David Maddison Lab Home Page

This page gives information on the people associated with David Maddison's lab, including post docs, grad students, and undergrads who work in my lab.

From sunny Arizona!

"We're nature nuts, and we hope you are too."

Here is a list of the people currently associated with the lab:

Graduate Students

Others

Carl Olson; Katja Schulz

See also the page on former graduate students and post-docs.

David Maddison

Associate Professor of Entomology and Curator of the Insect Collection.

My research focuses on the evolution of beetles, and developing methods of phylogenetic analysis, as well as the Tree of Life project. I have concentrated on the systematics and evolution of adult and larval structure, and chromosomes, of ground beetles (Carabidae). I am now looking at the phylogeny of carabid beetles, using DNA sequence data as well as morphological characters. I am interested in phylogeny of the family as a whole, as well as various levels down to individual species of my favorite group, Bembidion. One expression of this work in phylogenetic methodology is the computer program MacClade and the modular system Mesquite. Another large project is the Tree of Life, a collaborative effort to provide and electronic and annotated phylogeny of all living things.

Wendy Moore

PhD Student

My research interests are in evolutionary biology, phylogenetics, systematics and biogeography, particularly of invertebrates, and especially insects. My Ph.D. dissertation project is focused on the carabid subfamily Paussinae. The paussines are one of the two carabid lineages known as "bombardier beetles," due to their ability to synthesize and expel powerful defensive chemicals at ~100°C. This subfamily comprises four tribes: Metriini, Ozaenini, Paussini and Protopaussini. The tribe Ozaenini are free-living predators on arthropods. Members of the tribe Paussini are all myrmecophiles, obligate guests of ants, and they have evolved remarkable morphological adaptations to live with these social insects. These myrmecophiles are so unique that they were once classified as a separate family. Another tribe of Paussinae, the Protopaussini, are also assumed to be myrmecophiles but the life history of this group is not well known. One goal of my dissertation research is to infer the relationships of the ozaenine genera to determine which are most closely related to the Paussini and the Protopaussini. Another goal of my project is to determine the sister group of the subfamily Paussinae among the Carabidae. I am addressing these questions with both morphological and molecular sequence data.

Jeffrey Oliver

PhD Student

I am interested in the evolution of phytophagous insects, particularly effects of host-range on insect population genetics and phylogeography. My empirical work focuses mostly on members of the Lycaenidae, or gossamer-winged butterflies. I am working on two intrageneric phylogenies (in the genera Everes and Lycaena), as well as intraspecific gene flow within a pair of Lycaena species. Additionally, I am investigating the host use patterns within each of these genera to determine the effects of novel host plants on population genetics of phytophagous insects. I am also interested in methods of hypothesis testing in phylogeography. I am currently evaluating popular methods of phylogeographic hypothesis testing by simulating data and assessing the validity of methods’ inferences.

Chris Schmidt

PhD Student

My research interests are broadly centered on parasite evolution and ecology and their role in shaping patterns of biodiversity, as well as the evolution and ecology of social insects (particularly ants), systematics, and phylogenetics. Parasites are an understudied and diverse component of all natural ecosystems, whose ecological and evolutionary importance is just beginning to be realized. Likewise, social insects are an ecologically important component of most terrestrial ecosystems; their diverse and complex social systems have made them excellent model systems for many topics in evolutionary biology. My interests basically overlap the study of these two groups. I am still formulating a research program, but I hope to study parasites as possible selective forces for social evolution in ants, using lab- and field-based studies of parasite dynamics in ant colonies and populations, and phylogenetic analyses of parasitism and host social and genetic structure. I also hope to do revisionary systematic work on a group of ants. I am currently in the early stages of developing a comprehensive, searchable database of parasites associated with social insects, which will be hosted from my website, ponerine.org.

Carl Olson

Associate Curator of the Insect Collection.

I am the Associate Curator of the Insect Collection, one of many titles I have served under for the past 21 years here at UA. My work focuses on the faunal survey of Arizona and the Southwest. I am the urban IPM specialist for the southern part of Arizona, working with a variety of insects including the Giant Palm Borer, various cockroaches and dermestid beetles to spider beetles and other fun creatures that bother urbanites, trying to work out management practices that will satisfy the public and remove the typical paranoia that people experience with bugs. My office tends to be the first line of news involving introduced insects that will affect the public, including the findings of Aedes aegypti and Ixodes pacificus in recent years. All these experiences helped in the writing of a recent book with Dr. Floyd Werner entitled 'Learning about and living with Insects of the Southwest.'

Katja Schulz

Tree of Life Managing Editor and Technical Assistant

After finishing my dissertation on the evolution of mating systems in dung flies, I was happy to leave behind the bench & pasture for a less fragrant career in science publishing. I now enjoy the variety of tasks involved in managing the Tree of Life project. My favorite thing is to learn about organisms while working with authors on their pages. But I also enjoy the technical part of my job, especially when it involves the development of new features that will make the Tree of Life a better resource for students and researchers.