Current Projects

Fluttering above the forest line: Flower-settling moths of the Colombian páramos

Is moth pollination a tropical high-altitude phenomenon? For my doctoral thesis, I am advancing my research on flower-settling moths to encompass the ecological evolutionary history of moths. This has led me to the highest points of the Andes in the northern Andean páramo of Colombia, where I hypothesize settling moths to play a key role in the pollinator community. I aim to reveal how altitude, and associated environmental factors, influence moth diversity, community assembly and their role as flower visitors or pollinators along a tropical Andean cline, particularly above the forest line (i.e. páramo). Overall, this study will offer a more thorough understanding of the ecology and evolutionary history of high-altitude moths. Furthermore, this study will have great conservation implications for the long-term structure and resilience of páramo moth communities, and resulting pollination services, in a changing climate.

With the support of The Philosophical Society, Lewis and Clark Fund, and collaborators at the Universidad de los Andes, Bogotá CO, Grupo de Palinología y Paleoecología Tropical, and Instituto Humboldt, I am conducting a community phylogenetic study of flower-visiting moths along a gradient from high Andean cloud forest to the open páramos at Santuario Iguaque, in Villa del Leyve, Colombia. Field expeditions were completed in March and July 2019. Stay tuned for notes and updates on the project!

Moths of Puerto Rico

Beginning in 2012, with partial support of colleagues at the Florida Museum of Natural History, McGuire Center for Lepidoptera and Biodiversity, I began a biodiversity inventory of moths from our backyard in Coamo, Puerto Rico. Since 2015, with support from folks at the UPRRP Natural History Collections (Director, Dr. James Ackerman) and El Verde Research Station (Director REU, Dr. Alonso Ramirez), this survey has expanded to other localities including the Luquillo Mountains and Aibonito, PR (Special thanks to Laura Morcilio!!). With the collaboration of REU research interns, Nicole Martinez-Llaurador's (2016), and Elena Hukulak (2017), we are looking into patterns of moth diversity and community composition in the El Yunque Rainforest, Luquillo Mts. The resulting reference collection of PR Moths has been sorted, identified and databased with the hard work and enthusiasm of UPR student curators: Samary Andrea Gomez, Wilmarilys Ramos, Maureen Canario, Ginamaria Ramon, Janice Delgado, Alejandra Rodriguez, Celimar Rodriguez, Bianca Arzuaga, Samary Arévalo Castro. Publications in prep!