EVOLUTION & FIREFLY RESEARCH For Science Education Research please click here Kathrin Stanger-Hall: PI. Kathrin started at UGA in the Summer of 2006. Her research centers on the evolution of communication systems. She uses molecular phylogenies to study signal evolution in fireflies (Coleoptera: Lampyridae) including signal production, signal perception and environmental influences. Graduate Students Martha Drake. Graduate student (co-advised with Joe McHugh/Entomology). Martha joined the lab in Fall 2024 and will work on South American Firefly Systematics and Biogeography. Kimberly Garcia. Graduate student (co-advised with Joe McHugh/Entomology). Kimberly joined the lab in Fall 2024 and will work on South American Firefly Systematics and Biogeography. Noelle Clark. Graduate student (co-advised with Julie Stanton/Cell Biology). Noelle started as an Interdisciplinary Life Sciences graduate student at UGA in Fall 2024, and joined the Stanger-Hall lab in 2025. Noelle is studying the evolutionary relationships of the Blue Ghost fireflies, and other Phausis fireflies. Undergraduate Research Students Judson Stricklin: Undergraduate Researcher. Judson joined the lab in Summer 2023. He is taking ambient light measurements to test the contrast hypothesis of light color on firefly species around Athens, GA. Lab Alumni Desi Hoagland. Former Graduate Student. Desi started as an Interdisciplinary Life Sciences graduate student at UGA in Fall 2022, and joined the Stanger-Hall lab in 2023. He was studying the population structure of Ellychnia corrusca fireflies. Desi left in Summer 2024 to share his love for Biology as a High School teacher in NC. Margot Popecki. Former Graduate Student. Margot started as an Interdisciplinary Life Sciences graduate student at UGA in Fall 2017. She initially worked on sex evolution in asparagus before joining the Stanger-Hall lab (co-mentored with John Wares) in 2019, where she is investigating the role of pigments in firefly light color. Margot is now a post-doc with Rebekah Rogers at UNC Charlotte. Yelena Pacheco. Former Graduate Student. Yelena started as an Interdisciplinary Life Sciences graduate student at UGA in Fall 2018, and joined the Stanger-Hall lab in 2019 (see Yelena's website and her research video). Yelena earned her PhD in September 2023 and is currently working on publishing her findings. She is now a postdoc in the lab of Chris Owens at the Smithsonian. Luiz Silveira: Former Postdoctoral Researcher. Luiz earned his PhD in 2018 at the Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro. He works on the taxonomy of South American fireflies and on global biogeography of the Lampyridae. He joined the lab from April 2018 to April 2019 as a postdoc and is now an Assistant Professor at Western Carolina University. He continues to be a collaborator. Sarah Sander Lower: Former Graduate Student (with Dave Hall). Sarah started as an Interdisciplinary Life Sciences graduate student before joining the Genetics Department. She defended her thesis in summer 2015, worked as a postdoc at Cornell University 2015-2018, and started as an Assistant Professor at Bucknell University in July 2018. She continues to be a collaborator. Undergraduate Research Alumni Mrunal Nazare. Undergraduate Researcher. Mrunal joined the firefly research team in Summer 2024 and helped collect data on firefly activity at three field sites around Athens. Her data will be instrumental for testing the contrast hypothesis for firefly light color. Simran Shah. Undergraduate Researcher. Simran joined the firefly research team in Summer 2024 and helped collect data on firefly activity at three field sites around Athens. Her data will be instrumental for testing the contrast hypothesis for firefly light color. Seth Masters. Undergraduate Researcher. Seth joined the firefly research team in Summer 2024 and helped collect data on firefly activity at three field sites around Athens. His data will be instrumental for testing the contrast hypothesis for firefly light color. Roland Kimsey. Undergraduate Researcher. Roland joined the firefly research team in Summer 2024 and helped collect data on firefly activity at three field sites around Athens. His data will be instrumental for testing the contrast hypothesis for firefly light color. Ethan Mann: Undergraduate Researcher. Ethan joined the lab in Fall 2022. He was working with Yelena on the evolution of eye and antenna size in fireflies. He continued