Biodiversity studies: follow-up of modern and historical species
The study and review of the Museum’s historical and present-day collections is one of our priority projects, as it is the only way of ascertaining both the scientific and the museistic value of the heritage preserved by the Museum. Collection reviews often take years to complete and involve a number of different specialists. The study, or review of the study material, is carried out at the Museum itself, or through loans. These taxonomic reviews are usually published in catalogue format, setting out families, subfamilies, genera or new descriptions, designations or taxa citations (see publications section).
In addition, the Arthropods Department works closely with the technicians of certain natural parks and spaces, collaborating in the active follow-up of insect or other arthropod diversity. Studies such as these, notwithstanding the added difficulty of having to work with a large and varied number of specimens and having to coordinate a wide range of specialists, bring in recent specimens of considerable scientific and, therefore, museistic value. In addition, the data obtained from these studies can be useful when it comes to redesigning the policies concerning conservation of the actual parks or spaces.
Research projects
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INC-STEP - Instigating a National Reference Collection for Spain's Threatened Pollinators
- Year
- 2024
- Supported
- Eropean Union (Horizon IA - Innovation Action)
- Duration
- 3 years
The TETTRIs Project (EU – Horizon IA program) was born as a contribution of the taxonomic community gathered around CETAF to provide knowledge, systems and services to tackle biodiversity loss. The INC-STEP, a Third Party Project (3PP) funded under the TETTRIs program, is coordinated by a consortium of five Spanish institutions: MCNC-CSIC, UNAV, UCM, UV, and MCNB. This 3PP project aims to initiate a national pollinator reference collection for six groups: families Hesperiidae and Papilionidae (Lepidoptera), subfamily Eristalinae (Diptera; Syrphidae), and genera Bombus, Colletes, and Xylocopa (Hymenoptera; Apoidea). The consortium will undertake comprehensive expert taxonomic review for these taxa across five partner institutions; analyse taxonomic and geographic gaps in the five collections and implement innovations to fill these gaps; develop tools to facilitate incorporation of specimens from additional public and private collections; specimen digitisation to create pilot virtual collections; and an interactive online collections map.
More information about the project:
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SPIDCHANGE: Spiders as integrators of brown and green food webs in a changing world(PID2022-137758NB-I00)
- Year
- 2023
- Supported
- Government of Spain (Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities) and European Union
- Duration
- 3 years
How do environmental and anthropogenic disturbances affect arthropod communities? How do changes in the arthropod community impact on ecosystem functioning and the services they provide for human wellbeing? Over 85% of all known animal species are arthropods. Recent estimates, however, have revealed increased rates of species extinction at local level and massive decline in arthropod biomass, most likely linked to land-use intensification. The SPIDCHANGE project will investigate the effect of changes in habitat climate, structure, and fragmentation on the patterns of biodiversity (taxonomic, functional, phylogenetic, and genetic diversity) of arthropod communities, and determine how such changes are linked to basic ecosystem functions (productivity and nutrient cycling). The project will focus on spiders, one of the most diverse and abundant predators, and restricted to the cork-oak woodlands of the Iberian Peninsula, which are among the Iberian forests of major natural, cultural, and economic relevance.
Web announcement project: https://www.aei.gob.es/en/announcements/announcements-finder/proyectos-generacion-conocimiento-2022
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TTCYN: Taxonomy, trophic and evolutionary relationships of gall forming and inquiline gall wasps (Hymenoptera: Cynipidae) in Fagaceae, with special attention to the Nearctic and Neotropics (PID2021-128146NB-I00)
- Year
- 2022
- Supported
- Government of Spain (Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities) and European Union
- Duration
- 4 years
The Cynipidae are specialized endophytophagous insects that act as gall inducers or as inquilines of galls induced mainly by other cynipids. Traditionally, the Cynipidae have been studied only from a morphological perspective, but the importance of a molecular approach has been growing in recent decades. The Eastern Palaearctic, Nearctic and Neotropics are of special interest, as they include both the ancestral origin of Cynipidae (Eastern Palaearctic) and their highest biodiversity indices (Nearctic, Neotropics). The study of these regions can address two major unresolved evolutionary and systematic processes: the diversification of gall inducers and inquilines. The main objectives of this study are to unravel the internal taxonomy and phylogeny of the tribe Cynipini and the genus Synergus in the Nearctic and the Neotropics, focusing on the Mexican fauna, in order to set the boundaries of different genera; to study the parasitoid communities associated with galls; and to determine trophic relationships between Quercus-Cynipini-Inquilines-Parasitoids.
Web announcement project:https://www.aei.gob.es/convocatorias/buscador-convocatorias/proyectos-generacion-conocimiento-2021