Bio
I focus mainly on endangered species, their conservation, keeping and breeding. I am also interested in the distribution and diversity of species worldwide.
Research project
Preference for habitat evolution, trait optimization and abundance in the Pheidole of the Solomon Islands and Papua New Guinea
- Evolution and adaptation are major keys to the success of species’ survival and distribution. Proper morphological adaptations serve to occupy more challenging habitats and stabilize the species.
- Pheidole (family Formicidae) contains over 1000 recognized species, making it a very large genus that is distributed worldwide. However, its morphological variation is not so obvious at first sight.
- The practical part of the work focuses on sorting the collected material, comparing it with others, identifying species and observing morphological characters. Subsequent data will be used to compare habitat preferences between species and islands, determine morphological evolution within the cladogram, and determine species abundance on individual islands.