Abstract
Approximately 30,000 Swedish species are so poorly known that they cannot be judged according to the international red list criteria. One fourth of these species are parasitic wasps. Our knowledge is particularly scant for the Diptera-parasitic wasps, despite their forming a vital component of the wetland fauna. We propose systematic and taxonomic research on one of these groups, the subfamily Opiinae. We will focus on a North temperate/boreal group, the genus Biosteres (in the strict sense), which currently includes approximately 50 valid species, about 30 of which are likely to occur in Sweden. We will perform a phylogenetic analysis based on morphological and molecular data to address critical problems concerning the circumscription of Biosteres and its relationships with other opiines, some of which should perhaps be included in Biosteres. This will be followed by a taxonomic revision of Biosteres. The revision will to a large extent be based on new material collected or reared from different localities throughout Sweden. The biological and phylogenetic data will be used to provide a preliminary assessment of the vulnerability of the Swedish Biosteres species to human environmental impact. The studied species will be documented by high-resolution digital images archived in MorphBank, an open web image database for systematics and biodiversity research.
Sweden