Professional experience
2023–Ongoing: Texas A&M University, College Station, USA.
Assistant Curator of Entomology (2023–ongoing)
2018–2023: Federal University of Paraná, Curitiba, Brazil.
PhD student, teaching assistant and volunteer curator for Scarabaeoidea (2018–2022);
Post-doctoral fellow (2022–2023);
Assistant curator for the wet invertebrate collection (2023).
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2010–2022: Institute of Biosciences, Federal University of Mato Grosso, Cuiabá, Brazil.
Associate undergraduate student (2010–2013);
Associate Master’s student (2014–2016);
Collection manager (2016–2017).
Associate PhD student (2018–2022).
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2009–2017: National Museum, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Volunteer curator for Scarabaeoidea (2009–2017);
Undergraduate student (2009–2013);
Master’s student (2014–2016);
Teaching assistant (2013–2015);
Researcher on the project “Brazilian Fauna Taxonomic Catalogue” (2016).
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April–June 2016: The Natural History Museum, London, United Kingdom.
Long-term visitor at the Coleoptera Department.
Journal referee
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Acta Amazonica (2 manuscripts reviewed)
Acta Entomologica Musei Nationalis Pragae (1)
Annales de la Société Entomologique de France (1)
Austral Entomology (2)
Beiträge zur Entomologie (1)
Biodiversity Data Journal (1)
Bionomina (1)
Biota Neotropica (3)
Bothalia (1)
Check List (3)
Elsevier Books (1)
European Journal of Taxonomy (7)
Insect Systematics & Evolution (2)
Insecta Mundi (4)
International Journal of Tropical Insect Science (2)
Journal of Natural History (12)
Papéis Avulsos de Zoologia (1)
PeerJ (1)
Revista Brasileira de Entomologia (8)
Revista Chilena de Entomología (1)
Revista Colombiana de Entomologia (2)
The Canadian Entomologist (2)
The Coleopterists Bulletin (4)
Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society (2)
ZooKeys (3)
Zootaxa (14)
Grants​
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2023
Technician Fellowship, Paraná State's Araucária Foundation.
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2020
Ernst Mayr Travel Grant, Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University.
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2019
Oxford University Museum of Natural History Visiting Fellowship, Oxford University.
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Canadian Museum of Nature Visiting Scientist Award, Canadian Museum of Nature.
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2018
Ernst Mayr Travel Grant, Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University.
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Workshop on Molecular Evolution Support Award, Marine Biological Laboratory – University of Chicago.
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PhD Scholarship, Brazil’s National Counsel of Technological and Scientific Development.
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2016
Technician Fellowship, Brazil’s National Counsel of Technological and Scientific Development.
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2015
Aluno Nota 10 [“Student Grade A”] Master’s Scholarship, Rio de Janeiro State Foundation to Support Research.
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2014–2015
Master’s Scholarship, Brazil’s National Counsel of Technological and Scientific Development.
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2010–2014
Scientific initiation (undergraduate), Brazil’s National Counsel of Technological and Scientific Development.
Awards and achievements
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2020
Prêmio Padre Jesus Santiago Moure de Taxonomia for the best taxonomic work published between 2018 and 2019. Sociedade Brasileira de Zoologia.
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2019
J.G. Edwards Prize for the Best Published Paper Based upon a Master's Thesis. The Coleopterists Society.
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2018
1st place in the selection for PhD students. Federal University of Paraná.
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2015
Menção Honrosa Hugo de Souza Lopes: Award for the best graduate talk given at the III Simpósio de Entomologia do Rio de Janeiro.
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2014 (1st time) and 2015 (2nd time)
Awards for one of the best graduate projects presented at the Museu Nacional’s Graduate Program in Zoology.
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2013
1st place in the selection for master's students. National Museum, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro.
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2013
Menção Honrosa Hugo de Souza Lopes: Award for the best undergraduate talk given at the II Simpósio de Entomologia do Rio de Janeiro.
Me accepting the 2020 Padre Jesus Santiago Moure Award for the best taxonomic work from Luciane Marinoni, President of the Brazilian Society of Zoology.
