Assistant Curator of Insects
Negaunee Integrative Research Center
Bruno is an entomologist studying the evolution of flower-associated insects and of their interactions with host plants.
Born in Brazil, Bruno received his MSc from the University of São Paulo and later a PhD from Harvard University studying tropical insect pollinators. Prior to joining the Field Museum, Bruno worked as Postdoctoral Fellow at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama. In addition to his curatorial role at the Field Museum, he is a Research Associate of the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard University. Bruno's research focuses on flower-associated insects, with major areas including evolutionary relationships among insects, the drivers of their outstanding ecological and morphological diversity and the role of insect-plant interactions in generating and maintaining this diversity. He has done fieldwork in multiple countries, and visited several entomological collections, documenting new species and discovering previously unknown pollinators of tropical plants. In addition to obtaining new samples and observations from nature, Bruno's work uses data science tools and genomics to aggregate datasets and leverage the huge diversity of insects to answer questions about how evolution operates.
Please check his lab website for recent updates,
Education and Work
Postdoctoral Fellow, 2020-2022, Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute
Postdoctoral Fellow, 2018-2019, Harvard University
PhD, Organismic & Evolutionary Biology, 2018, Harvard University
MSc, Biological Sciences (Zoology), 2011, University of São Paulo
BSc, Biological Sciences (Zoology), 2009, University of São Paulo
Accomplishments
Selected publications
For a full list of publications, see my Google Scholar profile
Haran L, Kergoat GJ, de Medeiros BAS. 2022. Most diverse, most neglected: weevils (Coleoptera: Curculionoidea) are ubiquitous specialized brood-site pollinators of tropical flora https://hal.inrae.fr/hal-03780127. HAL preprint ⟨hal-03780127v2⟩ https://hal.inrae.fr/hal-03780127v2
Simões T, Vernygora OV, de Medeiros BAS, Wright AM. 2022. Handling Character Dependency in Phylogenetic Inference: Extensive Performance Testing of Assumptions and Solutions Using Simulated Data. EcoEvoRxiv. https://doi.org/10.32942/osf.io/r23j8
Ryals D, de Medeiros BAS & Farrell B. 2022. Migratory beekeeping facilitates genetic admixture in populations of the honeybee parasite Varroa destructor. Authorea.https://doi.org/10.22541/au.166079895.54947645/v2
Chamorro ML, de Medeiros BAS & Farrell BD. 2021. First phylogenetic analysis of Dryophthorinae (Coleoptera, Curculionidae) based on structural alignment of ribosomal DNA reveals Cenozoic diversification. Ecol. Evol. 11: 1984–1998.
Church SH, de Medeiros BAS, Donoughe S, Márquez Reyes N, Extavour CG. 2021. Repeated loss of variation in insect ovary morphology highlights the role of development in life-history evolution. Proc. R. Soc. B Biol. Sci. 288: rspb.2021.0150.
de Medeiros BAS & Farrell BD. 2020. Evaluating insect-host interactions as a driver of species divergence in palm flower weevils. Commun. Biol. 3: 749.
de Medeiros BAS & Vanin SA. 2020. Systematic revision and morphological phylogenetic analysis of Anchylorhynchus Schoenherr, 1836 (Coleoptera, Curculionidae: Derelomini). Zootaxa 4839: 1–98.
Church SH, Donoughe S, de Medeiros BAS, Extavour CG. 2019. Insect egg size and shape evolve with ecology but not developmental rate. Nature 571: 58–62.
de Medeiros BAS, Núñez-Avellaneda LA, Hernandez A, Farrell BD. 2019. Flower visitors of the licuri palm (Syagrus coronata): brood pollinators coexist with a diverse community of antagonists and mutualists. Biol. J. Linn. Soc. 126: 666–687.
de Medeiros BAS & Farrell BD. 2018. Whole-genome amplification in double-digest RADseq results in adequate libraries but fewer sequenced loci. PeerJ 6: e5089.
Kim S, de Medeiros BAS, Byun BK, Lee S, Kang JH, Lee B, Farrell BD. 2018. West meets East: How do rainforest beetles become circum-Pacific? Evolutionary origin of Callipogon relictus and allied species (Cerambycidae: Prioninae) in the New and Old Worlds. Mol. Phylogenet. Evol. 125: 163–176.