Undergraduate Students
Outside of course-based undergraduate research experiences (see Teaching page for more details), I have mentored 29 undergraduate students. Most students either volunteer their time and/or take research credits under my supervision. Students work closely with me on various projects that fall under sexual selection and systematic research. Every student gains authentic experiences in scientific research, participates in weekly lab meetings to discuss projects and primary scientific literature, learns to analyze and present scientific literature, and contributes data towards a publishable study or, for independent projects, publish a thesis or journal article.
Undergraduate Student Internships
National Science Foundation Research Experience for Undergraduates — Summer 2021
Katie Adler (University of California – Berkeley), Anna Schill (Ohio Wesleyan University), and Alex Stolberg (Kalamazoo College) participated in a 10-week National Science Foundation Research Experience for Undergraduates program at the California Department of Food & Agriculture, in collaboration with Dr. Christine W. Miller at the University of Florida. Together, these student interns investigated the behaviors and resource allocation decisions made during development in leaf-footed bugs, a group of insects including several agricultural pest species. The interns received training in scientific research, including research design, ethical conduct in research, laboratory techniques, field collection and diagnostics, and science communication. Partnering with the University of Florida provided them with the additional benefits of being exposed to collaborative scientific research that transcends a single institution, and saw scientific research as collaborative and of benefit to scientists, multiple institutions, and the general public.
During their time here, Katie, Anna, and Alex also collected and documented the morphology of ant-mimicking nymphs of Hyalymenus subinermis, the bow-legged bugs. These interns wrote and submitted taxonomic descriptions of these nymphs!
Adler, K., Schill, A.E.R., Stolberg, A.M., Miller, C.W., Forthman, M. 2022. First record of the bow-legged bug Hyalymenus subinermis (Heteroptera: Alydidae) in California, with description of the mimetic immature stages. Pan-Pac. Entomol., 98: 138–149. [Link]
Katie Adler (University of California – Berkeley), Anna Schill (Ohio Wesleyan University), and Alex Stolberg (Kalamazoo College) participated in a 10-week National Science Foundation Research Experience for Undergraduates program at the California Department of Food & Agriculture, in collaboration with Dr. Christine W. Miller at the University of Florida. Together, these student interns investigated the behaviors and resource allocation decisions made during development in leaf-footed bugs, a group of insects including several agricultural pest species. The interns received training in scientific research, including research design, ethical conduct in research, laboratory techniques, field collection and diagnostics, and science communication. Partnering with the University of Florida provided them with the additional benefits of being exposed to collaborative scientific research that transcends a single institution, and saw scientific research as collaborative and of benefit to scientists, multiple institutions, and the general public.
During their time here, Katie, Anna, and Alex also collected and documented the morphology of ant-mimicking nymphs of Hyalymenus subinermis, the bow-legged bugs. These interns wrote and submitted taxonomic descriptions of these nymphs!
Adler, K., Schill, A.E.R., Stolberg, A.M., Miller, C.W., Forthman, M. 2022. First record of the bow-legged bug Hyalymenus subinermis (Heteroptera: Alydidae) in California, with description of the mimetic immature stages. Pan-Pac. Entomol., 98: 138–149. [Link]
Undergraduate Student Theses, Publications, and Scholars
Melika Ghassemi
Melika joined the lab as a third-year undergraduate student from the University of California, Davis. She is currently collecting distributional data for leaf-footed bugs to conduct biogeographic analysis. Melika's project involves literature- and specimen-based data collection, character matrix construction, and biogeographic approaches to inferring ancestral ranges. Melika will also co-write a manuscript, and we hope to have it submitted for publication by the end of 2024!
Melika joined the lab as a third-year undergraduate student from the University of California, Davis. She is currently collecting distributional data for leaf-footed bugs to conduct biogeographic analysis. Melika's project involves literature- and specimen-based data collection, character matrix construction, and biogeographic approaches to inferring ancestral ranges. Melika will also co-write a manuscript, and we hope to have it submitted for publication by the end of 2024!
Ella Rode
Ella joined the lab as a third-year undergraduate student from the University of California, Davis. Under my supervision, Ella is currently leading on a taxonomic revision of two small leaf-footed bug genera. She will be imaging, measuring, and re-describing species, as well as creating an identification key. Ella will co-write the manuscript, and we hope to have it submitted for publication by the end of 2024!
Ella joined the lab as a third-year undergraduate student from the University of California, Davis. Under my supervision, Ella is currently leading on a taxonomic revision of two small leaf-footed bug genera. She will be imaging, measuring, and re-describing species, as well as creating an identification key. Ella will co-write the manuscript, and we hope to have it submitted for publication by the end of 2024!
Chandler Downie
Chandler was a Senior undergraduate student when she joined the lab. Under my supervision, Chandler conducted a two-semester undergraduate thesis at the University of Florida. Her thesis investigated the phylogenetic placement of four leaf-footed bug tribes using ultraconserved elements. Chandler's thesis project was part of a larger study on the evolution of stridulatory mechanisms, which was recently published:
Forthman, M., Downie, C., Miller, C.W., Kimball, R.T. 2023. Evolution of stridulatory mechanisms: vibroacoustic communication may be common in leaf-footed bugs and allies (Heteroptera: Coreoidea). R. Soc. Open Sci., 10: 221348. [PDF]
Chandler was a Senior undergraduate student when she joined the lab. Under my supervision, Chandler conducted a two-semester undergraduate thesis at the University of Florida. Her thesis investigated the phylogenetic placement of four leaf-footed bug tribes using ultraconserved elements. Chandler's thesis project was part of a larger study on the evolution of stridulatory mechanisms, which was recently published:
Forthman, M., Downie, C., Miller, C.W., Kimball, R.T. 2023. Evolution of stridulatory mechanisms: vibroacoustic communication may be common in leaf-footed bugs and allies (Heteroptera: Coreoidea). R. Soc. Open Sci., 10: 221348. [PDF]
Hannah Phan
Hannah was a Senior undergraduate student when she joined the lab. Under my supervision, Hannah conducted a two-semester independent undergraduate research project at the University of Florida. Her project investigated the phylogenetic placement of three small leaf-footed bug tribes using ultraconserved elements, the first time that two of these tribes have ever been included in cladistic studies. Hannah's project was recently submitted for publication and we are patiently awaiting acceptance!
