Auchenorrhyncha New Experts at The Dietrich Lab


Photo UnavailableChris Dietrich
Principal Investigator
Illinois Natural History Survey, Champaign, IL, USA
chdietri@illinois.edu

PEET Research

Chris Dietrich co-wrote the Auchenorrhyncha PEET proposal and coordinates PEET activities at the Illinois Natural History Survey/University of Illinois focusing on Membracoidea (leafhoppers and treehoppers). He supervises postdoctoral fellow Dmitry Dmitriev, who developed 3I (Internet-accessible Interactive Identification), a software package for creating interactive keys and virtual online taxonomic monographs. Dietrich is working with Ph.D. student Sindhu Krishnankutty on phylogenetic and revisionary studies of the leafhopper tribes Mileewini and Idiocerinae and with M.S. student Therese Catanach on a revision of the New World sharpshooter genus Xyphon. He is collaborating with PhD student Ana Gonalves at the Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro on revisionary and phylogenetic studies of the leafhopper tribe Agalliini. His own current revisionary studies focus on microleafhoppers, subfamily Typhlocybinae.
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Photo UnavailableDmitry Dmitriev
Postdoctoral Researcher
Illinois Natural History Survey, Champaign, IL, USA
dmitriev@inhs.uiuc.edu

PEET Research

Dmitry Dmitriev developed 3I (Internet-accessible Interactive Identification), a software package for creating interactive keys and virtual online taxonomic monographs. He trained students in the Dietrich lab in the use of 3I and led a 3I training session at the 2007 Auchenorrhyncha PEET workshop in Albany. He also participated in the 2008 field trip to Argentina. His current revisionary studies focus on the microleafhopper tribe Erythroneurini.
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Photo UnavailableSindhu Krishnankutty
Ph.D. Researcher
University of Illinois
sindhu@inhs.uiuc.edu

PEET Research

Sindhu (Suni) Krishnankutty, a native of Kerala, India, is working on a PhD in entomology in the Dietrich lab with partial support from the PEET grant. Her revisionary study focuses on the endemic Malagasy idiocerine leafhopper genus Nesocerus. She is also conducting morphology- and DNA-sequence based phylogenetic analyses of the tribes Mileewini and Idiocerinae with emphasis on the fauna of Madagascar.



Photo UnavailableTherese Catanach
M.Sc. Researcher
Texas A&M UNiversity, College Station TX
tacatanach@tamu.edu

PEET Research

Therese Catanach is working under PI Dietrich’s supervision on a revision and phylogenetic analysis of the New World sharpshooter genus Xyphon, which includes some of the most common and abundant leafhoppers in temperate and subtropical grasslands. She participated in the Albany PEET workshop and the 2008 field trip to Argentina.






Funding for this website and research described herein was provided by the National Science Foundation (NSF) grant 05-29679 (PEET). Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.


© 2008