Publications

  • Tozetto, L., D. L. Forrister, M. Duval, T. Hays, N. C. Garwood, R. V. Castro, J. E. Lattke, S. Sendoya, and J. T. Longino. 2022. Army ant males lose seasonality at a site on the equator. Biotropica. https://doi.org/10.1111/btp.13192. Published, 12/2022.
  • Tozetto, L., D. L. Forrister, M. Duval, T. Hays, N. C. Garwood, R. V. Castro, J. E. Lattke, S. Sendoya, and J. T. Longino. 2023. Army ant males lose seasonality at a site on the equator. Biotropica 55: 382-395. https://doi.org/10.1111/btp.13192. Published, 12/2022.
  • Kass, J. M., B. Guénard, K. L. Dudley, C. N. Jenkins, F. Azuma, B. L. Fisher, C. L. Parr, H. Gibb, J. T. Longino, P. S. Ward, A. Chao, D. Lubertazzi, M. Weiser, W. Jetz, R. Guralnick, R. Blatrix, J. D. Lauriers, D. A. Donoso, C. Georgiadis, K. Gomez, P. G. Hawkes, R. A. Johnson, J. E. Lattke, J. A. MacGown, W. Mackay, S. Robson, N. J. Sanders, R. R. Dunn, and E. P. Economo. 2022. The global distribution of known and undiscovered ant biodiversity. Science Advances 8:eabp9908. Published, 08/2022.
  • Branstetter, M. G., J. T. Longino, J. L. Reyes-López, S. G. Brady, and T. R. Schultz. 2022. Out of the temperate zone: A phylogenomic test of the biogeographical conservatism hypothesis in a contrarian clade of ants. Journal of Biogeography. DOI: 10.1111/jbi.14462. Published, 07/2022.
  • Branstetter, M. G., and J. T. Longino. in press. UCE phylogenomics of New World Cryptopone (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) elucidates genus boundaries, species boundaries, and the vicariant history of a temperate-tropical disjunction. Insect Systematics and Diversity. Published, 01/25/2022.
  • Booher, D. B., J. C. Gibson, C. Liu, J. T. Longino, B. L. Fisher, M. Janda, N. Narula, E. Toulkeridou, A. S. Mikheyev, A. V. Suarez, and E. P. Economo. 2021. Functional innovation promotes diversification of form in the evolution of an ultrafast trap-jaw mechanism in ants. PloS Biology 19: e3001031. doi: 10.1371/journal.pbio.3001031. Published, 03/02/2021.
  • Longino, J. T. and M. G. Branstetter. 2021. Integrating UCE phylogenomics with traditional taxonomy reveals a trove of New World Syscia species (Formicidae: Dorylinae). Insect Systematics and Diversity 5:1-51. 10.1093/isd/ixab001. Published, 03/2021.
  • Longino, J. T. 2021. Army ants take the stage (review of Kronauer, D. J.C., Army Ants: Nature's Ultimate Social Hunters). Current Biology 31: R164-R165. doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2021.01.024. Published, 02/22/2021.
  • Longino, J. T. 2020. Azteca, pp 1-5 in Starr, C. (Ed.), Encyclopedia of Social Insects. Springer Nature, Cham. Published, 12/2020.
  • Longino, J. T., and R. K. Colwell. 2020. The arboreal ants of a Neotropical rainforest show high species density and comprise one third of the ant fauna. Biotropica 52:675-685. DOI: 10.1111/btp.12772. Published, 07/2020.
  • Longino, J. T., and M. G. Branstetter. 2020. Phylogenomic species delimitation, taxonomy, and ‘bird guide’ identification for the Neotropical ant genus Rasopone (Hymenoptera: Formicidae). Insect Systematics and Diversity, 4. DOI: 10.1093/isd/ixaa004. Published, 04/11/2020.
  • Smith, M. A., W. Hallwachs, D. H. Janzen, J. T. Longino, and M. G. Branstetter. 2020. A subterranean ant Acanthostichus Mayr, 1887 is revealed in Costa Rica. Insectes Sociaux. DOI: 10.1007/s00040-020-00754-9. Published, 02/2020.
  • Longino, J. T. 2020. Navigating the Ship of Theseus from typology to cartography. Megataxa 1:43-45. https://doi.org/10.11646/megataxa.1.1.8. Published, 01/31/2020.
  • Longino, J. T & D. B. Booher (2019). Expect the unexpected: a new ant from a backyard in Utah. Western North American Naturalist. Vol. 79, 496-499. Published, 10/2019.
