Farrell Lab @ Harvard University

Patrick Gorring

Research Interests

Prior to my enrollment at Harvard I gained a wide variety of skills and background across the life sciences. After an immersion in entomology as an undergraduate, research in allometry and morphometrics with spiders, and museum work the world of systematics beckoned. The thought of using phylogenetics to assist in answering larger questions linked to why current relationships between species exist brought me to the Farrell Laboratory.

As a part of the Farrell Llab, my interests are grounded in beetle systematics. The beetle group that I am currently working with is the Cerambycidae (longhorn beetles), a purely phytophagous family that uses parts of both living and dead plants as larval hosts. After collecting fresh material, I plan to build phylogenies utilizing information from morphology, multiple genetic loci and ecological traits. I will explore ecological and evolutionary questions pertaining to the influence the relationship between beetle and host ultimately has on ecology, adaptation and speciation. I also have interest in population based study including phylogeography and species trees. My hope is that combining knowledge from multiple areas of science with phylogenetics can provide firm, evidence based, answers.

I welcome any requests for longhorn beetle identification and also accept specimens as contributions to my ongoing research.