Auchenorrhyncha New Experts at The Simon Lab

		Chris Simon Principal Investigator Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, The University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT USA chris.simon@uconn.edu PEET Research Chris Simon worked with Jason Cryan and Chris Dietrich to write the Auchenorryncha PEET NSF proposal in 2005. She supervises and coordinates Auchenorrhyncha PEET research at UCONN and recruited all UCONN PEET personnel. In 2006 she assisted Jason Cryan to prepare permits to collect cicadas in Chile and in late January 2006 participated in the field work. CS presented an "Overview of Cicadoidea Phylogeny, Part I" at the 2007 Auchenorhyncha PEET workshop in Albany, NY. Chris also prepared permit applications for collecting insects in all Argentinian provinces and National Parks for the next five years and has been collecting Argentine maps and literature on biogeography and distributions of Argentine insects. Currently, she is planning future field work with the PEET team in other parts of the world. more information...
		John Cooley Subcontract Co-PI Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, The University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT USA magicicada1317@gmail.com PEET Research John Cooley assisted Chris Simon in writing the Auchenorrhyncha PEET NSF proposal in 2005. John also converted the Simon Lab databases to MySQL. He developed a new Python web interfaces, using the Google Maps API to make highly detailed maps of search results. He is currently developing the next generation of search engine for the databases. This will be a progressive search engine (meaning that each choice made along the way will restrict all subsequent choices) that will also form the core of the taxonomic databases (the next major part to add to the website). John has developed new datalogging GPS units for use in the field, and also participated in collecting trips in Australia and New Zealand. He is currently working on several periodical cicada (Magicicada) projects, as well as a taxonomic description of a previously undescribed New Zealand cicada from the northern half of the South Island. more information...
		Max Moulds Subcontract Co-PI The Australian Museum, Sydney, Australia msmoulds@bigpond.net.au PEET Research Max Moulds assisted Chris Simon in writing the Auchenorryncha PEET NSF proposal in 2005. Max is a morphological taxonomist specializing in the systematics of cicadas. Max has hosted PEET collecting trips in Australia and provided training in specimen collecting and morphological examination techniques. The Australian trips have provided additional distribution records, song recordings, tissue samples, and pinned specimens of Pauropsalta as well as valuable outgroup material for this genus. Max is currently reviewing the Australian cicada genera, revising several Australian genera and a new tribe. He is part of a collaborative project to produce an updated bibliography of cicadas, and has recently completed a chapter on insects for a book on the natural history of the Fly River, Papua New Guinea, that includes a small section on cicadas. Max was a member of the organizing committee for "Linnean Tercentenary Conference: a festival of systematics and history" held in Sydney 25-27 June 2007, and he has given three radio interviews on cicadas and spoke to the local Envirocare group about cicadas. He and his wife also hosted a BBQ for the entomological community of northern Queensland in June 2007.
		Allen Sanborn Subcontract Co-PI School of Natural and Health Sciences, Barry University, Miami Shores, FL USA asanborn@mail.barry.edu PEET Research Allen Sanborn assisted Chris Simon in writing the Auchenorryncha PEET NSF proposal in 2005. Allen provided background information on the taxonomy of North and Latin American cicadas. At the 2007 Auchenorhyncha PEET workshop in Albany, NY, he presented an "Overview of Cicadoidea Phylogeny. Part II. Morphological characters important in cicada taxonomy". He assisted Chris Simon in preparation of Argentinian collecting permits, and he is assisting in identifying Latin American material. He will train Geert Goemans in cicada taxonomy, and he helped develop a recruitment and training plan for a Latin American cicada taxonomy trainee. more information...
		Young June Lee Postdoctoral Researcher Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, The University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT USA cicadero@unitel.co.kr PEET Research Young June Lee participates in the PEET project on his own financing. He joined the Simon lab in March 2007 and began to learn extraction, PCR, and sequencing. Working with both dried and frozen specimens, using molecules and morphology, he has begun to: 1) explore the relationships of Asian Cicadetta to other Palearctic Cicadetta, and 2) revise the intra-tribal and intra-subtribal relationships of the genera currently in Cicadini (with Dundubiini). Young June is also preparing a manuscript revising the Korean Cicadidae based on morphology and molecules. He is also currently finalizing a bibliography and synonymic list of the Vietnamese Cicadidae.
		Geert Goemans Ph.D. Researcher Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, The University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT USA ggoemans@gmail.com PEET Research Geert Goemans plans to monograph a genus (to be chosen) of South American cicadas and to produce an interactive key on South American cicadas. He attended the 2007 Auchenorrhyncha PEET workshop in Albany, NY. He has collected in 2007 in Bolivia and he participated in the January 2008 field trip to Argentina, which included participants from all Auchenorrhyncha PEET institutions. He also assisted Chris Simon in the preparation of the Argentinian collecting permits. Geert is currently curating the Neotropical collection and learning molecular techniques.
		Rachel Krauss Undergraduate Researcher Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, The University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT USA rachel.krauss@uconn.edu PEET Research Undergraduate researcher Rachel Krauss began work in the Simon Lab in Fall 2007 by participating in an on-going Simon Lab georeferencing project led by John Cooley to update periodical cicada emergence records/distribution maps that originated in the 19th century. She spent Spring 2008 in New Zealand studying the genetics and management of Kiwis before joining the EEB BS/MS program in Fall 2008. She is currently finishing up a study of the taxonomy, phylogenetics, and biogeography of the Australian cicada genus Gudanga in collaboration with Dave Marshall, Kathy Hill, and Chris Simon. There are estimated to be 9 species of Gudanga based on recent collecting and most of these are described. Gudanga are distributed across arid Australia and the Simon lab has collected most of them. Gudanga are related to the Australian genus Pauropsalta as suggested by morphology and supported by recent molecular studies (Vanderpool, Marshall, Hill and Simon, unpubl). Gudanga species are interesting because they have very subtle (or no) song differences between some of the named species, which are mostly described from hindwing and abdominal color patterns. Some of these are recorded as occurring sympatrically. Rachel used the Automontage photographic system to study morphological characters, and learned extraction, amplification, sequencing, alignment, and analysis of DNA data. Rachel explored genetic variation within and among species and constructed phylogenetic trees for populations and species of Gudanga. She discovered several possible new species based on DNA, song, geographic and morphological data. Rachel presented her work as a poster at the UCONN campuswide "Frontiers in Undergraduate Research Colloquium". After graduating in May 2009, Rachel will take up a 6-month research internship in Hawaii Volcanoes National Park monitoring the effects of invasive species on endemic Hawaiian organisms.

