Current Lab Members
Terry McGlynn, Associate Professor of Biology
Terry mostly works on questions involving the ecology of tropical ants.
Hannah Larson, Graduate student
Hannah is learning how environment and diet predict their microbial symbioses of the bullet ant Paraponera clavata
Valerie Neino , Graduate student
Valerie is new to the lab, comes from UC Irvine, and is here to study the ecology of ants!
Elizabeth Hall, Undergraduate
Beth's heart is in the ocean, though she is also figuring out how and why intraspecific thievery is happening in Ectatomma ruidum. Her work is conducted collaboratively with Jenny Jandt at U of A.
Cynthia Riggall, Undergraduate
Cynthia is working to understand how forest structure reflects community composition and functional roles of ants. She also is conducting work on mammalian digestive parasites.
Peter Tellez , Undergraduate
Peter is conducting research on the thermal properties of ants, and is working collaboratively with Magda Sorger in the Dunn lab at NCSU.
Some alumni
Ching-Yu Huang, Postdoc (2009)Ching-Yu is currently on a postdoc at UC Santa Cruz.
Justin Betzelberger, RET participant (2008)
Justin is a biology teacher at East Valley High School in Van Nuys. He worked on the trophic structure of leaf litter, collecting samples for stable isotope analysis. This means picking out lots and lots of mites and springtails.
Stefanie Mattingly, undergraduate (2007-2009)
As her day job, Stefanie is a master of all thing cnidarian, and this summer she investigated cues for defensive behavior of ants experiencing army ant raids. You can read about what thought about La Selva in the summer of 2008.
Evan Poirson, undergraduate (2007-2009)
Evan spend his second field season in Costa Rica to investigate how litter decomposition responds to nutrient and faunal gradients in the rainforest. He presented this work at the International Congress of Entomology in Durban, South Africa, and is has sorted out how ants influence the decomposition of leaf litter. He is currently serving in the Peace Corps.
Some past field crews
La Selva Crew Summer 2009:
Left to Right: Thuy-Tien Hoang, Terry McGlynn, Toyin Dunn, Ching-Yu Huang, Ellen Wayman, Kim Hoffmann
La Selva Crew January 2009:
Top: Brandi Douglas, Stefanie Mattingly, Melinda Weaver, Alvaro Cervantes, Felicia Burt, Graciela Bravo; Bottom: Terry McGlynn, Tyler Stuart (of Occidental College)