Stories by Joe Parker and Taro Eldredge

Joe Parker is a research fellow in the Department of Genetics and Development, Columbia University, NY. From Swansea, UK, he's a life-long coleopterist who became fascinated with Pselaphinae as a teenager. Their diverse sizes and shapes, in particular the myrmecophilous species, inspired him to study the genetic mechanisms controlling insect morphology. He obtained a PhD from the University of Cambridge on how the dimensions of insect body segments are determined, and continues to work on problems of growth, size and scaling in insects. Simultaneously, he has worked to build a comprehensive DNA-based phylogeny of Pselaphinae, and has a crowdfunding project at petridish.org, to help him finish this work. He is interested in developing model organisms and tools to study myrmecophily at the molecular genetic level. Follow @Pselaphinae on twitter and check out the Pselaphinae facebook page.
Taro Eldredge is a PhD candidate in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, at the University of Kansas. Originally from Tokyo, Japan, he's an evolutionary biologist whose work focuses on aleocharine rove beetles, with a particular fondness for myrmecophilous and termitophilous groups. His PhD work is focused on resolving the evolutionary history of the most primitive members of the Aleocharinae: the tribe Gymnusini. For this project, he will be incorporating various sources of data, including fossils, to understand the role of past climate change on current Gymnusini diversity. He hopes that understanding basal aleocharine relationships will prepare a future in myrmecophilous and termitophilous aleocharine research. Check out his blog and website for all things myrmecoid.