  • Longino, J. T & M. G. Branstetter, and P. S. Ward (2019). Ant diversity patterns across tropical elevation gradients: effects of sampling method and subcommunity. Ecosphere. Vol. 10, e02798. Published, 08/2019.
  • Longino, J.T. (2019). Pheidole (Hymenoptera, Formicidae) of Middle American wet forest. Zootaxa. Vol. 4599, 1-126. Published, 05/2019.
  • Escárraga, M. E., J. T. Longino, and J. Sosa-Calvo. 2019. Subfamilia Proceratiinae. Pages 681-691 in F. Fernández, R. J. Guerrero, and T. Delsinne, editors. Hormigas de Colombia. Universidad Nacional Colombia, Bogotá. Published, 04/2019.
  • Branstetter, M. G. & John T Longino (2019). UCE phylogenomics of New World Ponera Latreille (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) illuminates the origin and phylogeographic history of the endemic exotic ant P. exotica. Insect Systematics and Diversity. Vol. 3, 1-13. Published, 03/01/2019.
    https://doi.org/10.1093/isd/ixz001
  • Economo, E. P., J.-P. Huang, G. Fischer, E. M. Sarnat, N. Narula, M. Janda, B. Guénard, J. T. Longino, L. L. Knowles. 2019. Evolution of the latitudinal diversity gradient in the hyperdiverse ant genus Pheidole. Global Ecology and Biogeography 28:456-470. Published, 01/2019.
  • Longino, J. T. and M. G. Branstetter. 2018. The truncated bell: an enigmatic but pervasive elevational diversity pattern in Middle American ants. Ecography. doi:10.1111/ecog.03871. Published, 05/22/2018.
    https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.fr48qn7
  • Pierce, M. P., M. G. Branstetter, and J. T. Longino. 2017. Integrative taxonomy reveals multiple cryptic species within Central American Hylomyrma FOREL, 1912 (Hymenoptera: Formicidae). Myrmecological News 25:131-143. Published, 10/01/2017.
  • Kendall, B., V. Tkach, Y. Gutierrez, J. Longino, and M. Couturier. 2017. Photo quiz: motile structures in the stool of a field biologist. Journal of Clinical Microbiology 55:2293. Published, 08/2017.
  • Kendall, B., V. Tkach, Y. Gutierrez, J. Longino, and M. Couturier. 2017. Answer to photo quiz: cestode proglottids. Journal of Clinical Microbiology 55:2562-2563. Published, 08/2017.
  • Branstetter, M. G., J. T. Longino, P. S. Ward, and B. C. Faircloth. 2017. Enriching the ant tree of life: enhanced UCE bait set for genome-scale phylogenetics of ants and other Hymenoptera. Methods in Ecology and Evolution. doi: 10.1111/2041-210X.12742. Published, 02/2017.
  • Sikes, D. S., K. Copas, T. Hirsch, J. T. Longino, and D. Schigel. 2016. On natural history collections, digitized and not: a response to Ferro and Flick. ZooKeys 618:145-158. Published, 09/26/2016.
  • Colwell, R. K., N. J. Gotelli, L. A. Ashton, J. Beck, G. Brehm, T. M. Fayle, K. Fiedler, M. L. Forister, M. Kessler, R. L. Kitching, P. Klimes, J. Kluge, J. T. Longino, S. C. Maunsell, C. M. McCain, J. Moses, S. Noben, K. Sam, L. Sam, A. M. Shapiro, X. Wang, and V. Novotny. 2016. Midpoint attractors and species richness: Modelling the interaction between environmental drivers and geometric constraints. Ecology Letters 19:1009-1022. Published, 06/30/2016.
  • Nepel, M., H. Voglmayr, R. Blatrix, J. T. Longino, K. Fiedler, J. Schönenberger, V. E. Mayer. 2016. Ant-cultivated Chaetothyriales in hollow stems of myrmecophytic Cecropia sp. trees - diversity and patterns. Fungal Ecology 23:131-140. Published, 06/2016.
  • Branstetter, M., J. T. Longino, J. Reyes-López, T. R. Schultz, S. G. Brady. 2016. Into the tropics: phylogenomics and evolutionary dynamics of a contrarian clade of ants. bioRxiv. Published, 02/18/2016.
  • McClearn, D., et al. 2016. Chapter 16. The Caribbean lowland evergreen moist and wet forests. Pages 527-587 in Kappelle, M. Ecosystems of Costa Rica. University of Chicago Press. Published, 01/2016.
