Our Team
GERARD TALAVERA
Gerard is an evolutionary biologist specialised on butterfly migrations and the spatial distribution of genetic diversity.Dr. Gerard Talavera leads the Worldwide Painted Lady Migration Project. He is a CSIC researcher, studying the biodiversity of the insects and its evolutionary history. His work currently focuses on the evolution of migratory strategies in butterflies.
He combines field ecology, phylogeography, genomics and niche modelling to track migratory routes and to map genetic diversity across space. He has long experience in the laboratory as well as in exploration, and has led numerous scientific expeditions in more than 30 countries in five continents, particularly in studying the insect migration phenomenon. Gerard leads the Insect Migration and Phylodiversity Lab at the Institut Botànic de Barcelona (IBB, CSIC). He is also associated to the Museum of Comparative Zoology (MCZ), Harvard University (USA), and he is a National Geographic Explorer. 
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MATTIA MENCHETTI
Mattia is an experienced researcher and zoologist particularly interested in insect diversity.Mattia Menchetti works as a project assistant and coordinates the monitoring network of the Worldwide Painted Lady Migration Project. He is currently a PhD student at the Institute of Evolutionary Biology (IBE), CSIC-UPF in Barcelona.
Open access and citizen science lover, he uses new technologies and social media to promote scientific divulgation and boost research activities. He mainly works on insect phylogeography, with a focus on butterflies and ants, after some years understanding biological invasions and biodiversity changes in Mediterranean areas. He has been also involved in a number of biogeographic and behavioural ecologic studies on different animal groups, from small nematodes to large rodents as porcupines. |
ROGER VILA
Roger is a researcher specialised in butterfly diversity, evolution and ecology.Dr. Roger Vila is a CSIC Researcher at the Institute of Evolutionary Biology (IBE), CSIC-UPF in Barcelona, where he leads the Butterfly Diversity and Evolution Lab.
His current research focuses on biodiversity patterns (biogeographical, ecological, genetical, morphological, etc.) and the evolutionary processes that produced them. Insects in general and butterflies in particular are used in his lab as model systems to answer questions of wide biological meaning. He has discovered several species new to science, including both butterflies and ants, and is a specialist in cryptic biodiversity. As a result of his expeditions, he has gathered an impressive DNA and Tissues collection of over 90 thousand butterfly samples from more than 85 countries. 
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Collaborators
MARTIAL KIKI
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NAOMI PIERCE
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DINO MARTINS
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