We are delighted to welcome back our monthly online talk series! The new series will run on the second Wednesday of the month at the new time of 16:00 – 17:00 (UK Time). Each session will be aligned with one of our seven scientific journals, so tune in to hear an in depth discussion on a specific field of entomology alongside key updates and new activities from the Society.

These talks are free for RES members, so join today! Please note, all attendees, including members, must register below to receive the link to attend the talk.

Systematic Entomology: Evolving Perspectives in Hymenoptera Systematics

Wednesday 12 June
16:00 – 17:00 (BST)

The latest in our online talk series highlights RES journal Systematic Entomology, a high-impact journal publishing insect systematics, phylogenetics and integrative taxonomy, with a preference for general interest papers of broad biological, evolutionary or zoogeographical relevance. The speakers will discuss a review article currently under consideration “Evolving Perspectives in Hymenoptera Systematics: Bridging Fossils and Genomes across Time”

Tamara Spasojevic
Natural History Museum in Vienna

Tamara’s research focuses on the incredibly diverse group of Hymenoptera known as Darwin wasps. Since her PhD in Switzerland, Tamara has been working on establishing a time scale of evolution of Darwin wasps, by integrating fossils, morphology, and molecular data, and using both empirical and simulation-based approaches. Her latest projects look at mass extinction events and their impact on the evolutionary dynamics of Darwin wasps. In parallel, she is working on deciphering host-related evolutionary patterns in the fascinating polysphinctine spider parasitoids. Tamara has recently taken up a position of Hymenoptera curator at the Natural History Museum in Vienna.

Miles Zhang
University of Edinburgh

Miles completed his MSc in Canada focusing on rose gall wasp parasitoids, then a PhD in the US working on braconid parasitoid taxonomy, systematics, and evolution. Miles then worked as a postdoc at the University of Florida and Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History to work on invasive ants and parasitic wasp taxonomy, population genomics, and phylogenomics. He is currently a Marie Curie fellow at the University of Edinburgh, where he is reunited with his beloved rose galls to work out their tritrophic interactions between plant, herbivore, and natural enemies.