Welcome! While this website features my research, I hope it becomes a useful node for research on leaf beetles.
Leaf beetles, or Chrysomelidae, is one of the largest families of beetles with more than 35,000 species in over 2,500 genera. Like their close relatives, long-horned beetles (Cerambycidae) and weevils (Curculionidae), the adults and larvae mostly specialize on eating plants. Leaf beetles show interesting trophic specialization, of root, stems, flowers and seeds. The adult and juvenile stages tend to be in the same habitats, chewing, mining and scraping, while being attacked by many predators, parasites and parasitoids. Because of their crucial place as herbivores and their great diversity, leaf beetles are an important group evolutionarily, ecologically and economically (as plant pests and biocontrols).
My research explores many dimensions of this fascinating diversity, from distribution to host choice, from behavior to phylogeny. Please check out my Projects for a closer look at my research.
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