Location: Systematic Entomology Laboratory
Project Number: 8042-22000-317-029-I
Project Type: Interagency Reimbursable Agreement
Start Date: Jul 1, 2024
End Date: Sep 29, 2025
Objective:
1. Digital imaging of all species and life stages of Diprion, and aggregating life-history, biology, and biogeographic data into a searchable database via TaxonWorks.
2. Confirm species limits with morphology and CO1 barcoding, and update taxonomy, including description of any new species.
3. Revision of genus including biological data and a key to species, both adults and larvae where possible. Keys will subsequently be migrated to Lucid format and uploaded to the Symphyta idTools.org website for public use along with updated taxonomy and data.
Approach:
The primary purpose of this agreement is to develop new tools for the identification of Diprion pini by APHIS agents in the field through the development of keys and biological data of the targeted pest and associated species. In this first year, the primary goal will be in developing morphological diagnostic tools to allow for identification of adults and larvae. This will be done, in part, with the use of the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History Collection which houses exemplars of 9 out of 12 species of Diprion, and a large number of Diprion pini samples.
The activities proposed in this work plan will enhance the ability to accurately and efficiently identify and monitor Diprion pini and its congeners. This will be developed through a comprehensive digitizing and databasing effort, which will provide high-resolution macroscopic images of both sexes and larvae of the target group as well as life history data and biogeographical ranges, all of which has not previously been concatenated and curated for applied usage in identification and pest management. Specifically, this effort will develop a morphological lucid key, and illustrated guide to the genus for use by regulatory officials, port inspectors and forest management personnel based on the aforementioned database.
Additionally, the taxonomic undertaking will likely lead to the discovery of additional species of Diprion within the US which will be described accordingly and added to the project scope as a revision of the genus. All of this data will be associated with a TaxonWorks database which is being developed to allow migration and updating of IDTools for an updateable hub for keys and biological information that can be referenced online for Symphyta broadly. Therefore, the work described herein is primarily focused on the clarifying of taxonomic and identification gaps in our understanding of the major economic pest Diprion pini and its congeners, and provide a targeted toolbox of morphological and biological data for reference by stakeholders.
As digitization, taxonomic, nomenclatural, and databasing work is currently ongoing on the group under the PI, no known barriers or obstacles to progress are anticipated. All necessary equipment, specimens and database access are readily available. Barcoding done for this project to help solidify species limits will be conducted within the Laboratory of Analytical Biology where a pipeline and workstation is maintained actively by the PI.
