Projekt

Conventional biodiversity research mainly focuses on the number of species and on the adult animal stage, because adult animals can be more easily identified to species than larvae. Yet, larvae have a larger impact on the environment. Concerning biomass and number of individuals arthropod larvae are the dominating form of animal life. Thus, common biodiversity approaches are not sensitive for the true diversity of animal species. The new approach of the professorship is based on an alternative and species-independent measure for diversity: morphology. Morphological diversity can be measured quantitatively and can be based on structures used to interact with the environment and being present during different life phases. Such traits become a proxy for ecological diversity and hence represent a multi-dimensional morpho-eco-space. Based on this, the hypothesis is that the true diversity of arthropods lies in the larval forms. Information about the morphology of larval arthropods is hardly found in literature. An astonishing amount of arthropod larvae is available in museum collections. This treasure is a perfect basis for the description and comparison of specimens, some of them collected 100 years ago. The approach also facilitates the inclusion of fossils, reaching even further back in time.

• Prof. Dr. Joachim Haug

  Universität München
  Fakultät für Biologie
  Funktionsmorphologie der Tiere
  Planegg-Martinsried