Centre for Biodiversity Genomics, University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, Canada.
Department of Integrative Biology, University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, Canada.
PeerJ. 2022 Jan 21;10:e12799. doi: 10.7717/peerj.12799. eCollection 2022.
Although biomass values are critical for diverse ecological and evolutionary analyses, they are unavailable for most insect species. Museum specimens have the potential to address this gap, but the variation introduced by sampling and preservation methods is uncertain. This study quantifies species-level variation in the body mass of Canadian Coleoptera based on the analysis of 3,744 specimens representing 3,161 Barcode Index Number (BIN) clusters. Employing the BIN system as a proxy for species allows the inclusion of groups where the taxonomic impediment prevents the assignment of specimens to a Linnaean species. By validating the reproducibility of measurements and evaluating the error introduced by operational complexities such as curatorial practice and the loss of body parts, this study demonstrates that museum specimens can speed the assembly of a mass registry. The results further indicate that congeneric species of Coleoptera generally have limited variation in mass, so a genus-level identification allows prediction of the body mass of species that have not been weighed or measured. Building on the present results, the construction of a mass registry for all insects is feasible.
尽管生物量值对于各种生态和进化分析至关重要，但大多数昆虫物种的生物量值都无法获得。博物馆标本有潜力解决这一差距，但采样和保存方法引入的变异是不确定的。本研究基于对 3744 个标本的分析，这些标本代表了 3161 个条形码索引号 (BIN) 聚类，量化了加拿大 Coleoptera 物种水平的体质量变异。利用 BIN 系统作为物种的代理，可以包括那些由于分类障碍而无法将标本分配到林奈物种的群体。通过验证测量的可重复性，并评估诸如管理实践和身体部位缺失等操作复杂性引入的误差，本研究表明，博物馆标本可以加速质量登记册的编制。结果还表明，鞘翅目昆虫的同属物种的体质量变化通常有限，因此属级别的鉴定可以预测尚未称重或测量的物种的体质量。基于目前的结果，为所有昆虫构建一个质量登记册是可行的。