Museum visits
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Argentina
Museo Argentino de Ciencias Naturales, Buenos Aires (2014);
Museo de La Plata, La Plata (2014).
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Austria
Naturhistorisches Museum Wien, Vienna (2019)
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Belgium
Institut royal des Sciences naturelles de Belgique, Brussels (2019).
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Brazil
Departamento de Zoologia, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro (2013);
Fundação Oswaldo Cruz, Rio de Janeiro (2011, 2014, 2017, 2018);
Fundação Zoobotânica do Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre (2018);
Instituto Biológico, São Paulo (2018);
Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas da Amazônia, Manaus (2019);
Museu Anchieta, Porto Alegre (2018);
Museu de História Natural Capão da Imbuia, Curitiba (2021);
Museu Paraense Emílio Goeldi, Belém (2019);
Museu Nacional, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro (2018);
Museu de Zoologia, Universidade de São Paulo, São Paulo (2012, 2014, 2018);
Universidade Federal de Mato Grosso, Cuiabá (once a year between 2010 and 2018, 2024);
Universidade Federal do Pará, Belém (2019);
Universidade Federal do Paraná, Curitiba (2017).
Canada
Canadian Museum of Nature, Ottawa (2019)
Canadian National Collection of Insects, Arachnids and Nematodes (2019)
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Czechia
National Museum (Natural History), Prague (2016, 2019).
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France
Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle, Paris (2014, 2019).
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Germany
Forschungsinstitut und Naturmuseum Senckenberg, Frankfurt (2019)
Museum für Naturkunde, Berlin (2016, 2019);
Museum für Tierkunde, Senckenberg Naturhistorische Sammlungen Dresden, Dresden (2019);
Senckenberg Deutsches Entomologisches Institut, Müncheberg (2016, 2019);
Zoologische Museum, Universität Kiel, Kiel (2019);
Zoologische Staatssammlung München, Munich (2019);
Zoologisches Forschungsinstitut Alexander Koenig, Bonn (2019).
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Paraguay
Museo Nacional de Historia Natural del Paraguay, Asunción (2022).
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Switzerland
Muséum d'Histoire naturelle de Genève, Geneva (2019);
Naturhistorisches Museum Basel, Basel (2019).
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The Netherlands
Naturalis Biodiversity Centre, Leiden (2019).
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United Kingdom
The Natural History Museum, London (2014, 2016, 2019);
The Linnean Society of London, London (2016, 2019);
Oxford University Museum of Natural History, Oxford (2014, 2016, 2019).
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United States
Florida State Collection of Arthropods, Gainesville, FL (2018);
Hasbrouck Insect Collection, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ (2024);
Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA (2018);
Texas A&M University, College Station, TX (2023);
University of Texas, Austin, TX (2024).
A label pinned with an Ateuchus collected by Auguste de Saint-Hilaire sometime between 1816 and 1822 in my hometown, Rio de Janeiro. The specimen now resides in Paris.
This specimen, representing a new species of Ateuchus discovered in my PhD, awaited almost two centuries in the Oxford Museum of Natural History to be identified. It was collected in 1829 in Tocantins by the English explorer William J. Burchell, whose field notes are shown on the right.
Some of the Ateuchus collected by Henry Walter Bates during his time in the Amazon Basin (1848-1859) and which are now in the Paris museum.
I came across this quite impressive fungus while walking to the Munich museum in November 2019.
One of the mid-19th-century accession books of the Berlin museum. Some of the names are in Edgar von Harold's handwriting.
Drawer number 1 of Sir Joseph Banks' collection, the second oldest complete beetle collection in the world after Linnaeus' and which is preserved in the London museum. Many of these specimens were possibly collected by Banks himself while circumnavigating the globe onboard HMS Endeavour between 1768 and 1771.
