Putting a face to the name: Turning BINs into species with the help of a fresh collection

Wednesday, November 13, 2024

11:06 AM – 11:18 AM MST

Location: Phoenix Convention Center, 132 A, PCC

Presenting Author(s)

JJ

Jacob MH Jones

Laboratory Assistant
University of California
Temecula, California

Co-Author(s)

JP

Julia Perez

Lab Technician
University of California
Rosemead, California
JH

John Heraty

Professor
University of California
Riverside, California
CW

Christiane Weirauch

University of California
Riverside, California

California is home to a plethora of endemic species, marking it as a biodiversity hotspot. However, this is being challenged by rises in climate change, pesticide use, and urbanization. The California Insect Barcoding Initiative was created with the goal to document and DNA barcode as many insects as possible. To achieve this seemingly impossible task, we split California into smaller areas to allow institutions to focus on surveying specific areas. These areas were also divided by level III and level IV ecological regions to better capture the diversity of the land. The University of California, Riverside is tasked with sampling Southern California, particularly its massive eastern deserts. A broad range of insect diversity is captured using standardized Malaise trap sampling and a wide variety of active collecting methods. These insects are then able to be documented for future cross referencing against identified museum specimens.