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Research
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| Overview |
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| My research program centers on elucidating the diversity, biology, and evolutionary history of aquatic beetles, an aggregate group of ca. 20 families with more than 11,000 described species. I focus on the superfamily Hydrophiloidea (the ‘water scavenger’ beetles), one of the few lineages of insects to have diversified in both aquatic and terrestrial environments. I place strong emphasis on 1) descriptive, alpha-level taxonomy through collaborative biodiversity surveys and inventories, and 2) developing robust phylogenetic hypotheses for clades of aquatic beetles utilizing data from varied sources, with a focus on morphological data sets. I am particularly interested in combining ecological data generated through biotic surveys with phylogenetic hypotheses to examine the patterns and prevalence of morphological adaptations associated with various aquatic ways of life and shifts between aquatic and terrestrial habitats. |
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| Phylogeny of the Hydrophilidae
I am particulary interested in development of a total-evidence phylogeny of the Hydrophilidae which incorporates adult, larval, and DNA sequence data. More on my current efforts toward this goal soon.
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| Biotic Surveys and Inventories
Freshwater resources are an integral component of both human and ecosystem health. Surveying the communities of these habitats provide a measure of the health of that system as well providing the raw materials for systematic studies. Surveys in various regions in both the Old and New World tropics show that hydrophilids are routinely 40 to 90% undescribed in these areas. More than 13% (400 species) of the entire world fauna of these beetles has been described in just the last 6 years alone, and shows no sign of leveling off. I place strong emphasis on basic field research and surveys, and serve as either a leading or collaborating investigator in a variety of such inventories. Refer to the Surveys page for more information on a number of these projects.
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| Revision of the Oocyclus-Group: the "Waterfall Beetles"
I am strongly interested in hygropetric habitats (e.g. water on a vertical surface). These habitats are largely unknown in the tropics. Slowly, I have been working to revise the likely-monophyletic "Oocyclus-group" of the Laccobiini, which is comprised of five genera which all live in these vertical rocks seeps, waterfalls, and other similar habitats. The faunas of Central America and Thailand have already been published, with those of Madagascar and Venezuela currently in preparation. In just these four countries alone, more than 40 new species in this genus-group have been found. There are likely more than twice that many new species left to be discovered and described.
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