Hannah was a Senior undergraduate student when she joined the lab. Under my supervision, Hannah conducted a two-semester independent undergraduate research project at the University of Florida. Her project investigated the phylogenetic placement of three small leaf-footed bug tribes using ultraconserved elements, the first time that two of these tribes have ever been included in cladistic studies. Hannah's project was recently submitted for publication and we are patiently awaiting acceptance!
Stefano Dongo
Stefano was a Senior undergraduate student when he joined the lab. Under my supervision, Stefano conducted a two-semester undergraduate thesis at the University of Florida. His thesis investigated the presence of reproductive trade-offs between the monomorphic hind-legs in males of Chariesterus antennator and their testes.
Stefano was a Senior undergraduate student when he joined the lab. Under my supervision, Stefano conducted a two-semester undergraduate thesis at the University of Florida. His thesis investigated the presence of reproductive trade-offs between the monomorphic hind-legs in males of Chariesterus antennator and their testes.
Amberlika Guruvadoo
Amber joined the lab as an undergraduate student working with a team of graduate and undergraduate researchers. Over the course of her time in the lab, she joined my large team to conduct an independent study on reproductive trade-offs in Jadera haematoloma (Rhopalidae); her project is contributing to a multi-year comparative study on reproductive trade-offs in leaf-footed bugs. Amber completed her project despite the impacts of COVID-19, which is the first to investigate reproductive trade-offs in a species of insect that exhibits polymorphisms in wing development. She presented a virtual poster on her preliminary findings at the Society for Integrative & Comparative Biology 2021.
Amber joined the lab as an undergraduate student working with a team of graduate and undergraduate researchers. Over the course of her time in the lab, she joined my large team to conduct an independent study on reproductive trade-offs in Jadera haematoloma (Rhopalidae); her project is contributing to a multi-year comparative study on reproductive trade-offs in leaf-footed bugs. Amber completed her project despite the impacts of COVID-19, which is the first to investigate reproductive trade-offs in a species of insect that exhibits polymorphisms in wing development. She presented a virtual poster on her preliminary findings at the Society for Integrative & Comparative Biology 2021.
Emma Matzinger
Emma started as a Freshman undergrad in our lab and produced an identification key to the genera of the leaf-footed bug tribe Gonocerini in her first semester. This identification key was primarily for internal use to facilitate identification of specimens for research purposes. However, by the end of the semester, Emma wrote and submitted a paper on her identification key to the University of Florida's Journal of Undergraduate Research for publication:
Matzinger, E.E., Forthman, M. 2019. Identification key to the genera of the tribe Gonocerini (Insecta: Hemiptera: Coreidae). UF Journal of Undergraduate Research, 21: 1–7. [PDF]
Emma started as a Freshman undergrad in our lab and produced an identification key to the genera of the leaf-footed bug tribe Gonocerini in her first semester. This identification key was primarily for internal use to facilitate identification of specimens for research purposes. However, by the end of the semester, Emma wrote and submitted a paper on her identification key to the University of Florida's Journal of Undergraduate Research for publication:
Matzinger, E.E., Forthman, M. 2019. Identification key to the genera of the tribe Gonocerini (Insecta: Hemiptera: Coreidae). UF Journal of Undergraduate Research, 21: 1–7. [PDF]
Caroline Miller
Caroline began her research experience with me during Summer 2017 on a multi-year comparative study on reproductive trade-offs in leaf-footed bugs. She was accepted into the University of Florida's University Scholars Program for the 2019–2020 academic year to apply her experiences to a new topic: she investigated whether genes commonly used in past phylogenetic studies of leaf-footed bugs could be retrieved from off-target sequences in our ultraconserved element dataset. She presented her findings at UF's Spring 2020 Undergraduate Research Symposium and published her results in a peer-reviewed journal!
Miller, C.D., Forthman, M., Miller, C.W., Kimball, R.T. 2021. Extracting “legacy loci” from an invertebrate sequence capture dataset. Zoologica Scripta, Early View. [Link]
Caroline began her research experience with me during Summer 2017 on a multi-year comparative study on reproductive trade-offs in leaf-footed bugs. She was accepted into the University of Florida's University Scholars Program for the 2019–2020 academic year to apply her experiences to a new topic: she investigated whether genes commonly used in past phylogenetic studies of leaf-footed bugs could be retrieved from off-target sequences in our ultraconserved element dataset. She presented her findings at UF's Spring 2020 Undergraduate Research Symposium and published her results in a peer-reviewed journal!
Miller, C.D., Forthman, M., Miller, C.W., Kimball, R.T. 2021. Extracting “legacy loci” from an invertebrate sequence capture dataset. Zoologica Scripta, Early View. [Link]