastinae (and by extension, other Scarabaeidae) will be augmented at the Universidad del Valle (Guatemala) and the Instituto de Ecologia (Mexico) as well the University of Nebraska and the U.S. National Collection of Scarabs (Smithsonian Institution) currently at the University of Nebraska.
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..........The principal result will be a monographic survey of the Dynastinae of Mexico, Guatemala, and Belize. Included in this treatment will be a brief introduction to the three countries that addresses climate, land forms, and dynastine biology and distribution. Each tribe and genus will be characterized and discussed, and taxonomic keys (in English and Spanish) will be given for all tribes, genera, and species. Each species account will consist of complete synonymies, descriptions, diagnoses, distributional and temporal data, habitat and ecological information, and larval and life history information. The publication will be profusely illustrated with habitus drawings, line drawings of structures requiring clarification, distribution maps, and photographs of principal habitats. There will be electronic dissemination (through the University of Nebraska State Museum's World Wide Web server) of the specimen-level database generated by the study as well as introductory material, images, and bilingual keys to taxa included in the print monograph. Additional products resulting from the project will be the establishment of authoritatively identified collections in Mexico, Guatemala, and Belize; training students and parataxonomist in Mexico and Guatemala about collecting, curation, collection management practices to insure proper conservation and use of their collections, electronic databasing, and dissemination of knowledge for outreach.
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