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SI Entomology Staff

Maria Lourdes Chamorro-Lacayo, SI Postdoctoral Fellow

Phone: 202-633-1020 (office) Fax: 202-786-2894 E-mail Address:chamorrom@si.edu USPS Address: Smithsonian Institution PO Box 37012, MRC 187 Washington, DC 20013-7012 Shipping Address: Smithsonian Institution National Museum of Natural History 10th & Constitution NW Washington, DC 20560-0187 Education: PhD University of Minnesota BA Ohio State University

Research Interests:

• Diversity, comparative morphology, and systematics of Chrysomelidae, especially Cryptocephalinae (Coleoptera)

• Trichoptera systematics and phylogenetics (specific focus on the World Polycentropodidae subfamilies and genera)

  My general research interests are in insect taxonomy and phylogenetics.  I am working with Terry Erwin on the Ecuador Canopy Biodiversity Project. My current project is directed at uncovering the interplay between generalist flowers (flowers with many small insect visitors) and flower feeding herbivorous insects. Using flower feeding cryptocephaline leaf beetles as a model, I hope to determine patterns of host preference and test whether there have been significant host-shifts in those preferences. I am revising the taxonomy and inferring the phylogeny of Stegnocephala Baly, a genus of cryptocephaline leaf beetles, using adult morphology and molecular data, as a pilot group to test for patterns of host specializations and shifts. Simultaneously I hope to resolve a major source of taxonomic confusion within the Cryptocephalini by understanding the higher level relationships within the tribe. Host-tree associations will be inferred using Erwin’s canopy tree data using Geographic Information System (GIS) to map patterns of spatial distribution and host associations on Ecuador plots.
  
  My dissertation included a taxonomic revision of New World Polyplectropus (92 species) and phylogeny of World subfamilies and genera of Polycentropodidae (Trichoptera) (manuscripts in prep).

Selected Publications:

Konstantinov, A.S., M.L. Chamorro-Lacayo, and V.P. Savini. 2009. A New Genus of Moss-Inhabiting Flea Beetles (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae) from Nicaragua. The Coleopterists Bulletin, 63(1): 1-12.

Chamorro-Lacayo, M.L. and A.S. Konstantinov. 2009. Synopsis of warty leaf beetle genera of the World (Coleoptera, Chrysomelidae, Cryptocephalinae, Chlamisini). ZooKeys 8: 63-88.

Chaboo, C.S., M.S. Engel, and M.L. Chamorro-Lacayo. 2009. Maternally inherited architecture in tertiary leaf beetles: paleoichnology of crypto- cephaline fecal cases in Dominican and Baltic amber. Naturwissenschaften DOI 10.1007/s00114-009-0573-2

Chamorro-Lacayo, J.M. Maes, R.W. Holzenthal, and R.J. Blahnik. 2008. Updated Checklist of the Trichoptera of Nicaragua. In Proceedings of the XII International Symposium on Trichoptera. Bueno-Soria, J., R. Barba, and B. Armitage (Eds). Caddis Press.

Konstantinov, A. S., and M. L. Chamorro-Lacayo. 2006. A New Genus of Moss-Inhabiting Flea Beetles (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae) from the Dominican Republic. The Coleopterists Bulletin, 60 (4):275-290.

Chamorro-Lacayo, M.L., A.S. Konstantinov, and A.G. Moseyko. 2006. Comparative Morphology of the Female Genitalia and some Abdominal Structures of Neotropical Cryptocephalini (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae: Cryptocephalinae). The Coleopterists Bulletin, 60(2):113-134.

Chamorro-Lacayo, M. L., and A. S. Konstantinov. 2004. Morphology of the prothorax and procoxa in the New World Cryptocephalini (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae: Crytocephalinae). Zootaxa 676:1-46.

Chamorro-Lacayo, M.L. and R.W. Holzenthal. 2004. Seven new species of Polyplectropus (Trichoptera: Polycentropodidae) from Costa Rica. Proceedings of the Entomological Society of Washington, 106(1): 202-216.

Chamorro-Lacayo, M.L. 2003. Seven new species of Polycentropodidae (Trichoptera) from Nicaragua and Costa Rica. Proceedings of the Entomological Society of Washington, 105(2): 484-498.

 

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