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Synthesis - Terrestrial Invertebrates André V. L. Freitas – Unicamp VIII Reunião de Avaliação do Programa BIOTA/FAPESP
Synthesis - Terrestrial
Invertebrates
André V. L. Freitas – Unicamp
VIII Reunião de Avaliação do
Programa BIOTA/FAPESP
Four projects will be summarized:
1) Diversity and taxonomy of feather mites (Arachnida: Acari:
Astigmata) on birds (Aves) in Brazil
2) Biodiversity of mosquitoes (Diptera: Culicidae) in the
municipal parks of São Paulo city
3) Taxonomy, systematics and phylogeography in attini systems
4) Natural History, Phylogeny and Conservation of Neotropical
Lepidoptera
Projects:
Diversity and taxonomy of feather mites
(Arachnida: Acari: Astigmata) on birds
(Aves) in Brazil
Coordinator: Fabio Rau Akashi Hernandes Departamento de Zoologia, Instituto de Biociências, UNESP Rio
Claro
Grant nº 2011/50145-0
1) Describe new taxons of feather mites and map
their associations with bird hosts.
2) Revision of problematic taxons
3) Produce identification keys for the main groups of
feather mites
4) Establish a scientific collection for the group
Objectives
Impacts
Students: A total of four students directly involved with the
project, as follows: Technical training (2), Undergraduate (1),
Master (1).
- Collaborations with three research groups abroad: Dr. Michel
Valim (USP-SP); Dr. Sergey V. Mironov (Zoological Institute,
Russian Academy of Sciences, St. Petersburg, Russia), and
Dr. Barry OConnor (Michigan University, Ann Arbor, EUA)
Impacts
Personnel:
- In addition, nearly 10
students from various
states of Brazil have
visited the lab to get basic
training in feather mite
systematics. Material was
also sent from various
parts of Brazil.
Impacts
Collaborative network:
Impacts
Impacts
Academic research:
Publications: A total of 16 publications in peer reviewed
journals.
Scientific meetings: The researcher and students
participated in 6 meetings (1 national, 5 international) with
8 presentations (posters).
Impacts
Left-right asymmetry: new species and new records of
asymmetrical feather mites were found during the projetct.
Left-right asymmetry in mites is very rare, and occurs only in 8
genera of feather mites, always in males, most noticeably in
anterior legs and posterior region of body.
Impacts
Feather mites from endangered birds: 5 feather mite
species were described from endangered bird hosts during
the project.
Photo by C. Gussoni
Stymphalornis acutirostris (Thamnophilidae)
Calcealges sp. n. (Trouessartiidae)
♂
♂
♀
♂
A new genus of skin mites: a new genus of feather mite
(family Dermationidae) was discovered, with 3 morphs of
males.
BIODIVERSITY OF MOSQUITOES (DIPTERA:
CULICIDAE) IN THE MUNICIPAL PARKS OF
SÃO PAULO CITY
Coordinator: Mauro Toledo Marrelli Departamento de Epidemiologia, Faculdade de Saúde Pública,
Universidade de São Paulo, São Paulo
Grant nº 2010/51230-8
1. Identification of the species collected;
2. Study the ecology of these mosquitoes;
3. Describe species (morphology and molecular)
4. Characterization of populations for molecular analysis;
5. Detection of the food preferences;
6. Identify flavivirus infection in the mosquitoes;
7. Production of an educational material about mosquitoes
of urban parks of São Paulo.
Objectives
Personnel:
Students: A total of five students directly involved
with the project, as follow: Technical training (1),
Undergraduate (1), Master (3).
- Collaborations with three research groups: Dr.
José Eduardo Levi, Dra. Rosely Malafronte (IMT-USP-
SP); Sandro Marques (Zoonosis Control Center,
PMSP), and Marcello Nardi, Elisabeth Gonçalves
(Department of Parks and Green Spaces, São Paulo
City Hall)
Impacts
Academic Research
Publications: A total of 9 publications in peer
reviewed journals.
Scientific meetings: The researchers and students
participated in 5 meetings (3 national, 2
international) with 7 presentations (five posters and
one oral presentation).
