Tortoise beetles of Nicaragua

Dr. Jean-Michel Maes is an entomologist colleague who moved from Belgium to Nicaragua in 1983. He has become a formidable one-man biodiversity specialist, teacher, expert of numerous insect groups, and curator of Museo Entomologico de Leon, which he established……In other words, Jean-Michel is attempting to duplicate the effort of INBio in Costa Rica and STRI in Panama to document Nica’s entomofauna.  I cannot imagine how he does it, but I applaud his wonderful family for supporting him and Entomology to this extent. I first met Jean-Michel in 2005 when he helped me, Cheryl Barr and Bill Shepard of UC-Berkeley carry out two weeks of delightful beetle-hunting in Nicaragua. The idea for a ‘Cassidinae of Nicaragua’ was born in that visit and, a decade later, the seed has germinated with our collaborative publication which appeared this week. I look forward to the other parts of his series on the Chrysomelidae of Nicaragua.  I love bearing witness to the enormous strides Jean-Michel  makes for Nicaraguan Entomology – he demonstrates that one person can make a world of difference!

You can learn more about Maes’ work here:

Talking Insects, Zika and Nicaragua with Dr. Jean-Michel Maes, Museo Entomologico de Leon


http://bio-nica.info/topic/index.html#6

Further reading:
Maes, J.M., J. Gómez-Zurita, E.G. Riley, D. Windsor, L. Borowiec, & C.S. Chaboo. 2016. Catalogo de los Chrysomelidae de Nicaragua. Parte VIII. Cassidinae (sensu stricto). Revista Nicaraguense de entomologia 20, Suppl. 10: 193 pp.

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