Arthropoda Department

German hub of the European Reference Genome AtlasBuilding up to the mission of the international ERGA, the German biodiversity genomics community aims at generating high-quality reference genomes of the German eukaryotic biodiversity:

The European Reference Genome Atlas (ERGA) initiative is a pan-European scientific response to current threats to biodiversity. Reference genomes provide the most complete insight into the genetic basis that forms each species and represent a powerful resource in understanding how biodiversity functions. ERGA aims to sequence the genomes of all European species and will for this establish an interdisciplinary workflow.

Understanding the mechanisms leading to diversification of species across time in a changing world remains a challenge. Africa was largely covered by forests until the middle Oligocene, when geological and climatic changes led to increasing aridification of the landmass. The current, iconic savanna and grassland ecosystems did not become well-established until around 8 million years ago. The effect of this increasing aridification on diversification has not been well-studied in animals, and especially not in insects.

How to overcome this recent biodiversity dilemma and speed up the availability of material with undescribed diversity?!?

The BMBF-funded GBOL, the German Barcode of Life initiative, has been run successfully over the last eight years. It delivered an operative DNA barcode reference library for German animals, fungi and plants. However, a significant proportion of insect taxa has so far been excluded from GBOL and merely all biodiversity research, because no or only very insufficient expertise and information are available that allow to get a grip on them. They are called “Dark Taxa”.

The fungal order Laboulbeniales contains more than 2000 species which are all obligate epibionts of arthropods. They have their entire life cycle on the host’s cuticule. We are using a combination of light microscopy, scanning-electron microscopy and micro-computer tomography to study new taxonomic characters in Laboulbeniales living on millipedes and insects. Collaboration with Ana Sofia Reboleira and Henrik Enghoff, both Natural History Museum of Denmark, and Sergi Santamaria, Universitat Autónoma de Barcelona.

The goal of this project is to infer a phylogeographical hypothesis of a selected group of Lepidoptera, the subtribe Pronophilina, based on comprehensive phylogenetic and distributional data, and by doing so, to propose spatial and temporal patterns for the evolution of Andean faunas. The hypothesis is that the study group evolved in South America, and that its radiation is congruent with the uplift of the Andes and changing paleoclimates, hence with the availability of suitable habitats in South and continental Central America. ​

The bristle millipedes (Penicillata: Polyxenida) differ from all other millipedes (Diplopoda) by possessing a non-calcified cuticle, trichobothria and bristles arranged in tufts. In all present phylogenetic analyses the Polyxenida are retrieved as sistertaxa to all remaining millipedes. Therefore, understanding the morphology of bristle millipedesis essential for our understanding of the millipede evolution.

Building a reference database of DNA barcodes for the Lake Sevan drainage basin

This project focuses on the spider subfamily Ninetinae, tiny cryptic ground-dwellers that are largely restricted to arid habitats. They seem to be ‘basal’ within Pholcidae and thus crucial for reconstructing the evolutionary history of the family.

Between 1998 and 2011, the Venezuelan arachnologist Manuel Ángel González-Sponga created a total of 22 new genera for Venezuelan pholcids. Previous efforts to evaluate González-Sponga’s genera were hampered by the inaccessibility of his private collection. As a result, work on Venezuelan pholcid spiders has been almost impossible. After González-Sponga’s death in 2009, his collection was transferred to the Museo del Instituto de Zoología Agrícola in Maracay. The aim of the present project is to initiate collaboration on Venezuelan pholcid spiders and to draft a joint collaborative project on Venezuelan pholcid spider taxonomy and systematics.

In August 2018, a team of exhibition planners, scientists and taxidermists of the Museum Koenig undertook a collection expedition to the Ankasa River Rainforest Reserve in the southwest of Ghana to collect original plant material for the authentic reproduction of the rainforest canopy habitat in the new Rainforest exhibition.

