A Sailboat!
After considerable effort, I have secured a sailboat to sample arachnids in the Lesser Antilles! Captain Roger, his firstmate XO the Wonder Cat, and their ship Reboot have graciously agreed to join us on a spider adventure. We will depart from St. Martin in January, island hopping south to Grenada, and then? A flurry of … Read more
News on the Genomic Front
In exciting news on progress with genomic projects I am working on: We now have assembled ‘venomes’ (venom transcriptomes) for two species of Centruroides. Guillaume Vandenesch from Agro Paris Tech will be analyzing the transcriptome data, looking for venom gene families. The Centruroides genome has been sequenced and is beginning to be assembled at Baylor’s … Read more
Better Late than Never
I am long overdue for an update, but better late than never. In the months that have passed, I have participated in two expeditions, made two visits to the Smithsonian LAB, and attended the European Congress of Arachnology. Expeditions: Cuba was a great success. We visited four sites across the island, collected thousands of samples, … Read more
Essig Brunch
I will be giving a seminar on the Biogeography of Caribbean Scorpions this friday from 10-11 at the Essig Brunch Seminar Series. It’s open to all and refreshments will be served. UC Berkeley, 1101 VLSB
Cuba!
After nearly 7 years of strategizing on how to get to Cuba, it seems I just might make it. Ingi Agnarrson and Greta Binford have been organizing an arachnid collecting expedition mid-March to mid-April. The permits have been submitted, the travel agency contacted, the US Dept of Treasury permits are in the pipeline! For now … Read more
First Project Expedition
The first major expedition of the Caribbean Biogeography project was a tremendous success! Collaborators included undergraduate students from the University of Puerto Rico and Lewis & Clark College, graduate students from the University of Puerto Rico, PIs Ingi Agnarsson and Greta Binford, and additional collaborators from STENAPA and the American Museum of Natural History. The … Read more
Scorpion Systematics and Biogeography
In 2010 I was the recipient of a National Science Foundation Post-doctoral Fellowship in Biology to investigate the Biogeography of Scorpions in the Caribbean. I have now begun this research under the supervision of Dr. Rosemary Gillespie at the University of California at Berkeley. I am also a collaborator on a NSF-funded project investigating the … Read more
