Biodiversity & Biocomplexity Unit, Okinawa Institute of Science & Technology Graduate University
Welcome to the Arilab.
We are happy to welcome our newest lab member, Nitish Narula, who comes highly recommended from the Avian phylogenomics group at NMSU. Nitish is our new computing technician and will work on specimen and molecular databases, bioinformatics, and statistical data analyses. He’s also got the best beard at OIST. Welcome!
The lab recently expanded by one member. We are excited o welcome John Deyrup to the team as a Research Technician. John comes to us (most recently) from Rutgers University, where he did a thesis on Dictyoptera phylogenetics. John has a great set of skills ranging from insect curation to molecular work and even some programming experience. He is going to be working on all the projects going on in the lab in some capacity.
Benoit, Cong, and Benjamin made a great discovery on their trip to China, the first workers of one of the rarest ant genera in the world, Bannapone! The genus had previously only been known from a queen collected about 15 years ago. Our paper describes the worker of a different species of the genus.
See the paper here: http://biotaxa.org/Zootaxa/article/view/zootaxa.3734.3.6
and news article here:
I am proud to announce a new species from Fiji, Pristomyrmex tsujii. Eli and I named it after our friend, Prof. Kazuki Tsuji, at the U. of the Ryukyus here in Okinawa, to recognize his work on Pristomyrmex punctatus, and for his efforts to foster connectivity with Japanese and foreign scientists. This genus is really cool, and this species is one of two species of Pristo in Fiji, both endemic to the archipelago. It’s got some weird intercaste wingless reproductives, with probably some interesting reproductive biology behind it, someone should study it!
Tsuji and tsujii 
Last week, from August 12th to the 16th, the children of Onna-son and surroundings had the chance to have an army of scientists from OIST teaching them about SCIENCE! This annual event, called the School of Science, became in spite of its young age an expected tradition for the local kids.
Therefore the Biodiversity and Biocomplexity unit had to be present! On Monday and Tuesday, 27 kids aged from 7 to 9 years old had the opportunity to learn more about arthropods living in Okinawa. During these two days, kids learned about the incredible diversity and importance of insects in terrestrial ecosystems. A brief lecture was proposed to them, quickly followed by field work! There, the young entomologists collected several species of spiders, ants, grasshoppers (quite diverse around the classroom), butterflies, ladybeetle, Hemipterans, and even a praying mantis!
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