Graduate Research Assistant
What a difference a class can make. I majored in pre-med biology at the University of New Orleans in hopes of becoming a pediatrician. My future plans changed once I became a senior and took an Entomology class with Dr. Jerry Howard. Although I had no previous experience or interest, I actually enjoyed collecting and identifying insects. I later worked in Dr. Howard’s lab curating the insect collection and increasing my taxonomic skills. Through his arrangements, I began a summer internship at the Louisiana State Arthropod Museum after my graduation in 2002.
In fall 2003 I became a Graduate Assistant. My masters project focuses on beetle succession in south Louisiana. The objectives of the study are to observe and record the arrival sequence of beetle species that inhabit and feed on felled and severed loblolly pine and southern red oak trees reassembled into standing trunks, to compare beetle species present between tree species, and to compare beetle species succession on standing trunks between early fall and mid spring treatment dates. Phase I sampling with the cut date in early fall spanned one full year from fall 2004 –fall 2005. The trees felled for Phase II of the study with the mid-spring cut date were sampled for 6 months to provide comparative spring data. Over 5,000 samples were collected from the Feliciana Preserve field site and are now being processed for specimen counts and species identifications. Families represented thus far include Curculionidae (including subfamilies Scolytinae, Cossoninae, and Platypodinae), Staphylinidae, Histeridae, Nitidulidae, Zopheridae, Anthribidae, Cerambycidae, Biphyllidae, Laemophloeidae, Silvanidae, Carabidae, Monotomidae, Leiodidae, Corylophidae, Elateridae, Endomychidae, Tetratomidae, Melandryidae, Tenebrionidae, Mycetophagidae, Cerylonidae, and Cucujidae.