The aim of this project is to use modern non-destructive techniques in order to asses important museum material. Traditionally, the preparation of the genitalia or other parts of the inner anatomy would require the preparation and thus the partial destruction of the sample which is often not possible with important type material. We avoid this by using approaches like µ-computed tomography to visualize the inner parts of these specimens in a non-invasive way.

ZFMK Biobank archives viable cell material for research and ex-situ conservation.

Within the genus Torymus (Chalcidoidea: Torymidae), very diverse parasitoid strategies and adaptations to its hosts have evolved. Its larvae are ectoparasitoids and attack mostly larvae of various gall wasps (Hymenoptera: Cynipidae) and gall midges (Cecidomyiidae). We study the coevolution of the genus Torymus and its hosts and target the question what kind of host shifts occurred during the evolution of the group. For this, we reconstruct the first phylogenomic tree for the the genus Torymus.

In this project we investigate how we efficiently can use old, dried, museum materil for phylogenomic studies. A hybrid enrichment kit for Lepidoptera is being designed and first test are promising, indicating that hundreds of genes can be successfully seqeunced for over 130 year old material.

In the course of this project, a Master OEP student of the University of Bonn will learn how to do an integrative taxonomic description of an animal species. The student will do dissections and prepare samples for an integrative taxonomic description of two species of giant pill-millipedes from Madagascar, including DNA extraction, scanning electron microscopy, and micro-CT scans. The student will be required to thoroughly research the methods and suggest alternatives or modifications of the procedure to improve the results. This study will not only educate the student in doing scietific taxonomic descriptions using a variety a methods. The study is of additional relevance in the age of the international "biodiversity crisis", as rainforests in many countries are removed before their unique fauna can be scientifically named and described.

Pholcid spider females carry their egg-sacs with their mouthparts until the spiderlings hatch and it is probably for this reason that the eggs are not densely covered by a protective layer of silk as in most other spider families. It seems that few egg parasites have managed to access these protected eggs of Pholcidae. During recent trips in SE Asia several new cases of egg-parasitism in Pholcidae were discovered that will be described in this project.

Millipedes were observed in travelling columns of army ants. In this project, these millipedes will be determined to genus- or species-level.

The millipede fauna of India, one of the largest countries of the world, is diverse but still little known. After the Indian independence in 1947, only few species were described from the country. One of the things hampering any progress in the inventory of the Indian millipede fauna is the absence of any species list from the country. If it is unknown which species were already described and recorded from India, it will be difficult to record and describe new species from the country.

Syrphidae, commonly called hover or flower flies, is one of the most diverse families of Diptera very attractive for citizen-scientists. Phylogenetic relationships among its main subfamilies and genera are still not totally understood; especially large genera such as Allobaccha Curran and Asarkina Macquart. This project aims to review both genera in order to describe the new species using new publishing tools, as well as to study their phylogenetic placement among other Syrphidae with the development of a workflow for Ultra-Conserved Elements or Anchored Hybrid Enrichment technique.

Pill millipedes of the order Glomerida are especially species-rich in Europe. The collection of a conspicuous black pill millipede led after a long literature search to the discovery of the name Glomeris apuana Verhoeff, 1911. This name is apparently forgotten, not mentioned after 1927, and it does not appear in Fauna Europeae, recent Italien species lists, or recent European millipede atlases. Apparently, the species occurs in the Apuan Alps, and area renown for its Carrara Marble. A molecular genetic analysis, as well as a comparison with type material, will now help us to elucidate the status, distribution, and the relationships of this unusual pill millipede species.

The pill millipede Glomeris marginata is 'the' model organism inside the Myriapoda. Most embryonic studies, as well as important studies focussing on the development of segmentation (Evo-Devo) use Glomeris marginata as their study object. In this study,using DNA barcode fragments, the phylogeography of G. marginata is studied to get insights into the distribution of different genetic lineagues of the species accross Europe. G. marginata is the only species of Glomeris reaching the North of Europe, such as Great Britain, southern Skandinavia and northern Germany.