in Spring 2023 and analyzed the diversity of sensilla types on firefly antennae. He is a coauthor on this paper. Nicole Steel (no picture): Undergraduate Researcher. Nicole joined the lab in Fall 2020. She analyzed a subset of gene sequences for information at different time scales. She assisted Margot in a bioinformatics project on the evolution of pigment genes in insects and wrote an Honors thesis (Spring 2022) on firefly populations and their conservation status. Autumn Sturhan (no picture): Undergraduate Researcher. Autumn joined the lab in Fall 2020 and Spring 2021. She analyzed a subset of gene sequences for information at different time scales and assisted Yelena in sorting and barcoding firefly morphotypes from Costa Rica. Miguel Delgado (no picture): Undergraduate Researcher. Miguel joined the lab in Fall 2019 (until Spring 2021) and was working on the morphological analysis of eyes and antennae. He also assisted Yelena in sorting and barcoding firefly morphotypes from Costa Rica. Vraj Patel (no picture): Undergraduate Researcher. Vraj joined the lab for Spring and Fall 2020. He worked on PCR and sequencing of Central American fireflies. Ram Miniyar (no picture): Undergraduate Researcher. Ram joined the lab in Fall 2020. He analyzed a subset of gene sequences for information at different time scales. Grace Won (no picture): Undergraduate Researcher. Grace joined the lab in Spring 2020 and participated in a trip to the Arthropod Museum at Louisiana State University to sort through Malaise trips from Costa Rica. Daniel Dolinski: Undergraduate Researcher. Daniel joined the lab in Spring 2018 and was working on gene expression analysis in P. australis fireflies. He continued his research in Fall 2018 with support of a CURO stipend. He continued this project until Spring 2020 and graduated in May 2020. Jessica Yi: Undergraduate Researcher. Jessica joined the lab in Summer 2018 and was part of the firefly fieldwork team in Vietnam in the summer of 2018. She worked on species delineation of Vietnamese fireflies, and mentored new undergraduate student researchers in the lab. She graduated in May 2020. Jenny Mai: Undergraduate Researcher. Jenny joined the lab in Fall 2019/Spring 2020 and worked on barcoding fireflies from Gabon. She graduated in May 2020. Austin Barefield: Undergraduate Researcher. Austin participated in fieldwork during summer 2019 and worked on barcoding North American fireflies during Fall 2019/Spring 2020. He graduated in May 2020. Isha Kataria: Undergraduate Researcher. Isha joined the lab in Fall 2019 and worked on barcoding North American fireflies until Spring 2020. She graduated in May 2020. Frank Ko: Undergraduate Researcher Frank worked in the lab in Fall 2019 on barcoding fireflies. Jaser Doja: Undergraduate Researcher. Jaser participated in fieldwork during summer 2019 and helped barcoding fireflies from field work during Fall 2019. Allison McCabe: Undergraduate Researcher. Allison joined the lab in Fall 2017, working on the sequencing genes for a phylogeny of European fireflies. She graduated in May 2019 with an Honors thesis on the relationships of North American Phausis and European Lamprohiza fireflies. After working at the CDC, she started a PhD program at Vanderbilt in Fall 2022. Richard Hull: Undergraduate Researcher. Richard joined the lab for Summer 2018 and conducted firefly surveys in North Georgia, at the ecologically important intersection of three vegetation regions. He plans to go to graduate school. Caitlin Hobbs: Undergraduate Technician. Caitlin was in charge of the KSH Firefly collection at UGA in Fall 2017 and kept us organized. Ashley Madsen (no picture): Undergraduate Researcher. Ashley joined the lab in Fall 2018, and worked with Luiz on firefly morphology. Brandon Davis: Undergraduate Researcher. Brandon joined the lab in Spring and Fall 2017 and worked on the biogeography of Photinus fireflies in North America. Pearl Shah: Undergraduate Researcher. Pearl joined the lab in Fall 2016 and was working on the biogeography of Pyractomena fireflies in North America. She graduated in Fall 2017 and earned a Masters of Science in Physiology and Biophysics from Georgetown in 2019. Garrett Volino: Undergraduate Researcher. Garrett joined the lab in Fall 2016. He conducted ambient light measurements in different habitats and is contributing to the biogeography project. In Spring 2017 Garrett started working on the phylogeny of Pyractomena