Impacts
• New description of immature forms: 1
species,
• New occurrence of species in area: 5
species (including two anophelines:
malaria vector)
• First report of Culex flavirus in
mosquitoes of the parks
Impacts
TAXONOMY, SYSTEMATICS AND
PHYLOGEOGRAPHY IN ATTINI SYSTEMS
Coordinator: Maurício Bacci Jr Centro de Estudos de Insetos Sociais – UNESP, Rio Claro
Grant nº 2011/50226-0
1. Characterization of Attini species using morphology,
genetic and behavior data;
2. Characterization of genes underlying the speciation
process in model leaf-cutter ants using next gen
sequencing;
3. Organization of a leaf-cutter collection at a public
website;
4. Investigation of leaf-cutter ant association with
microbes.
Objectives
Personnel:
Students: A total of ten students directly involved
with the project: Technical training (1),
Undergraduate (3), Master (2), PhD (5).
Impacts
Collaboration:
UF Uberlândia – MZUSP – UNESP Botucatu
Harvard University - Smtihsonian Institution
University of Copenhagen
Academic Research
Publications: 11 publications in peer reviewed
journals.
Scientific meetings: Participation in 5 meetings
with 9 presentations.
Impacts
• Attini association with antibiotic producing
bacteria;
• Attini association with nitrogen-fixing bacteria;
• Attini association with fungi;
• 5 NGS transcriptomes generated and
annotated;
• ~70 genes found involved with leaf-cutter
speciation.
Impacts
Description of Attini new species and genus
Impacts
Sosa-Calvo J, Schultz TR, Brandão CRF, Klingenberg C, Feitosa RM, et al. (2013)Cyatta abscondita: Taxonomy, Evolution, and Natural History of a New Fungus-Farming Ant Genus from Brazil. PLoS ONE 8(11): e80498.
A Social Parasite Evolved Reproductive Isolation from Its Fungus-Growing Ant Host in Sympatry Christian Rabeling, Ted R. Schultz, Naomi E. Pierce, Maurıcio Bacci, Jr. Current Biology, 24: 1-6, 2014
Genetic markers, software and websites
Impacts
Cynara Rodovalho Mariana Lyra, Milene Ferro, Maurício Bacci Jr (2014) The Mitochondrial Genome of the Leaf-Cutter Ant Atta laevigata: A Mitogenome with a Large Number of
Intergenic Spacers. PLoS ONE 9(5): e97117. Christina Rabeling, Love Cara, Stacey Lance, Kenneth Jones, Naomi Pierce, MaurícioBacci Jr (2014). Development of twenty-one polymorphic microsatellite markers for the fungus-growing ant, Mycocepurus goeldii (Formicidae: Attini), using Illumina paired-end genomic sequencing. Cons. Genet. Resources, 6:739-741.
Sérgio Kakazu, Alessandra Sanches, Maurício Bacci Jr. (2013). Microsatellite loci characterized in the leaf-cutter ant Atta laevigata (2013). BMC Res. Notes, 6:328.
Milene Ferro, Erik A Antonio, Wélliton Souza1 and Maurício Bacci Jr (2014). ITScan: a web-based analysis tool for Internal Transcribed Spacer (ITS) sequences. BMC Res. Notes, 7:857.
The Virtual Museum: Plants, Amphibians and Ants http://evol.rc.unesp.br/museums/
Natural History, Phylogeny and
Conservation of Neotropical Lepidoptera
Coordinator: André V. L. Freitas – Unicamp
Team: Marcelo Duarte (MZUSP) and Karina
L. Silva-Brandão (CENA-USP)
Grant nº 2011/50225-3 Aug/2011 – Aug/2014
The Project focused in three main research
lines:
1) Phylogeny and Systematics,
2) Evolution of interactions among butterflies and
ants,
3) Functional and phylogenetic community structure
Objectives
Personnel:
Students: A total of more than 20 people directly
involved with the project, as follow: Technical training
(8), Undergraduate (10), Master (8), PhD (6), Post
Doctoral (5).
- In addition, more than 30 students from Brazil (from the
states of SP, MG, RS, BA, PE and PA) and 4 from
Colombia visited the project to got basic training in field
and laboratory methods, biodiversity analysis and
Lepidoptera systematics.