Fieldwork​
Restinga de Jurubatiba National Park, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (2009)​
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Itatiaia National Park, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (eight times between 2010 and 2015);
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Serra dos Órgãos National Park, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (2010);
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Serra do Mar State Park, São Paulo, Brazil (2010, 2012);
Serra do Caraça Natural Reserve, Minas Gerais, Brazil (twice in 2014);
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Central Brazil: Perdizes and Araxá (Minas Gerais), Emas National Park (Goiás), Santo Antônio do Leverger, Cáceres and Transpantaneira Road (Mato Grosso) (2015);
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Chapada dos Guimarães National Park, Mato Grosso, Brazil (2016)
Santo Antônio do Leverger, Mato Grosso, Brazil (2016)
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San Lorenzo, Central, Paraguay (2022)
Scientific Meetings and Workshops Organized
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2023
26th SOLA Meeting, online. [This is the world’s main international symposium on Scarabaeoidea studies]
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2022
25th SOLA Meeting, online.
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2021
10th Entomology Course at Federal University of Paraná, Curitiba, Brazil.
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Encontro de Coleopera, online. [This was history's largest scientific meeting of coleopterists, with more than 500 participants from all the continents.]
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2019
8th Entomology Course at Federal University of Paraná, Curitiba, Brazil.
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Scientific Meetings and Workshops Attended
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2024
Entomological Society of America meeting, Phoenix, AZ, USA.
Entomological Collections Network annual meeting, Phoenix, AZ, USA.
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2023
II Encontro de Coleoptera [2nd Coleoptera Meeting], online.
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2022
XXXIV Congresso Brasileiro de Zoologia [34th Brazilian Congress of Zoology], Curitiba, Brazil.
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25th SOLA Meeting, online.
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2021
Encontro de Coleoptera [Coleoptera Meeting], online.
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2020
XXXIII Congresso Brasileiro de Zoologia [33rd Brazilian Congress of Zoology], Águas de Lindóia, Brazil.
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I International Symposium on Phylogenetic Systematics and Biogeography, online.
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Coleopterists Society Annual General Meeting, online.
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2018
Workshop on Molecular Evolution, Woods Hole, MA, United States.
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2016
XI Reunión Latinoamericana de Scarabaeoidologia [11th Latin American Meeting of Scarab Beetles], Lavras, Brazil.
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XXXI Congresso Brasileiro de Zoologia [31st Brazilian Congress of Zoology], Cuiabá, Brazil.
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2015
Organisms and Earth International Symposium – Harvard University, David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies, São Paulo, Brazil.
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III Simpósio de Entomologia do Rio de Janeiro [3rd Symposium of Entomology of Rio de Janeiro], Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
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2014
XXX Congresso Brasileiro de Zoologia [30th Brazilian Congress of Zoology], Porto Alegre, Brazil.
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2013
II Simpósio de Entomologia do Rio de Janeiro [2nd Symposium of Entomology of Rio de Janeiro], Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
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2012
XXIX Congresso Brasileiro de Zoologia [29th Brazilian Congress of Zoology], Salvador, Brazil.
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2011
I Simpósio de Entomologia do Rio de Janeiro [1st Symposium of Entomology of Rio de Janeiro], Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
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2010
II Simpósio em Genética e Evolução [2nd Symposium in Genetics and Evolution], Rio de Janeiro, Brazil;
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XXVIII Congresso Brasileiro de Zoologia [28th Brazilian Congress of Zoology], Belém, Brazil.
The 2018 Workshop on Molecular Evolution, in Woods Hole, MA, United States, where I saw that many of my questions could be at least partially answered by a molecular approach.
In 2018, I spoke to my colleagues at the Federal University of Paraná about the participation of dung beetles in the Great American Biotic Interchange.
(Left) A conversation with Alain Dubois at the 33rd Brazilian Congress of Zoology in 2020. Despite our disagreements on several aspects, it is undeniable that Dubois possesses a profound knowledge of zoological nomenclature and has proposed many great ideas to enhance the discipline. (Right) Exploring the significant Messel Pit paleontological site near Frankfurt, Germany, in 2019.
Graduate level
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2023: Main lecturer. A one-week, 40-hour course called "The Species Problem", jointly by the Graduate Program in Entomology, Graduate Program in Zoology, and Graduate Program in Ecology, Federal University of Paraná, Brazil. While focussing on the problem of defining the species category, we also addressed other topics in speciology, from phylogeography to human evolution and folk taxonomy.
