Overview

This project is an international collaboration to understand, conserve, and use biodiversity. We are inventorying and monitoring insects in tropical and temperate habitats at field sites in North and Central America. Currently, we are running 64 standardized Malaise traps in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park (North Carolina and Tennessee), the Hitchiti Experimental Forest (Georgia), the Barro Colorado Nature Monument (Panama), at the La Selva Biological Station (Costa Rica), and in the Area de Conservacion de Guanacaste (Costa Rica). Previously, we ran similar traps at additional sites in Florida, Georgia, Maryland and Ontario. By comparing our samples from old-growth forests and other habitats, we plan to quantify how climate, forest age, habitat type, land-use practices, landscape patterns, and biogeography affect species richness and abundance.

Our reference collections, databases, and Web sites provide information on the identification and natural history of arthropods, their distribution and abundance, and their importance to humans and the environment. Since the beginning of the project in 1992, we have mounted over 200,000 insects that are labelled with unique barcodes. These specimens are primarily Hymenoptera (wasps, bees, ants and sawflies), Coleoptera (beetles) and Diptera (flies). Our database at the University of Georgia, Athens, for example, contains information on over 204,000 Hymenoptera, primarily parasitic wasps in the families Ichneumonidae and Braconidae.

The institutions and personnel associated with the Insect Diversity Project provide a diverse array of technical expertise, facilities and logistic support. They include the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, the Organization for Tropical Studies, the Area de Conservation de Guanacaste, and a number of universities, museums other institutions. Work on the Hymenoptera is coordinated by John Pickering, Mike Sharkey, Dave Wahl, Mike Kaspari, Lubomir Masner and Dave Smith: on the Coleoptera, by Don Windsor, Hector Barrios and Steve Ashe, and on the Diptera, by Brian Brown. Individuals and organizations wishing to join us are encouraged to do so.

Proposals and results give additional information on the project. See also Hypopteromalus tabacum for some definitions and background concerning insect parasites and their trophic interactions.