fireflies. He graduated in Spring 2018. Gemma Rappaport (no picture): Undergraduate Researcher. Gemma joined the lab in Spring 2017 and collaborated on the biogeography of Photinus fireflies in North America. Talia Williams: Clarke Central High School Student and Young Dawg Researcher. Talia worked on a firefly research project during Fall 2015. Ayesha Khan: Clarke Central High School student and Young Dawg Researcher. Ayesha worked on the molecular identification of international firefly specimen during Summer 2014. Ayesha returned to the lab in Summer 2018 as an undergraduate student, working on the phylogenetic analysis of fireflies from Honduras. Jenna Pallansch: Undergraduate Researcher (with Dave Hall). Jenna worked on several Independent Research projects (2012-2014), including the light emission spectra of fireflies (published in 2016). She is now attending Medical School. Katharine Korunes: Undergraduate Researcher (with Dave Hall). Among other projects Katharine worked with Sarah on genome size in fireflies. She presented a poster at Evolution 2014. She is now a graduate student at Duke University. Seth Garner: Undergraduate Researcher (with Dave Hall): Seth joined the Hall ab in the Summer 2011. He worked on a firefly project. Andrew Hopkins: Undergraduate Researcher (with Dave Hall). Andrew was working on an Independent Research project with fireflies (Spring-Fall 2011). He is attending graduate school. Lauri Lindbergh: Undergraduate Researcher (with Dave Hall). Lauri worked in the lab on various firefly projects from Fall 2009 through Summer 2010. After graduating, Lauri worked at the Center for Disease Control in Atlanta and after going to Emory Medical school is now a PA anesthetist at Piedmont Atlanta Hospital. Kris Richards (no picture): Undergraduate Researcher. Kris worked in the lab at the end of her Junior year (Summer 2008). She worked on firefly communities throughout Georgia. She planned to go to graduate school in marine biology after graduation. Ben Judd: Undergraduate Researcher (with Dave Hall). Ben worked in the lab from Spring 2007 through Spring 2008. Ben worked primarily on the molecular evolution project in fireflies. Ben went to the Medical College of Georgia and is now an Anesthesiologist in Pinehurst, NC. Will Fisher: Undergraduate Researcher. Will worked in the lab during Summer 2007. His primary project involved characterizing firefly communities in and around Athens. II. University of Texas at Austin (1997-2005): Undergraduate Researchers Erine Budi Rhiannon Dodge Ozhan Jafri Joyce Kao Wen-Ya Ko Jeanne Lee Dawn Lin Meredith McClure Janelle Ortiz Laura Reinhard Gurpreet Singh Karen Piotrowski Madhu Ragupathi Frieda Wiley Samar Yusuf Simeen Zubairy III. Wake Forest University (1995-1997): Undergraduate and Graduate Researchers Derek A Zelmer (graduate student collaborator), now Professor at University of South Carolina, Aiken, SC. Stephanie Burns (undergraduate researcher in Behavioral Ecology class). Christine Bergren (undergraduate researcher in Behavioral Ecology class). Current and Past Collaborators Jim Lloyd, University of Florida Dave Hall, University of Georgia Sarah Sander Lower, Bucknell University Luiz Silveira, Western North Carolina University David Hillis, University of Texas at Austin Alan Lemmon, Florida State University Emily Moriarty-Lemmon, Florida State University Jeremy Brown, Louisiana State University Jim Leebens-Mack, University of Georgia Joe McHugh, University of Georgia Karolina Heyduk, University of Hawaii Parastoo Azadi, University of Georgia Stephanie Archer-Hartmann, University of Georgia Lynn Faust, Emory River Land Company Raphael DeCock, University of Antwerp, Belgium Shyh-Chiang Shen, Georgia Tech Tim Fallon, MIT Sara Lewis, Tufts University Adam South, Harvard University Fred Vencl, Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute Christopher Cratsley, Fitchburgh State College Seth Bybee, Brigham Young University Gavin Martin, Brigham Young University Mark Branham, University of Florida Xueyan Li, China Gonçalo Figueira, Portugal Giuseppe Camerini, Italy Stéphanie Vaz, Brazil Viviane Nunes, Brazil and Portugal Our research would not have been possible without our collaborators and funding agencies: I. Evolution and Behavior: NSF ARTS NSF POWRE NSF REU NSF DEB UGA Research Foundation UGA ICE UGA Grants on Edge UGA Study in a Second Discipline II. Science Education: NSF DUE NSF REU UGA ICE UGA STEM
