MomphiDiv - Phylogenomics of Momphidae

Funded by the Research and Scholarly Activity Fund (University of Toronto) and co-led by Prof Marc Johnson and myself.
Our objectives are to understand the evolutionary forces shaping the specialization and diversification of herbivores to their host plants. To meet this objective we will study the evolution of highly specialized micro-moths in the family Momphidae, which have undergone rapid diversification (ca. ~55 species) in North America, specializing on different plant species and tissues (e.g. flowers, leaves, stems, etc).

Picture from Bruzzese et al. 2019