Other participants in this research

		Elizabeth Wade Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, The University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT USA elizabeth.wade@uconn.edu PEET Research Beth Wade is not supported on the PEET Award but she participated in the 2007 PEET workshop where she received training in morphological taxonomic techniques. She is studying gene flow across contact zones in NZ cicada species pairs of differing ages of divergence
		David Marshall Postdoctoral Researcher Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, The University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT USA david.marshall@uconn.edu PEET Research David Marshall is a Postdoc on a different cicada project. He has participated in collecting trips to New Zealand, Australia, and Argentina that have provided materials important to the goals of the Auchenorrhyncha PEET project. He has also trained students in the Simon Lab in methods for analyzing molecular phylogenetic data, and he is working on taxonomic descriptions of New Zealand cicadas. more information...
		Kathy Hill Technician Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, The University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT USA cicada900@yahoo.com.au PEET Research Kathy Hill has trained several lab members in DNA extraction, amplification, and sequencing. She has also participated in collecting trips to New Zealand, Australia, and Argentina that have provided materials for the PEET project. Kathy has also databased specimens collected in the field and is currently photographing specimens to be used in taxonomic publications and on our website. She is working on papers describing several New Zealand species, and re-examining the geographic ranges of many others. In addition, she created a taxomomic database of all cicada species. A preliminary list showing the type species for all genera in the Subfamily Cicadettinae is currently on our website. The complete database will eventually be published on Cicada Central. She is supported by a different NSF award
		Chris Owen Ph.D. Researcher Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, The University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT USA chris.owen@uconn.edu PEET Research Chris Owen is supported by another NSF award but he is working on a morphological and molecular phylogeny of the Australian genus Pauropsalta that will contribute to the PEET goals. more information...

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