  • Gilbert, L. E., et al. Chapter 12. The southern Pacific lowland evergreen moist forest of the Osa region. Pages 360-411 in Kappelle, M. Ecosystems of Costa Rica. University of Chicago Press. Published, 01/2016.
  • Smith, M. A., D. H. Janzen, W. Hallwachs, J. T. Longino. 2015 Observations of Adelomyrmex (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) reproductive biology facilitated by digital field microscopy and DNA barcoding. Canadian Entomologist 147:611-616. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.4039/tce.2014.82. Published, 10/2015.
  • Gibb, H., et al. 2015. Climate mediates the effects of disturbance on ant assemblage structure. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B: Biological Sciences 282: 20150418. http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2015.0418. Published, 05/20/2015.
  • Adams, R. M. M., T. H. Jones, J. T. Longino, R. G. Weatherford, and U. G. Mueller. 2015. Alkaloid venom weaponry of three Megalomyrmex thief ants and the behavioral response of Cyphomyrmex costatus host ants. Journal of Chemical Ecology, DOI:10.1007/s10886-015-0565-y. Published, 04/2015.
  • Longino, J. T., M. G. Branstetter, and R. K. Colwell. 2014. How ants drop out: ant abundance on tropical mountains. PLoS ONE 9:e104030. Published, 09/01/2014.
  • Longino, J. T., B. Boudinot. 2013. New species of Central American Rhopalothrix Mayr, 1870 (Hymenoptera, Formicidae). Zootaxa 3616:301-324. doi: 10.11646/zootaxa.3616.4.1. Published, 11/11/2013.
  • Longino, J. T. 2013. A revision of the ant genus Octostruma Forel 1912 (Hymenoptera, Formicidae). Zootaxa 3699:1-61. Published, 08/09/2013.
  • Longino, J. T. 2013. A review of the Central American and Caribbean species of the ant genus Eurhopalothrix Brown and Kempf, 1961 (Hymenoptera, Formicidae), with a key to New World species. Zootaxa 3693:101-151. Published, 07/29/2013.
  • Logan, C. J., J. T. Longino. 2013. Adult male coatis play with a band of juveniles. Brazilian Journal of Biology 73:353-355. Published, 05/31/2013.
  • Aguiar, A. P., A. R. Deans, M. S. Engel, M. Forshage, J. T. Huber, J. T. Jennings, N. F. Johnson, A. S. Lelej, J. T. Longino, V. Lohrmann, I. Mikó, M. Ohl, C. Rasmussen, A. Taeger, and D. S. K. Yu. 2013. Order Hymenoptera. Zootaxa 3703:51-62. Published, 02/21/2013.
  • Veijalainen, A., I. E. Sääksjärvi, T. L. Erwin, I. C. Gómez, and J. T. Longino. 2013. Subfamily composition of Ichneumonidae (Hymenoptera) from western Amazonia: insights into diversity of tropical parasitoid wasps. Insect Conservation and Diversity 6:28-37. doi: 10.1111/j.1752-4598.2012.00185.x. Published, 02/01/2013.
  • Veijalainen, A., N. Wahlberg, G. R. Broad, T. L. Erwin, J. T. Longino, and I. E. Sääksjärvi. 2012. Unprecedented ichneumonid parasitoid wasp diversity in tropical forests. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 279:4694-4698. doi: 10.1098/rspb.2012.1664. Published, 10/2012.
  • Longino, J. T. 2012. A review of the ant genus Adelomyrmex Emery 1897 (Hymenoptera, Formicidae) in Central America. Zootaxa 3456:1-35. Published, 09/2012.
  • Colwell, R. K., A. Chao, N. J. Gotelli, S. Lin, C. X. Mao, R. L. Chazdon, and J. T. Longino. 2012. Models and estimators linking individual-based and sample-based rarefaction, extrapolation, and comparison of assemblages. Journal of Plant Ecology 5:3-21. Published, 01/2012.
  • Longino, J. T. 2012. Conserved wildlands still count (review of Alonso, L. et al. 2011. Still counting... biodiversity exploration for conservation: the first 20 years of the Rapid Assessment Program). Ecology 93:1761-1762. Published, 01/2012.

