Farrell Lab @ Harvard University Entomology

News: Fulbright

bioblitz shield Prof. Farrell is spending one year at Universidad Autónoma de Santo Domingo (UASD) in the Dominican Republic as a Fulbright Scholar.

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Current research

News picture Current research extends the evolution of insect-plant interactions to other trophic levels through a broad collaboration in the beetle Tree of Life project.

A new research dimension in the lab concerns the acoustic signals produced for mating and territory defense. More

News & Press: 2012

	Prof. Scott Shaw visits The Farrell Lab is pleased to welcome Prof. Scott Shaw of the University of Wyoming to the lab for a short stay. An MCZ Associate, Prof. Shaw is spending time here in October primarily examining the MCZ's fossil insect collection. He has also generously offered lab members a lecture about his research on caterpillars and parasitoids of Ecuador.
Photo courtesy of Prof. Scott Shaw	Anu Veijalainen joins the lab The Farrell Lab is pleased to welcome Anu Veijalainen of the University of Turku, Finland, to the lab this year. Anu is spending time at the MCZ as a postdoctoral fellow. While here, her primary aim is to describe a number of new ichneumonid species that she found during her doctoral studies, and to study how these species are distributed in space and time.
	Expanded collaboration with UASD While in the Dominican Republic, Prof. Farrell helped to inaugurate a new phase of the Harvard-UASD joint digital imaging program, which is inventorying insects in the DR's National Botanical Garden. Read more about the ongoing collaboration between Harvard and the UASD (Universidad Autónoma de Santo Domingo) Listin Diario El Dio Diario Libre (with video) Diario Libre: Harvard Entomology research at the UASD (Spanish)
	Prof. Farrell a 2011-12 Fulbright Scholar Prof. Farrell will be spending one year at Universidad Autónoma de Santo Domingo (UASD) in the Dominican Republic as a Fulbright Scholar. Read more from The Harvard Crimson

News & Press: 2011
	Adam Clark wins Hoopes Prize! On Friday, May 6, undergraduate Adam Clark won the Hoopes Prize for his paper "Ant communities of the Boston Harbor Islands National Recreation Area."

	Lab alumnus Bruce Archibald finds fossil of the world's biggest ant Published May 4 in Proceedings of the Royal Society B Also read about it online at the BBC, ScienceNews, Discover, or Wired

	Lab alumnus Chris Smith getting press for Joshua Tree-Yucca moth coevolution Listen on KNPR Read about it and view photos of the research process in the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

	May 2, 2011: Second annual Harvard University Campus BioBlitz! What is a BioBlitz? Over 24 hours, the total plant and animal life of the area will be cataloged to the best of our ability and recorded in a public database hosted by the Encyclopedia of Life (EOL). Over time, the HUCBB will provide an invaluable record of the changes in diversity over time, and the types of species present on campus. When will this happen? The BioBlitz will begin at midnight on Sunday, May 1st and continue through midnight on Monday, May 2nd. Volunteers will lead taxa-specific sampling expeditions across the campus, cataloguing plant, insect, bird, etc. life. Samples will be identified in the field or sorted under microscopes. How do I participate? Show up at any point over the 24 hours, either at our sampling location or at the coordinating center at the MCZ Labs. Student experts will lead guided nature walks for each trip, provide collecting equipment, and help with specimen identification. See which trips you are interested in – we’ll be leading them all day! Interested? View our flyer [PDF] or visit our blog!

News & Press: 2010
Public release date 20-Jul-2010	Temperature constancy appears key to tropical biodiversity New paper answers longstanding scientific question about cause of tropics' stunning biodiversity CAMBRIDGE, Mass., July 20, 2010 -- The tropics owe their stunning biodiversity to consistent year-round temperatures, not higher temperatures or more sunlight, according to a novel survey of insect diversity at different latitudes and at different points in the planet's history. The finding, presented this week in the journal Paleobiology by researchers from Harvard University, Simon Fraser University, and Brandon University, may finally answer a question that has dogged scientists for centuries... ### ...Farrell and Archibald's co-authors on the Paleobiology paper are William H. Bossert of Harvard's School of Engineering and Applied Sciences and David R. Greenwood of Brandon University. The work was funded by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, Harvard's Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology and Museum of Comparative Zoology, and the Maurice Pechet Foundation. Full press release Full Paleobiology article Harvard Gazette article