Wendy Moore

Associate Professor, Insect Systematics

Curator, University of Arizona Insect Collection

wmoore@email.arizona.edu

520-626-5014

Cell: 520-878-6602

520-621-BUGS (2847) (Lab)

Go to Wendy Moore's Lab Website

The University of Arizona Insect Collection

Positions and Education

Associate Professor, Entomology, University of Arizona, 2016-present
Assistant Professor, Entomology, University of Arizona, 2010-2016
Curator, University of Arizona Insect Collection, 2010-present
Research Associate, Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, 2008-present
Research Associate, California Academy of Sciences, 2008-present
Research Assistant Professor, Entomology, University of Arizona, 2008-2010
Postdoctoral Fellow in Systematic Entomology, California Academy of Sciences, 2006-2008
Ph.D., Entomology/Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Arizona, 2006
Post-graduate NSF-PEET Fellow, College of Charleston 1996-1998
M.S., Marine Biology, College of Charleston, 1996
B.S., General Biology, Vanderbilt University, 1991

Research

My long-term research interest is the evolution of biotic diversity. I use molecular genetic techniques, morphological methods, and robust phylogenetic frameworks to identify and describe natural groups of marine and terrestrial arthropods, to study their diversification and patterns of distribution, and to elucidate the ecological roles and the importance of key innovations that have significantly affected their evolutionary histories. I am especially interested in the evolution of symbiotic lifestyles and investigating how major biotic, climatic, and tectonic events may have influenced the timing and patterns of diversification. Much of my current research is on the carabid beetle subfamily Paussinae, many species of which are obligate symbionts with ants. Other ongoing studies explore the evolution of adephagan beetles and bombardier beetles. Read more about my specific research projects here.

I also have a deep appreciation for the largely untapped value of data in natural history collections. Specimens are the physical evidence for virtually everything we know about biology, they anchor our species concepts, hypotheses of relationships among species, patterns of distribution, as well as our more general theories about evolution, biogeography and biodiversity. While collections represent the single largest source of information we have on planetary biodiversity, they are largely under-utilized and therefore also under-appreciated. I am committed to collections care and enhancement, and the use of bioinformatics to make collections-based data widely available to diverse user communities.

Selected Publications

Attygalle A.B., S. Xu, W. Moore, R. McManus, A. Gill, K. Will. 2020. Biosynthetic origin of benzoquinones in the explosive discharge of the bombardier beetle Brachinus elongatulus. The Science of Nature 107:26.

Yanahan, A.D. and W. Moore 2019. Impacts of 21st‐century climate change on montane habitat in the Madrean Sky Island Archipelago. Diversity and Distributions https://doi.org/10.1111/ddi.12965.

Muzzi, M., W. Moore, A. Di Giulio. 2019. Morpho-functional analysis of the explosive defensive system of basal bombardier beetles (Carabidae: Paussinae: Metriini). Micron 119: 24-38.

Moore W. and A. Di Giulio. 2019. Out of the burrow and into the nest: functional anatomy of three life history stages of Ozaena lemoulti (Coleoptera: Carabidae) reveals an obligate life with ants. PLOS ONE https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0209790
Highlighted by PBS NOVA and Science Friday

Hughes, G.B. and W. Moore. 2018. Monophyly of the subfamily Neobisiinae (Pseudoscorpiones: Neobisiidae). Journal of Arachnology 46:481–487.

Schaller J.C., G. Davidowitz, D.R. Papaj, R.L. Smith, Y. Carrière, W. Moore. 2018. Molecular phylogeny, ecology and multispecies aggregation behaviour of bombardier beetles in Arizona. PLoS ONE 13(10): e0205192.
Highlighted by PBS NOVA and AAAS Science Update and Scientific American

Palting, J., D.C. Ferguson, W. Moore. 2018. A new species of Hypoprepia from the mountains of central Arizona (Lepidoptera, Erebidae, Arctiinae, Lithosiini). ZooKeys 788: 19–38. doi: 10.3897/zookeys.788.26885

McManus, R., A. Ravenscraft, and W.Moore. 2018. Bacterial associates of a gregarious riparian beetle with explosive defensive chemistry. Frontiers in Microbiology 9:2361. doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2018.02361

Hoekman, D., K.E. LeVan,B, G. Ball, R.A. Browne, R. Davidson, T. Erwin, B. Knisley, J. LaBonte, J. Lundgren, D. Maddison, W. Moore, J. Niemelä, K. Ober, D. Pearson, J. Spence, K. Will and T. Work. 2017. Design for Ground Beetle Abundance and Diversity Sampling within the National Ecological Observatory Network. Ecosphere. DOI: 10.1002/ecs2.1744

Nagel P., J.A. Robertson, W. Moore.  2017. New Nomenclatural and Taxonomic Acts, and Comments. Carabidae: Paussinae: Paussini. Pp.12-18 in Löbl I. & Löbl D. (eds), Catalogue of Palaearctic Coleoptera. Archostemata-Myxophaga-Adephaga, Revised and Updated Edition, Vol.1. Leiden, Boston: Brill.

