Objectives: To develop an efficient workflow combining morphospecies, DNA-barcoding, revisionary systematics, genomics and statistical phylogenetic approaches that would allow to overcome a hitherto non-passable "taxonomic impediment" hampering investigation of abundant taxa with multiple undescribed species ("dark daxa") in regions with multiple unknown phylogenetic lineages.
Expected Results: 1) Proposal of a faster way to explore "dark taxa" in biodiversity host spot areas, before many of them extinct; 2) Increasing use of such taxa in ecological monitoring; 3) Engagement of Citizen Science in collecting data for studies of such groups that badly need systematic exploration.
Researching student: Igor Orlov