Barcoding Pollen on Moth Specimen's from Hawaii 2023
Hawaii and Harris Genetic Lab (CBG)

Genetics, Labwork, Entomology, Moths

The habitat loss and invasive species have disrupted Hawaii ecosystems and all the natural interactions it historically supported. Restoring this damaged landscape will require a more complete understanding of the important players in an ecosystem. Unfortunately, many species have now been lost or are in such low numbers it is hard to study these interactions To that end, the student will use museum specimens to identify the role moth pollination might have played in ancient Hawaiian ecosystems. To do this the student will try extract pollen from bodies of known nectar-feeding moths and use molecular barcoding to identify the species identity. This will give us some insight into which species might have relied on moths for pollination in this system

Intern(s)