Scott P. Egan
@scottpegan
Evolutionary Biologist & Scientific Naturalist | Associate Professor | Director, E4 Initiative | @RiceUniversity #science #biology #evolution #speciation #entomology #biodiversity #genomics #discovery Lab website:
Sometimes we describe new species; other times we help others describe new species. Here, lab members AmandaPotts & Tamires Talamonte extracted DNA from an old sample & generated a barcode for @CSEiseman to help in the description of a new leaf miner on mangrove in FL ...
#Speciation in miniature. #RiceEEB PhD student @maryamrfaghihi.bsky.social and a team of amazing #RiceUniversity undergrads are raising thousands of galls to collect 1mm wasp inquilines to test for reproductive isolation associated with host use (ecology) and geography.
Gulf coast fritillary (Agraulis vanillae) enjoying the early morning sun.
Science on a salt flat. #RiceEEB PhD student Amanda Potts is running an experiment to test the role of predation in driving the evolution of lighter coloration in populations of three species of tiger beetles that inhabit salt flats and surrounding darker substrates.
Weekly gall walk on the #RiceUniversity campus. Belonocnema, Disholcaspis, Andricus quercusfoliatus.
Weekly gall walk on the #RiceUniversity campus. Belonocnema galls growing. Disholcaspis galls just starting.
Here is the new gall wasp discovered at #RiceUniversity that is featured in this kid's book. #BackyardBiodiversity
Wow! 🤯 Just learned that our lab’s research is featured in a kid’s book about insects! ❤️ “In 2022, biologists identified a new type of gall wasp called Neuroterus valhalla. Spotted on the branches of a huge oak tree on the campus of #RiceUniversity.”
#A_day_in_the_life of a live oak (day 465): Yellow-crowned Night Heron (Nyctanassa violacea) nesting in a southern live oak (Quercus virginiana) near Houston, Texas. (📸:Christa Denning) #biodiversity
Happy Father’s Day to all the dads and father figures out there! (Especially to my dad, who pushed me to climb mountains!)
The Live Oak Biodiversity Project that we have worked on for over a decade is now featured by #RiceUniversity in association with the #FIFAWorldCup. A beautiful circular bench w/ #biodiversity facts on support beams designed & constructed by #RiceArch student Qihang "Noah" Li.
Fun day sampling #eDNA with PhD student Amanda Potts for a biodiversity survey at the Cook’s Branch Conservancy, a 7,100-acre nature preserve in Montgomery County, Texas, managed by the Cynthia and George Mitchell Foundation. 🧬
#ThrowbackThursday: On a 4 month trip driving from Texas to Belize by way of Mexico and Guatemala circa 2000. #VW #TBT
Congratulations to #NSF funded RAMP post-bacc Skylar Godwin on presenting her research on Ellipsoptera tiger beetles at the Southeast Texas Evolutionary Genetics & Genomics symposium! Good luck starting your Master’s degree at Appalachian State!
Excited to announce my promotion to Full Professor at #RiceUniversity! I am so thankful to my lab members, past & present, and collaborators, near & far, who have worked together with me to advance scientific understanding of our beautiful, resilient & threatened world. 🌎Onward!
CT scan visualizes the adult gall wasp Callirhyitis quercusbatatoides inside the stem gall it induced on the southern live oak, Quercus virginiana. 🤯 (Image by Egan lab undergrad Lily Hestjean in the lab of @Sternarchella.) #biodiversity
Our research was recently featured on the German TV game show "Wer weiß denn sowas?" ("Who knows?")! The question covered our #discovery of parasitism by the love vine, Cassytha fuliformis, on the gall wasp, Belonocnema fossoria, published in @currentbiology.bsky.social by @cellpress.bsky.social.