Tag Archives: natural history

Suburban biodiversity: surprising flies in the neighborhood

Posted on September 29, 2015 by terry wheeler

Christine Barrie, a grad student in the lab, found a fly she couldn’t put a name on. Other students in the lab had trouble too. So did I. It looked familiar, but it didn’t key out in the standard North … Continue reading →

Posted in Research News | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

Natural history’s place in science and society

Posted on March 26, 2014 by terry wheeler

One of the themes that runs through many of the posts on this blog is that natural history matters, that it’s relevant, that it’s science, and that there’s still a lot we don’t know about the natural history of some … Continue reading →

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Two flies, one leaf: new leafminers from Costa Rica

Posted on February 9, 2014 by terry wheeler

There are many reasons why insects are the most diverse group of animals on the planet One of them is herbivory. Feeding on plants opens a huge number of opportunities for insects to diversify. There are new food sources to … Continue reading →

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A natural history tool box for the 21st Century

Posted on November 23, 2013 by terry wheeler

“It’s the binoculars of our age” — Josh Tewksbury My last two posts focused on topics that are apparently very different: the importance of basic natural history; and the power of DNA barcoding (the first went a lot more viral … Continue reading →

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Why we do science: the paradox of natural history

Posted on November 3, 2013 by terry wheeler

There are few things on Earth that I would willingly be the President of. A couple of months ago I assumed the Big Chair of one of them — The Natural History Network, a fine organization dedicated to the rebirth, … Continue reading →

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to a young naturalist

Posted on October 25, 2013 by terry wheeler

I was on a collecting trip to Banks Island in the Canadian arctic in 2011. We were there for 17 days with no internet, no electricity, no generator and 24 hours of sunlight. Not a problem at all — we … Continue reading →

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Natural history known, unknown, and assumed: a fly tale

Posted on January 26, 2013 by terry wheeler

My previous post was part of an exchange with Chris Buddle on whether taxonomists should describe new species without knowing their natural history. When many of the specimens upon which we base species descriptions are already long dead by the … Continue reading →

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Taxonomy with or without natural history?

Posted on January 10, 2013 by terry wheeler

My colleague Chris Buddle has asked an interesting and important question about taxonomic descriptions and natural history data. Specifically: Should taxonomists wait to describe a species until there are some details known about its natural history? Chris and I both … Continue reading →

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Sense of wonder: a Christmas ramble

Posted on December 25, 2012 by terry wheeler

If you can hang on to your child-like sense of wonder about nature, every day is like Christmas. There are always great new things waiting to be unwrapped and discovered. I study flies, but I see little mysteries everywhere when … Continue reading →

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What is natural history anyway?

Posted on September 29, 2012 by terry wheeler

Scientists like clarity. We like to have our definitions nicely lined up. We like to label things. But that’s not always easy. I’m a taxonomist. I’m an ecologist. I’m a naturalist. I know what all those labels mean, to me, … Continue reading →

Posted in Lab and Field News | Tagged , | 12 Comments