THEMES WE EXPLORE
Natural History
Insect Physiology
Sexual Selection
Insect Behavior
Morphological Evolution
The energetic costs of sexually selected traits. Design by Anita Weissflog.
paper: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/bies.202000183
Research
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Sexual selection has long been defined in opposition to ecological selection, suggesting that such traits may limit or constrain ecological adaptation. However, sexual selection drives elaborate growth, enhances neuromuscular physiology, and shapes extreme diversification with clades. My research takes an integrative approach to understand the ways in which growth, selection, behavior, and phylogenic history shape the evolution of sexually selected traits in insects.
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New bug reared in The Bug Hut
Beetles weapons in the insect collections
Excited to be working with the Hemiptera collections with Dino Martins (not pictured) and student intern Christine Kakan at the National Museums of Kenya (Aug 2023)
Below is a sneak peek of our upcoming paper on Panama's jousting weevils.
video by Peter Marting - https://aztecacecropia.com/
CONTACT
Stengl-Wyer Scholar
University of Texas, Austin, TX
Earl S. Tupper Post-Doctoral Fellow
Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Gamboa, Panama
