Working Group

My research focuses on the biodiversity, biogeography, and taxonomy of Nearctic terrestrial isopods, specifically in the Southeastern United States (given that this is where I currently reside). The diversity of Nearctic terrestrial isopods is low compared to climatically similar regions, and with increasing globalization, exotic taxa will likely continue to proliferate as seen in the last few decades. Additionally, despite the seemingly low diversity of native taxa, a third of the 109 species reported from the United States and Canada are exotic, it has been realized that many represent superspecies yet to be split (e.g., Ligidium elrodii, Miktoniscus spinosus, Porcellionides virgatus). 

Nathan manages most of AIMG's activities, including the website and social platforms. He hopes that this website will provide valuable information to all who are interested in isopods. If you have any suggestions for the website, need help with a project, need an isopod species identified, or anything else isopod-related, feel free to contact him.

Sequoia is a recent graduate from SUNY-ESF. Her future career goals include taxonomy and field study, mainly of Isopods. She is currently working on a global isopod synthesis collecting information on taxonomy, ecology and morphology of all known isopods.

Oonagh is a high school student with experience in the biological sciences both professionally and from a hobbyist perspective. She specializes in work based around invertebrate and herpetofaunal subjects. Her skills include, but are not limited, to: field collection, husbandry, species identification, and morphological analyses.

 In addition to these professional pursuits she also partakes in creative work in the form of wildlife photography and scientific illustration for the AIMG group, and moderates their social media forum. Her work currently focuses on examining the biodiversity and phylogenetics of the native Armadillidae of western North America. She also works with Xstodesmid millipedes and Scolopocryptops, and hopes to publish her work in the future.

Benedikt is currently studying Pre- and Early History at the University of Tübingen and works as an academic assistant in the working group Terrestrial Paleoclimatology of the Senckenberg Centre for Human Evolution and Paleoenvironments. He is currently involved in research projects on Sauropodomorphs from Southern Germany.

Since 2022 he is part of the expert team for terrestrial isopods at the Red List Centre of Germany (Rote-Liste-Zentrum). He has experience with phylogenetic analysis, Micro-CT scanning, mapping, morphology, species identification and macro photography. His interests are especially in morphology and taxonomy.

Grant Wang is a high school student with aims for a career in systematics, morphological comparison, and curation. He is currently engaged in conducting surveys on Californian terrestrial isopods and neglected soil fauna groups as well as mapping out a better morphological understanding and taxonomic framework of the Pauropoda.

He has experience with field collection, species identification, macro photography, dissection, specimen processing and preparation, phylogenetic analysis, and morphological analysis.