Parasitic insects, and particularly parasitic wasps, are extremely important natural controls on the populations of other insects and spiders, including many important pests in agriculture, forestry, and human and animal health. This project will survey, on a global scale, one major group of parasitic wasps, the Platygastroidea. The main goals are to (1) describe and name the more than 2000 species of the Scelionini; (2) intensively explore poorly known areas of the world with rich platygastroid faunas, particularly the Atlantic forest of Brazil, tropical forests of southeast Asia, the Western Ghats of India, and the arid lands of South Africa; and (3) conduct a comprehensive analysis of the evolutionary history of Platygastroidea, using data from both their anatomy and DNA sequences. A multinational group from nine countries has been brought together to accomplish these goals, led by Dr. Norman F. Johnson (The Ohio State University) and Dr. Andrew D. Austin (University of Adelaide, Australia).
Central to the strategy to accomplish these goals is the use of databasing and Internet tools - a cyberinfrastructure - that will allow researchers around the world to store and analyze data, images, and literature; automatically disseminate results to the widest range of users; and work together in real time. This electronic "co-laboratory" is designed to maximize the efficiency and productivity of the limited number of specialists on this group. Support for postdoctoral associates, graduate students, and undergraduate students will provide young scientists with training and experience in biodiversity science and informatics at the international level.
Parasitic wasps attack the immature stages of insects and other arthropods, developing on and ultimately killing these hosts. Many of these host insects are significant pests of agriculture, forestry, and vectors of human and animal diseases. Therefore these wasps are important in controlling the population size of the pests and their economic and health impact. Many such parasites have been used as biological control agents of the hosts, providing an environmentally benign, sustainable, and economic alternative to other methods of control. The full potential of the wasps as biocontrol agents has yet to be realized, in large part because their diversity is so poorly understood and identification is next to impossible. The goal of this project was to closely examine this diversity in parasitic wasps, to document the species found in nature, to investigate their interrelationships, provide identification tools, and to do this in a manner that maximizes the efficiency of personnel and funding. We gathered a group of 28 specialists from 13 countries around the world to collaborate on the research, bringing together almost all of the global expertise available. To understand the diversity of these insects we undertook to gather together specimens from the major natural history collections around the world and to collect new specimens in areas that are particularly rich in species or threatened. Major collecting efforts were undertaken in Brazil, South Africa, Australia and Malaysia. A total of over 215,000 specimens were gathered and the information associated with them recorded in an Internet-accessible database. The specimens themselves are deposited in natural history collections and are available for further research. From this basis, we have described 526 species to date, of which 389 (74%) are new to science. Over 14,000 images have been recorded, databased, and linked publicly accessible databases and identification tools. A complete digital library of 1,400 publications and 37,468 pages on the group has been compiled, annotated, and is publicly available free of charge. Finally, we have completed analyses of the evolutionary relationships within the group using data both from the body structure as well as molecular sequences. The results of these analyses provide a better understanding of classification of these parasites and how shifts from attacking one group of hosts to another has occurred. The software and database produced as a result of this project vastly increases the rate at which this basic work on biodiversity can be accomplished while increasing its accuracy, efficiency, and utility. Websites (hol.osu.edu, hns.osu.edu) provide free and open access to all of the data gathered on scientific names and classification, distribution, and biological associations of these wasps. The project also provided training for 3 postdoctoral researchers, 3 graduate students, and 21 undergraduate students. This total includes 12 women and 3 U.S. citizens of groups underrepresented in science and technology. The research results are documented in 37 scientific publications available in Open Access format and have been presented in 66 reports in 11 countries. Taken as a whole, these results provide a solid foundation for biological studies aimed to use these wasps as biological controls agents, as for example current efforts to explore their use to control species of invasive stink bugs that pose a serious threat to a number of crops, including soybeans.
