xmengual
Flower fly lover
- Username
- xmengual
- Bio
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I am a Research Entomologist (Research Associate) at the Systematic Entomology Lab. (SEL) of the USDA. I began studying the biodiversity and taxonomy of flower flies (Diptera: Syrphidae) in 2001 as an undergraduate student at the University of Alicante, Spain. In 2004 I entered the PhD program at the University of Alicante under Dr. Santos Rojo and Dr. Gunilla Såhls (Finnish Museum of Natural History, Helsinki, Finland) to study the molecular phylogenetics and evolution of predatory flower flies, completed in 2008. In 2009 I joined Dr. F. Christian Thompson at the Smithsonian Institution to pursue a postdoctoral fellowship. In January 2011, I became an EoL Rubenstein Fellow to create authoritative EoL species pages for each distinctive species group of flower flies based on typical species. Later 2011, I accepted a position as Research Associate at SEL to work with Dr. Allen L. Norrbom on the molecular phylogenetics of the Fruit flies (Tephritidae).
Since 2012, I'm the Diptera Curator at the Zoologisches Forschungsmuseum Alexander Koenig (Bonn, Germany).
Credentials:
PhD degree, by the University of Alicante, Spain, June 2008. PhD title: Evolution and molecular phylogeny of the predation in Syrphinae (Diptera; Syrphidae). Postdoctoral fellow at Dept. Entomology (Smithsonian Institution) 2009-2011. EoL Rubenstein Fellow 2011. Postdoctoral fellow at Systematic Entomology Lab. (USDA, ARS). Diptera Curator at ZFMK (Germany).
Scope: Family Syrphidae.
