Parasitoids, which are an important component of most terrestrial ecosystems, are parasitic animals (mostly wasps, flies, and nematodes) that kill their hosts as part of their normal life cycle. Plants, their insect herbivores, and the parasitoids that attack those herbivores represent more than half of all described organisms in the world. "Caterpillars and parasitoids in the Eastern Andes of Ecuador" consists of an intensive plant, caterpillar, and parasitoid inventory at the Yanayacu Biological Station (YBS) in the Ecuadorian Andes. The primary objectives are to: 1) Collect and catalog the diverse community of caterpillars and associated parasitoids at this site and to provide specimens for systematics (classification of organisms and their evolutionary relationships). 2) Disseminate this information with a searchable database accessible to scientists and the public throughout the world. 3) Collect baseline natural history information such as specialized associations between plants, herbivores, and parasitoids; development rates; and other life cycle information for both known and undescribed species. 4) Provide the foundation for an identification key to the caterpillars of the Ecuadorian Andes. Caterpillar collecting and rearing will take place in a cloud forest on the eastern slope of the Andes in Napo province, Ecuador, centered around the YBS. Collecting will be conducted by carefully inspecting selected plant species along transects and also by opportunistically collecting all caterpillars observed in the collecting area. Caterpillars and parasitoids will be reared to adults. Adult butterflies, moths, and parasitoids will be distributed to a network of collaborating specialists for identification and for descriptions of new species, revisions, and evolutionary studies. The intellectual merit of the proposed activity includes significant advances in insect classification by providing specimens to experts as well as providing a critical inventory that can be used in the conservation of biodiversity. Forests of the equatorial Andes are recognized as a global hotspot of biodiversity that is being destroyed at an alarming rate, but conservation efforts are improving. The current survey will make an important contribution towards documenting and describing the caterpillars and parasitoids of this threatened area, and will increase the local value of the Andean forests by providing scientific and economic incentives for their conservation. The ecology and systematics that are a part of this study will also be used to address a variety of basic and applied questions in ecology and evolutionary biology, ranging from the evolution of unique plant-insect interactions to the conservation and management of biodiversity. The broader impacts of this project include direct involvement of 4 local field assistants, 3 Ecuadorian students, 3 Ecuadorian senior scientists, 1 postdoctoral researcher, at least 12 collaborating insect specialists, and various graduate and undergraduate students. Therefore the project strengthens international scientific dialogue and relationships. The overall project will include enhancements in science education and research experience programs for minorities. Finally, the research will enhance training in systematics to help stem the decline in expertise that is currently having a negative impact on all disciplines in biology.