Nagel P., J.A. Robertson, W. Moore.  2017. Catalogue. Subfamily Paussinae Latreille, 1806. Pp. 466-470 in Löbl I. & Löbl D. (eds), Catalogue of Palaearctic Coleoptera. Archostemata-Myxophaga-Adephaga, Revised and Updated Edition, Vol.1. Leiden, Boston: Brill.

Robertson, J.A. and W. Moore. 2016. Dissecting the species groups of Paussus L. (Carabidae: Paussinae): unraveling morphological convergence associated with myrmecophilous life histories. Systematic Entomology DOI: 10.1111/syen.12205

Gomez, R.A., J. R. Reddell, K.W. Will, W. Moore. 2016. up high and down low: molecular systematics and insight into the diversification of the ground beetle genus Rhadine LeConte. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 98:161-175.

Brusca, R.C., W. Moore, S.M. Shuster. 2016. Invertebrates. 3rd Edition. Sinauer Associates, Sunderland, MA.

W. Moore 2016. Hexapoda. In: Invertebrates. 3rd Edition. Sinauer Associates, Sunderland, MA.

Meyer, W.M, J. Eble, K. Franklin, R.B. McManus, S.L. Brantley, J. Henkel, P.E. Marek, W.E. Hall, C.A. Olson, R. McInroy, E.M. Bernal Loaiza, R.C. Brusca, and W. Moore. 2015. Ground-Dwelling Arthropod Communities of a Sky Island Mountain Range in Southeastern Arizona, USA: Obtaining a Baseline for Assessing the Effects of Climate Change. PLoS ONE 10(9): e0135210.

Arndt, E.M., W. Moore K. Lee, C. Ortiz. 2015. Mechanistic origins of the bombardier beetle (Brachinini) explosive pulsed chemical defense. Science 348: 563-567.

Marek, P.E. and W. Moore. 2015. Discovery of a glowing millipede in California and the gradual evolution of bioluminescence in Diplopoda. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, U.S.A. 112: 6419–6424.

W. Moore 2015. Sky Islands. In: A Natural History of the Sonoran Desert.2nd Edition.  M.A. Dimmitt, P.W. Comus, L.M. Brewer (eds.), University of California Press, Berkeley.

Neafsey, D.E., et al. 2015. Highly evolvable vectors: the genomes of 16 Anopheles mosquitoes. Science 347:1258522.

W. Moore and J.A. Robertson. 2014. Explosive adaptive radiation and extreme phenotypic diversity within ant nest beetles. Current Biology24: 2435-2439. DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2014.09.022. Highlighted in Nature 514:142.

Di Giulio, A., S. Fattorini, W. Moore, J. A. Robertson, E. Maurizi. 2014. Form, function and evolutionary significance of stridulatory organs in ant nest beetles (Coleoptera: Carabidae: Paussini). European Journal of Entomology 111(5): 692-702.

Brusca, R.C., J.F. Wiens, W.M. Meyer, J. Eble, K. Franklin, J. T. Overpeck, W. Moore. 2013. Response to Climate Change in the Southwest: Robert Whittaker's 1963 Arizona Mountain Plant Transect Revisited. Ecology and Evolution. 3(10): 3307-3319.

W. Moore, M. Meyer, J.A. Eble, K. Franklin, J.F. Wiens and R.C. Brusca. 2013. Introduction to the Arizona Sky Island Arthropod Project(ASAP) :systematics, biogeography, ecologyand population genetics of arthropods of the Madrean Sky Islands.In: Merging science and management in a rapidly changing world: biodiversity and management of the Madrean Archipelago III. 2012 May 1-5, Tucson, AZ. (G.J. Gottfried, P.F. Ffolliott, B.S. Gebow, L.G. Eskew, compilers). Proceedings RMRS-P-67. Fort Collins, CO: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station. p. 144-168.

