Ecology and Evolution of Lepidopteran Diversity
Sibyl Rae Bucheli, Visiting Assistant Professor

My research focuses on moths and butterflies as exceptional models within insects for investigating the evolutionary significance of immature life stages. Larval moths and butterflies are significant in their impact on plants, constituting probably the largest lineage of phytophagous insects, and serve as important sources of food for parasitic insects, predatory arthropods, birds, lizards and small mammals. As a researcher of entomology, one of my main goals is to understand the evolution of the basal or “micro” lineages of Lepidoptera. Microlepidoptera are generally small, short-lived and inconspicuous animals, historically overlooked by entomologists. However, these basal lineages represent a major portion of the lepidopteran diversity; at least 50% of the known diversity is derived from the basal microlepidopteran lineages. My research and future REU project will focuses on the systematics of the superfamily Gelechioidea. To date, no comprehensive phylogenetic treatment of the order is available. REU students will aid in helping me work towards a global understanding of this large and poorly known group. Projects will include descriptive and revisional taxonomic study, the use of behavioral and ecological data, and modern morphological and molecular systematics. Such work will establish baseline knowledge of the diversity of microlepidoptera, but with the idea that these data can be implemented to answer additional questions of distribution and host-plant association, and also operate as gauges of regenerated areas.

For more information on this REU opportunity, please e-mail Dr. Bucheli at bucheli@shsu.edu.