This project focuses on three major questions : (1) how do Southeast Asian taxa fit into the phylogeny of Pholcidae? (2) Are patterns of diversity and distribution comparable to those in New World and African regions? (3) Is there evidence for a causal relationship between evolutionary shifts among microhabitats and species diversity (adaptive speciation)?

Flower flies are one of the most diverse families of true flies (Diptera). In this project, we will study the biodiversity of flower flies among different habitats in one of the species-richest areas on Earth, the South of Ecuador.

Chalcidoidea are a very species rich group of parasitoid wasps. Many representatives are very small, and the taxonomy of many groups is not well-studied. In this project we conduct taxonomic studies, especially in the family Pteromalidae.

The main objective of this study is to infer the molecular phylogeny of one of the most economical important genus of fruit flies, Anastrepha (Tephritidae).

In collaboration with the specialist of the group, Dr. Guido Sabatinelli (Univ. Rome), we explore the phylogeny of the group for a better understanding of the evolution of pollination in these beetles.

In a long-term study, including study visits at European museums lasting several months, all Siberian species of Noctuidae are secured, studied, described and figured. All results will be published as a book-series.

The discovery of rare ancient millipede species (Glomeridesmida) in Brazilian caves, now endangered by mining activites, prompted quick inventories to promote a conservation of their habitat.

As part of the activities of the "Heterocera Sumatrana Society", dealing with all kinds of moths, all Sumatran species of Geometridae are registered, studied, described and figured. Result will be published in the journal of the HSS.

In the frame of a long-term study of the Geometrid moths of the Centralasian mountains, the genus Sogdiana gen.n. is described. It is unusual in having a socalled "floricomus" in females, a structure with a as yet unsolved function.

The Southeast Asian and Pacific genus Holocneminus Berland is here revised for the first time, including analyses of phylogenetic relationships within the genus and with putative close relatives.

Harvestmen genitalia are often complex structures that vary among species but little is known about their functioning. We investigate mating behavior, genital morphology as well as interactions of male and female genitalia using histology and X-Ray microtomography of cryo-fixed pairs.

Madagascar has a famous, worldwide unique fauna and flora, including the famous Baobab trees and lemurs. How such a unique fauna could evolve on the long-isolated island has been a hot topic of debate. Millipedes, as soil animals limited in their ability of dispersal, are ideal model species to study thwe speciation mechanisms that shaped the unique diversity of the island.

The thermophilous giant centipede Scolopendra cingulata is a voracious terrestrial predator, which uses its modified first leg pair and potent venom to capture prey. The highly variable species is the most common of the genus in Europe, occurring from Portugal in the west to Iran in the east. The northernmost occurrences are in Hungary and Romania, where it abides in small isolated fringe populations.

Expedition to the tropical lowland rainforest to collect material (insects, tree trunks, lianas, interviews) for the new rainforest exhibition.

Insects are one of the most species-rich groups of metazoan organisms. They play a pivotal role in most non-marine ecosystems and many insect species are of enormous economical and medical importance. Unraveling the evolution of insects is essential for understanding how life in terrestrial and limnic environments evolved. The 1KITE (1K Insect Transcriptome Evolution) project aims to study the transcriptomes (that is the entirety of expressed genes) of 1,000 insect species encompassing all recognized insect orders. For each species, so-called ESTs (Expressed Sequence Tags) will be produced…

Less than 30 years ago, an isolated population of thwe dwarf pill millipede genus Trachysphaera was discovered on the English Isle of Wight, which were tentatively identified as T. lobata (Ribaut, 1954), albeit male specimens were lacking (Joes & Keay 1986 ). T. lobata is a species known mainly from SE France (Kime & Enghoff 2011), and is difficult to distinguish from four other little known Trachysphaera species occurring at the Spanish-French border, which are above all the very similar T. pyrenaica (Ribaut, 1907), as well as the little known T. rousseti (Demange, 1959), T.