People

My life now isn't that much different than it was when I was 8 years old. I wander outside with a net chasing insects and putting them in jars. Except now I do it in Tahiti, and I drink a little more coffee than I did in third grade. What do I do with the bugs (and they truly are bugs--remember, a "true bug" is an insect in the sub-order Heteroptera, not  just anything that fits under your shoe)? Since no one has studied them before,  I describe new species that I have discovered and figure out the diagnostic characters for each species. I am working out the systematics of the group to try and discern what has driven speciation in the past, and if there is any incipient speciation going on right now. I combine morphological and molecular data to try and tell this story. Natural history has been my foundation for understanding the evolutionary processes driving this radiation of cute little bugs.