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2023‒2018: Teaching assistant. Every year during this period, I taught classes in the course “Coleoptera”, at the Graduate Program in Entomology, Federal University of Paraná, Brazil. The topics of the classes were “Neuropteroidea”, “Introduction to Coleoptera”, “Scarabaeoidea”, “Cleroidea” and “Lymexyloidea”, including both theoretical and practical parts. I also assisted in the evaluation of the students’ final seminars.
2023‒2021, 2015‒2013: Teaching assistant and invited lecturer: Six times, once in each of these years, the class “Scarabaeoidea” in the course “Coleopterology”, Graduate Program in Zoology, National Museum, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Undergraduate level
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2019: Invited lecturer: The four-hour course “Coleoptera” at the 8th Entomology Course, Federal University of Paraná, Curitiba, Brazil.
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2018: Teaching assistant: Twelve classes in the course “Metazoa II”, in the Undergraduate Program in Biological Sciences of the Federal University of Paraná, Curitiba, Brazil. The topics of the classes were “Polychaeta”, “Hirudinea”, “Gastropoda” and “Lophophorata and the Phylogeny of Metazoa”, including both theoretical and practical classes.
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2015: Invited lecturer: Two classes in the course “Evolution, systematics, and biogeography” of the Undergraduate Program in Biological Sciences, Federal University of Mato Grosso, Cuiabá, Brazil. The classes, each lasting two hours, dealt with “Zoological Nomenclature” and “Zoological Collections”.
Co-supervision
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Master’s thesis
2017‒2019: Xiomara Villalba-Carmona. Project: Sistemática de los grupos subhyalinus y variabilis del subgénero Glaphyrocanthon (Canthon Hoffmannsegg: Scarabaeinae). Programa de Maestría en Ciencias Biológicas, Universidad Pedagógica y Tecnológica de Colombia, Colombia. Main supervisor: Claudia Medina.
Undergraduate research
2019: Sofía Travieso. Project: Preparation of Scarabaeinae (Coleoptera) material for the entomological collection. Federal University of Paraná, Brazil. Main supervisor: Cibele S. Ribeiro-Costa.
2014‒2016: Reynaldo Fontes. Project: Survey of the Rutelinae (Coleoptera, Melolonthidae) occurring in Itatiaia National Park, southeastern Brazil. National Museum, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Main supervisor: Marcela L. Monné.
Participation in thesis evaluation committees
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PhD thesis
2023: Tamara Gomes Carvalho, PhD student in the Graduate Program in Entomology at the Federal Rural University of Pernambuco, Brazil. Thesis title: Taxonomic studies of the immatures of Rutelinae with emphasis on Rutelini (Coleoptera: Melolonthidae).
2022: Adrian Troya, PhD student in the Graduate Program in Entomology at the Federal University of Paraná, Brazil. Thesis title: Taxonomic revision of the genus Neoponera Emery, 1901 (Hymenoptera, Formicidae) with focus on species distributed in Brazil.
Master’s thesis
2023: Adriana Andrade Mota, Master’s student in the Graduate Program in Entomology at the Federal Rural University of Pernambuco, Brazil. Thesis title: Systematics of the genus Enema Hope, 1837 (Coleoptera: Melolonthidae: Dynastinae: Oryctini) and taxonomic revision of Enema endymion Chevrolat, 1843.
2022: Adriana Lopes Paiva, Master’s student in the Graduate Program in Animal Biology at the Federal University of Pernambuco, Brazil. Thesis title: Revisão taxonômica do subgênero Malagoniella (Megathopomima) Martínez, 1961 (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae, Scarabaeinae).
Undergraduate thesis
2020: Giovane Caputo da Costa, student in the Undergraduate Program in Biological Sciences (Zoology) at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Title of the thesis: Descrição da larva e pupa de Rutela histrio Sahlberg, 1822 [sic] (Coleoptera, Scarabaeidae, Rutelinae).
2016: André Silva Roza, student in the Undergraduate Program in Biological Sciences (Zoology) at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Title of the thesis: Description of the immature stages of Pentacomia (Mesochila) smaragdula (Dejean 1825) (Coleoptera: Carabidae: Cicindelinae), with notes on the species distribution.