April 2013, Issue 7
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mcguire center news A newsletter of the McGuire Center for Lepidoptera and Biodiversity n Florida Museum of Natural History n APRIL 2013 FROM THE EDITOR: Andrei Sourakov _______________________________ IN THIS ISSUE: n Impact Stories n Staff News n Student News IMPACT n Publications Nearly a decade ago, the McGuire Center for 100,000 visitors a year. The exhibit has a continuous Lepidoptera and Biodiversity was built on the UF population of up to 1,500 butterflies from 60-80 campus. It seems that only yesterday we were putting species at any given time, with more than 150 species the final touches on the “Wall of Wings” in anticipation from four continents displayed since it opened. The of the “official” opening in August 2004. By that butterflies are accompanied by a variety of birds, from evening, the titanic labor of moving the collections small finches to large toucanettes. into their new home was nearly finished, but much More than 50 staff, students and technicians now work remained in merging dozens of separate work at the Center, accompanied by many volunteers Ornithoptera victoria, Solomon Islands collections into a single, coherent system, organized from the ranks of UF students and local community taxonomically. The approximately 25,000 drawers of members. Research at the Center has led to more Lepidoptera that we moved carefully from the Allyn than 400 scientific Lepidoptera publications, and Museum of Entomology in Sarasota, Florida State our staff currently produces three scientific journals: Collection of Arthropods and the University of Florida Allyn Bulletin of Entomology, Tropical Lepidoptera were now housed under one roof. The vastness of new Research and Lepidoptera Novae. Many more valuable rooms designed to house three times as many drawers contributions to science have occurred as a result of promised at least 50 years of growth unhindered by the visiting researchers from around the world utilizing lack of space. That day, only native Florida butterflies the collections. We are currently planning the 2013 were flying in the Butterfly Rainforest, and there were annual meeting of the 2,000-member international only a dozen staff and students working at the center, Lepidopterists’ Society. The 2006 meeting held in with the lab spaces viewed from the public area of the Catasticta chelidonis, Ecuador Gainesville attracted more than 200 people from every Museum mostly unstaffed. state and 20 countries, and attendance is expected to Today, one can hardly find room in the collection increase for this year’s meeting. The Center has trained compactors on any of the three floors of the Center. many students who graduated with their Master’s or All that space that looked so empty and vast in 2004 Doctorate degree and are now employed as professors, has been filled with incoming collections. Hundreds educators or applied scientists around the world, from of amateur and professional lepidopterists chose the China to the Caribbean. McGuire Center as the facility where their labor of This newsletter highlights the McGuire Center’s love and, frequently, their life’s work, would be stored worldwide impact. In today’s economic environment in perpetuity and used by the researchers. Recently, and the increasing challenge in obtaining public thanks to external funding, 21,000 new drawers have funding, I hope readers will find the six articles on been purchased for curation to accommodate this these pages convincing evidence of the difference the growth. McGuire Center has made to academic and public One of the most popular museum exhibits in audiences. Florida, the Butterfly Rainforest has seen more than Callicore excelsior pastazza, Ecuador MCGUIRE CENTER NEWS Scientists work to overcome challenges ISSN # 1938-3029 of South American butterfly research Editor: Andrei Sourakov Keith Willmott, Associate Curator _________________________________________________ email: [email protected] Copy Editor: Paul Ramey Training the next generation of South American Neotropical butterflies. These students include Graphic Designers: butterfly experts is a vital step in building the Christian Salcedo and Mirian Hay-Roe, who Andreina Hornez Peralta & Hollis Wooley capacity for research on this diverse insect group in work on Heliconius biology; Jonathan Saunders, South American countries, which have the Earth’s Delano Lewis, Elena Ortíz and Sebastián Padrón, Photography: Andreas Bergmann greatest number of butterfly species. I have been studying the evolution and classification of Alexandr Chuvilin Jaret Daniels Geoffrey Gallice Lary Reeves studying the tropical American (Neotropical) fauna Riodinidae, Heraclides, Catasticta and Preponini Andrei Sourakov Thomas Emmel for more than 20 years