Biography

Research Areas

I am an organismal biologist broadly interested in questions related to the evolution of symbioses, evolution of agriculture in insects, and patterns of insect diversity. My lab primarily focuses on fungus-farming ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae), which engage in a multipartite symbiosis with basidio­mycete fungi, ascomycete fungi, and actinomycete bacteria. The complex interrelation­ships between fungus-farming ants and their fungal part­ners make them an ex­cellent model system for exploring questions about the evolution of symbiosis along the mutualism-parasitism contin­uum, coevolutionary processes, and the evolutionary dynamics of conflict and cooperation. The Sosa-Calvo AntLab employs an integrative approach, combining tra­ditional morphological tools with cutting-edge genomic methods, field-based observation, museum and herbarium collections, and natural history data to address these questions.

In addition, my lab uses phylogenomic methods to investigate the evolutionary history of parasitic wasps and selected bee lineages, with the goal of uncovering biogeographic patterns and the drivers of diversification.