The Swedish Malaise Trap Project, or how many species of Hymenoptera and Diptera are there in Sweden?

摘要

The Linnaean enterprise of describing the world biota is far from being completed due to lack of taxonomic expertise and basic resources. Even in Sweden, the natural history collections simply do not contain a fully representative material of Sweden's biota. An inventory, with particular focus on Hymenoptera and Diptera, has deployed 61 Malaise traps in carefully selected localities throughout Sweden for year-round collecting during 2002 and 2003. Volunteers play an important part in emptying and maintaining traps, and all material will be initially deposited at the Swedish Museum of Natural History. After sorting to superfamily or family level, the material will be available for taxonomic studies. While the ultimate goal is a complete treatment, initial emphasis will be on species-rich but poorly known taxa like Ichneumonidae, Braconidae, Chalcidoidea, Cynipoidea, Platygastroidea, Evanioidea, Ceraphronoidea and Proctotrupoidea in the Hymenoptera, and Phoridae, Mycetophilidae, Sciaridae, and lestremine Cecidomyiidae in the Diptera. Well-known taxa like Sphecidae (Hymenoptera) and Asilidae, Syrphidae (Diptera) may be used for estimates of trap efficiency.