Research Statement

We share the planet with millions of species, and many of them are insects. A childhood fascination with insects led me to an interest in ecology and the desire to explain patterns of diversity, and I settled on ants as an ecologically dominant group of insects worthy of study. As it became clear that I was living during a time of enormous biotic change caused by human activities, I developed a strong conviction that it was important not only to understand patterns of diversity but to document it in detail for this time in history. I divide my time between two research fields: taxonomy and ecology. On the taxonomy side, I have coordinated large-scale inventories of Neotropical insect biodiversity, I discover and describe new species of ants, and I further refine our understanding of species ranges and morphological variability. I make use of advanced imaging technology, specimen-level databases, and Web-dissemination to make biodiversity data available to the widest audiences. On the ecology side, I use quantitative inventory techniques that allow analysis of diversity patterns. I am interested in how species are distributed on tropical mountainsides, what ecological factors explain the elevational range limits of species, and how species might respond to climate change.

Research Keywords

  • entomology, ecology, insects, ants, biodiversity

Presentations

  • Entomological Society of America Annual Meeting, on-line. November 2020. "Global advances in ant phylogenomics" [symposium organizer]; "Middle America ant biogeography revealed: Highlights of Project ADMAC" [symposium presentation]. Presentation, Presented, 11/2020.
  • University of Costa Rica, Department of Biology, 13 Feb 2020: Sistemática mas clara con UCEs, el caso de la hormiga Adelomyrmex. Invited seminar. Invited Talk/Keynote, Presented, 02/13/2020.
  • Instituto de Ecología, Xalapa, Mexico, 10-11 June 2019: Proyecto ADMAC: Resultados de Veracruz y Oaxaca. Inaugural talk at the IV Reunión de Formicidae, México. Invited Talk/Keynote, Presented, 06/11/2019.
  • University of California, Riverside, Department of Entomology, 20 May 2019: Disappearing ant species: the figurative and the literal. Invited seminar. Invited Talk/Keynote, Presented, 05/20/2019.
  • Entomological Society of America Annual Meeting, Vancouver, BC, Canada. November 2018. "A new era of high-resolution taxonomy for Middle American ants." Invited symposium paper. Conference Paper, Presented, 11/2018.
  • The Ant Course (California Academy of Sciences), Nouragues Field Station, French Guiana, August 2018. Invited course instructor. Other, Presented, 08/2018.
  • XXIII Simpósio de Mirmecologia, Curitiba, Brazil. 24-27 October 2017. "Illumina-ting alpha taxonomy" Invited speaker. Invited Talk/Keynote, Presented, 10/24/2017.
  • Universidad de Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico, 26-30 June 2017: Pheidole de México: diversidad, taxonomía y determinación. Invited workshop instructor. Invited Talk/Keynote, Presented, 06/26/2017.
  • Universidad de Magdalena, Santa Marta, Colombia, 25-31 May 2017: Taller de Taxonomía de las hormigas Pheidole. Invited workshop instructor. Invited Talk/Keynote, Presented, 05/25/2017.