Brusca, R.C. and W. Moore. 2013. A Natural History of the Santa Catalina Mountains, Arizona with an Introduction to the Madrean Sky Islands. Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum Press. 232 pp. (not peer-reviewed)

Maurizi, E., S. Fattorini, W. Moore, A. Di Giulio. 2012. Behavior of Paussus favieri (Coleoptera, Carabidae, Paussini), a myrmecophilous beetle associated with Pheidole pallidula (Hymenoptera, Formicidae). Psyche (Special issue: "Ants and Their Parasites.") doi:10.1155/2012/940315

W. Moore 2011. Biology needs cyberinfrastructure to facilitate specimen-level data acquisition for insects and other hyperdiverse groups. ZooKeys 147: 479-486.

Marek,P., D. Papaj, J. Yeager, S. Molina, W. Moore. 2011. Bioluminescent aposematism in millipedes. Current Biology 21(18): 680-681.

Di Giulio, A., E. Maurizi, P. Hlavac, W. Moore. 2011. The long-awaited first instar larva of Paussus favieri (Coleoptera: Carabidae: Paussini). European Journal of Entomology 108:127-138.

Yevgeniya A., A. Arik, W. Moore, M.A. Riehle, M.R. Brown. 2011. Insulin-Like Peptides: Structure, Signaling and Function. IN: L.I. Gilbert (Ed.) Insect Endocrinology. Academic Press, London.

W. Moore, X. Song, A. Di Giulio. 2011. The larva ofEustra(Coleoptera, Paussinae, Ozaenini): a facultative associate of ants. ZooKeys 90: 63-82.

Hughes, G.B. and W. Moore. 2011. Identification Tool to the Pink Bollworm and its Look-Alikes. Identification Technology Program, CPHST, PPQ, APHIS, USDA; Fort Collins, CO.

Ziegler, R., J. Isoe, W. Moore, M. A. Riehle, M. A.Wells. 2011. The putative AKH receptor of Manduca sexta and its expression in fat body during development. Journal of Insect Science 11(40): 1-14.Di Giulio, A. and W. Moore. 2009. The first known larva of the Australian genus Mystropomus Chaudoir (Coleoptera: Carabidae: Paussinae). Australian Journal of Entomology 48:140-148.

Maddison, D.R., W. Moore, M.D. Baker, T.M. Ellis, K.A. Ober, J.J. Cannone, R.R. Gutell. 2009. Monophyly of terrestrial adephagan beetles as indicated by three nuclear genes (Coleoptera: Carabidae and Trachypachidae). Zoological Scripta 38(1): 43-62.

W. Moore and A. Di Giulio. 2008. Metrius Eschscholtz (Carabidae: Paussinae) is not a millipede specialist. Pan Pacific Entomologist 84(1): 33-34.

W. Moore 2008. Phylogeny of the Western Hemisphere Ozaenini (Coleoptera: Carabidae: Paussinae) based in DNA sequence data. Annals of the Carnegie Museum 77(1): 79-92.

Gilbert, M.P.T., W. Moore, L. Melichor, M. Worobey. 2007. DNA extraction from dry museum beetles without conferring external morphological damage. PLoS One 2(3) e272.

Erwin, T.L. and W. Moore. 2007. A taxonomic review of the Neotropical genus Moriosomus Motschulsky (Insecta: Coleoptera, Carabidae, Morionini) with notes on the way of life of the species. Zootaxa 1438: 49-63.

W. Moore and A. Di Giulio. 2006. Description and behaviour of Goniotropis kuntzeni larvae (Coleoptera: Carabidae: Paussinae: Ozaenini) and a key to genera of Paussinae larvae. Zootaxa 1111: 1-19.

W. Moore 2004. Description of a new Hawaiian isopod, Synidotea oahu (Crustacea: Isopoda: Valvifera). Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington 117(1): 76-87.

Di Giulio, A. and W. Moore. 2004. The first-instar larva of the genus Arthropterus (Coleoptera: Carabidae: Paussinae): implications for the evolution of myrmecophily and phylogenetic relationships within the subfamily. Invertebrate Systematics 18(2): 101-115.

W. Moore and R.C. Brusca. 2003. A monograph on the isopod genus Colopisthus(Crustacea: Isopoda: Cirolanidae) with the description of a new genus. Journal of Natural History 37(11): 1329-1399.

Wendy Moore

Positions and Education

Research

Selected Publications

NetID Login