Impacts
Main collaborations with other research groups:
In Brazil: Dr. Olaf H. H. Mielke (UFPR - PR); Dr.
Ronaldo B. Francini (Unisantos - SP); Dr. Marlon
Paluch (Univ. Recôncavo, BA).
Abroad: Dr. Niklas Wahlberg (Univ. Turku, Finland);
Dr. Andrew Brower (Univ. Tennessee, EUA); Dr. Keith
Willmott (Univ. Florida, EUA); Dr. Marianne Elias
(MNHN, Paris, France); Dra. Blanca Huertas (BMNH,
UK); Dra. Sandra Uribe (UNALMED, Colombia).
Impacts
Integration with six other projects:
• NSF-Fapesp “Dimensions of Biodiversity” Structure and evolution of the amazon biota and its environment: an integrative approach (Coordinator: Lucia G. Lohmann – USP and Joel Lester Cracraft, American Museum of Natural History, USA)
• NSF-Fapesp “Dimensions of Biodiversity” A multidisciplinary framework for biodiversity prediction in the Brazilian Atlantic forest hotspot. (Coordinators: Cristina Yumi Miyaki – USP and Ana Carolina O. Queiroz Carnaval – CUNY, USA)
• NSF-Fapesp “Dimensions of Biodiversity” Chemically mediated multi-trophic interaction diversity across tropical gradients. (Coordinators: Massuo Jorge Kato - IQ/USP and Lee A. Dyer, University of Nevada / Reno, USA)
• SISBIOTA-Brasil/CNPq – Rede Nacional de Pesquisa e Conservação de Lepidópteros (Coordinator: Onildo Marini Filho – ICMBIO)
• ARTS: Phylogeny and systematic revision of the diverse and cryptic Euptychiina (Lepidoptera, Nymphalidae, Satyrinae) – NSF (Coordinator – Dr. Keith Willmott – University of Florida, USA)
• ECOFOR: Biodiversity and ecosystem functioning in degraded and recovering Amazonian and Atlantic Forests (Coordinator – Dr. Carlos Joly – Unicamp)
Impacts
Academic Research
Publications: A total of 71 publications, including 60
peer reviewed papers, 3 book chapters, 3 complete
books and 5 products related to science divulgation
and/or application.
Scientific meetings: The researchers and students
participated in 12 meetings (5 national, 7 international)
with 37 presentations (posters and oral
presentations).
Impacts
Impacts
Phylogeny and Systematics
Description of 12 new species and 2 new genus genera
Phylogeny and Systematics
Obtaining of phylogenetic hypothesis for 6 butterfly groups
Impacts
Phylogeny and Systematics
Obtaining of phylogenetic hypothesis for 6 butterfly groups
Impacts
Evolution of interactions among butterflies
and ants
Impacts
Functional and phylogenetic community
structure
Accepted Book Chapter - “Evolutionary
history, functional diversity and the
conservation of Neotropical mimetic
butterflies”
Nicolas Chazot, Keith R. Willmott, André V. L.
Freitas, Donna Lisa de Silva, Roseli Pellens &
Marianne Elias
Impacts
Functional and phylogenetic community
structure
An ongoing PhD Thesis – Biogeographic diversity patterns in
nymphalid butterflies in different macroecological scales – Jessie P.
Santos
Morphological
measures
Colour
pattern
Impacts
Conservation
Besides the three main objectives, the project produced important
information relevant to conservation biology of Lepidoptera.
Impacts
Conservation
Besides the three main objectives, the project produced important
information relevant to conservation biology of Lepidoptera.
Impacts
Public policies and law application
Impacts
“Biodiversity monitoring system in Conservation Unities”
ICMBIO/GIZ
Impacts
“Biodiversity monitoring system in Conservation Unities”
ICMBIO/GIZ
Impacts
• Few projects focusing on terrestrial invertebrates
in the last years.
• A need for increasing the knowledge on several
poorly known invertebrate groups.
• Incentives for expanding knowledge on
previously studies groups.
Specific strategies to encourage submission of
projects through FAPESP research calls
focusing on terrestrial invertebrates
Perspectives
