Students and visiting researchers

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Students, volunteers and visiting researchers

Click here for information about volunteering or doing research at the McGuire Center for Lepidoptera, FLMNH.

Current

Jane Blanchard
Jane is curating the neotropical Dismorphiinae (Pieridae).

Jenny Carr, UF
Jenny is databasing neotropical Dismorphiinae and helping with curation of other neotropical Pieridae.

Julia Robinson Willmott
Julia is sequencing DNA from Ecuadorian butterfly legs to help decide the status of several problematic taxa, including Dismorphia and Adelpha.

Fernanda Checa, UF
Fernanda is pursuing a Masters degree at the Entomology and Nematology Department. She is investigating spatial and temporal patterns in abundance of Ecuadorian butterfy species and community structure and examining the influence of climate and ecology. Her field work involves monthly standardized sampling of several sites in lowland western Ecuador over a 1-year period using bait traps.

Elena Ortiz, UF
Elena just started a Masters degree in the Entomology and Nematology Department. She is planning to work on the systematics of neotropical Charaxinae, hopefully selecting a project from among the Anaeini or Prepona, and is curating both of these groups at the McGuire Center.

Geoff Gallice, UF
Geoff also just started a Masters degree in the Entomology and Nematology Department. He is especially interested in the ecology and biogeography of neotropical butterflies, and is currently working in our collections to curate Ithomiinae.

Lei Xiao
Lei is extracting and amplifying DNA from dried butterfly legs to help resolve systematic problems in Ecuadorian butterflies.

Ian Segebarth, UF
Ian and I just received an REU (Research Experiences for Undergraduates) for him to revise the systematics of a complex group of species in the Andean genus Leptophobia. He will be doing field work in Ecuador this year to try to collect specimens of a couple of rare and problematic taxa, and will then be using a combination of molecular and morphological characters to try to resolve the taxonomy. He is also working in Adobe Photoshop to prepare images for publication in our series of books on the butterflies of Ecuador.

Photo soon...

Sebastián Padrón, UF
Sebastián is pursuing a Masters degree at the Entomology and Nematology Department. He is working on the systematics, evolution and biogeography of high elevation Andean satyrines that inhabit the narrow ecotone between cloud forest and the paramo grasslands, particularly the genera Altopedaliodes and Neopedaliodes. In addition to a systematic revision of Altopedaliodes, he is also planning to use environmental niche modeling techniques to examine the impacts of climate change on individual species, and thus make conservation recommendations.

Natasha Wright
Natasha is helping to curate the Ulf Eitschberger collection of Lepidoptera, preparing specimens and sorting material for incorporation into our main collections.

Past

Nina Zagvazdina, 2009. Curating neotropical nymphalid genus Actinote.
Jackie Tseng, 2009. Curating neotropical papilionid genus Heraclides.
Ellen Walker, 2009. Databasing and curating Catasticta and Leptophobia.
Neil Rosser, 2009. Curating and databasing Heliconius and related genera to look at geographical patterns of speciation. Neil is a PhD student at University College London (UCL).
Lauren Johnston, 2008. Curating and databasing neotropical Papilionidae.
Judi Muscle, 2008. Databasing specimen data from papered Ecuadorian butterflies collected over the last couple of years.
Stephanie Borrios, 2008. Databasing of specimen records for Dismorphiinae.
Morgan Edwards, 2008. Ecological niche modelling for Andean butterflies to assess IUCN threat status.
Glaucia Marconato, Universidade de Sao Paulo, 2007. Visiting scholar conducting research on a phylogeny of the Charaxinae based on morphological characters.
Sam Landrian, UF, 2007. Databasing specimen locality information for Heliconius butterflies from the donated collection of Walter Neukirchen.
Isis Jaimez, 2007. Curation Pronophilina, a diverse and complex group of montane neotropical satyrines.
Kevin Carty, UF, 2006. Databasing of literature records for Biblidinae and curation of Ithomiinae.
Lyndall Brezina, UF, 2006. Databasing of Ithomiinae specimens.
Shelly Flanagin, UF, 2006-2007. Curation of Papilionidae, databasing literature records.
Jimmy Nguyen, UF, ZOO 4905 Individual Studies. Curation and databasing of Dismorphia, Scada and Aeria, and study of relative abundance of putative mimics and models in a classic Batesian mimicry system.
Ian Segebarth, 2006-2007. Curation, identification and databasing of Ecuadorian butterflies.