and every expedition brings butterflies, respectively; María Checa, who has Court Whelan Pablo Sebastián Padrón new discoveries. Nevertheless, the manpower been exploring seasonality in equatorial forest Keith Willmott needed to gain an adequate understanding of the butterflies; and Geoff Gallice, who examines the McGuire Center Staff distribution and biology of this region’s butterflies relationship between butterfly abundance and Badon, Jade, Graduate Assistant in the face of ongoing habitat loss and climate their distribution. National Science Foundation Barszczak, Lukasz, Technical Research Assistant change is severely limited. An important part of Research Experiences for Undergraduates grants Bliss, Andrew, Technical Research Assistant the solution to this problem is developing strong have enabled the McGuire Center to involve Breinholt, Jesse, Postdoc Checa, Maria Fernanda, Graduate Assistant research bases in Neotropical countries. undergraduate students, including Ian Segebarth, Derick Crespo and Kirsten Verster, in small projects Chickoree, Christopher, Technical Research Assistant Mention the word biodiversity and many people Colburn, Jonathan, Technical Research Assistant focusing on the evolution and classification of immediately think of the Amazon basin. While Covell, Charles V., Curator of Lepidoptera particularly complicated butterfly groups. Daniels, Jaret C., Assistant Curator & Amazon communities are highly diverse, the Assistant Director of Education eastern slopes of the Andes Mountains contain the In addition to training students, another Doyle, Jonathan, Technical Research Assistant world’s richest faunas per unit area. The Andes important task has been to make information Eliazar, Christine M., Program Assistant Mountains stretch more than 5,000 miles from on butterfly taxonomy and distribution broadly Emmel, Thomas C., Director Gallice, Geoffrey, Graduate Assistant Venezuela to Argentina, with species replacing available to South American scientists as a Harris, Karina, Technical Research Assistant one another across different elevations and valleys. foundation for future research. The Tropical Hay-Roe, Mirian Medina, Research Associate Mapping the complex butterfly distributions and Andean Butterfly Diversity Project compiled Hayden, James, FSCA Curator of Lepidoptera, understanding the origins of butterfly diversity distribution data from more than 170,000 butterfly Immature Collection in these often remote and poorly explored specimens in museums and digitized a nearly Heppner, John B., Curator of Lepidoptera Houlihan, Peter, Technical Research Assistant mountains is a major challenge requiring a large- complete collection of print photographs of Huber, Stacey, Technical Research Assistant scale collaborative approach. To confront this Neotropical butterfly “type” specimens compiled Jia, Qianju, Graduate Assistant challenge, several colleagues and I formed the by Gerardo Lamas in Lima. These images are Kawahara, Akito Y., Assistant Curator of Lepidoptera Tropical Andean Butterfly Diversity Project funded now available online through a collaboration Koi, Sandy, Graduate Assistant by the United Kingdom’s Darwin Initiative, to help with the Butterflies of America project, www. Lane, Katrina, Technical Research Assistant Lopez, Davys, Technical Research Assistant unite scientists, institutions and organizations butterfliesofamerica.com, as a vital identification Lott, Deborah Matthews, Biological Scientist researching butterflies of the tropical Andes. resource. During a workshop and conference Lukhtanov, Vladimir, Visiting Scientist & Curator During 2006-2007, the project conducted eight on tropical Andean butterflies in Urubamba, Miller, Jacqueline Y., Curator of Lepidoptera one-week training courses in Bolivia, Colombia, Peru, which brought together 120 people from Norell, Tatum, Technical Research Assistant Ecuador, Peru and Venezuela with 180 students, 12 countries, project members began using Ortíz, Elena, Graduate Assistant Padrón, Pablo Sebastián, Graduate Assistant some of whom are now enrolled as graduate distribution data to identify research and Park, K.T., Research Associate & Visiting Curator students in various institutions, including UF. conservation priority areas in the tropical Andes. Pence, J. Akers, Research Associate We hope future fieldwork will target these areas to The McGuire Center has had a particularly Ponce, Francesca, Technical Research Assistant improve knowledge of their faunas and enhance strong program in graduate research on South Reeves, Lary, Graduate Student host country collections. Romero, Cassandra, Technical Research Assistant American butterflies, housing a number of Rossetti, Kristin, Technical Research Assistant South American and U.S. students studying Sanchez, Stephanie,