  • University of Utah College of Science, Science Night Live, Salt Lake City, 2 November 2016. Chasing demonic ants in Mayan ruins, and other stories. Invited public lecture. Invited Talk/Keynote, Presented, 11/02/2016.
  • 25st International Congress of Entomology, Orlando, Florida, USA, 25-30 September 2016. Tropical cloud forest ants: who are they and where did they come from? Invited symposium presentation. Invited Talk/Keynote, Presented, 09/25/2016.
  • The Ant Course (California Academy of Sciences), Southwest Research Station, Arizona, August 2015. Invited course instructor. Invited Talk/Keynote, Presented, 08/2015.
  • University of California, Davis, Department of Entomology, May 2015: Project ADMAC: ant diversity of the Mesoamerican corridor. Invited seminar. Invited Talk/Keynote, Presented, 05/2015.
  • Instituto de Ecología, Xalapa, Mexico, March 2015: Patrones altitudinales de diversidad en hormigas de MesoAmerica. Invited seminar. Invited Talk/Keynote, Presented, 03/2015.
  • University of Georgia, Department of Entomology, March 2015: Ants and Elevation in MesoAmerica. Invited seminar. Invited Talk/Keynote, Presented, 03/2015.
  • Entomological Society of America Annual Meeting, Portland, Oregon. November 2014. "Project ADMAC: ant diversity of the Mesoamerican corridor." Contributed paper. Conference Paper, Submitted, 11/2014.
  • The Ant Course (California Academy of Sciences), Maliau Basin, Borneo (Sabah), Malaysia, 2014. Invited course instructor. Invited Talk/Keynote, Presented, 07/2014.
  • University of Costa Rica, Department of Biology, May 2014: Patrones altitudinales de diversidad en hormigas de MesoAmerica. Invited seminar. Invited Talk/Keynote, Presented, 05/2014.
  • XXI Simpósio de Mirmecologia, Fortaleza, CE, Brazil. 1-5 December 2013. " Tropical Montane Ants: Taxonomic and Ecological Approaches" and "Rainforest ants revealed: a Project ALAS retrospective." Invited speaker. Invited Talk/Keynote, Presented, 12/01/2013.
  • Association for Tropical Biology and Conservation Annual Meeting, Costa Rica, July 2013, organizer of symposium "Ecology, evolution, and conservation of tropical insects," with contributed paper "Neotropical ants." . Conference Paper, Submitted, 07/2013.
  • University of Guelph, Integrative Biology Seminar Series, March 2013: Some like it cold: ants on tropical mountains. Invited seminar. Invited Talk/Keynote, Presented, 03/2013.
  • The Entomological Collections Network Annual Meeting, Knoxville, Tennessee. November 2012. "Keep the cash flowing: specimens as currency." Contributed paper. Conference Paper, Submitted, 11/2012.
  • Entomological Society of America Annual Meeting, Knoxville, Tennessee. November 2012. "Litter ants from Chiapas to Nicaragua: highlights from the LLAMA project." Contributed paper. Conference Paper, Submitted, 11/2012.
  • The Ant Course (California Academy of Sciences), Kibale Forest National Park, Uganda, August 2012. Invited course instructor. Invited Talk/Keynote, Presented, 08/2012.
  • The Entomological Collections Network Annual Meeting, Reno, Nevada. November 2011. "Biota: putting real specimen identifiers at the center." Contributed paper. Conference Paper, Submitted, 11/2011.

Languages

  • Spanish, fluent.

Geographical Regions of Interest

  • Central America