Tri-Trophic Thematic Collection Network
Collaborative Research: Plants, Herbivores, and Parasitoids:
A Model System for the study of Tri-Trophic Associations
Hemiptera, the largest clade of non-holometabolous insects, is represented in North America north of Mexico
by >11,000 species. Many are
agricultural pests, including such economically devastating examples as armored scales, mealy bugs, black bean and peach aphids, potato
leafhoppers, and Lygus bugs; some are beneficial as predators of other insect pests. Their specialized sap-sucking habits make many
aphids, psyllids, and plant hoppers effective vectors of plant diseases, and therefore of extreme economic importance. The Tri-Trophic
Thematic Collection Network project (http://tcn.amnh.org) is capturing data about these
hemipterian-plant-parasitoid relationships from over 30 natural history collections in the United States. The outcome of
the effort to digitize these data is represented here through Discover Life. This project is made possible by funding from
the National Science Foundation Grant ADBC#1115144.
