Larry Gilbert

Professor, Section of Integrative Biology,
Director, Brackenridge Field Laboratory

Lab web page Education | Research Interests | Instruction | Awards | Publications

Video: PC | Mac

E-mail:
lgilbert@mail.utexas.edu
Office:
PAT 440,
(512) 471-4705
Lab:

PAT 443, 448,
(512) 471-8240

Fax:
(512) 471-3878
Brackenridge Field Lab:
BFL 109,
(512) 471-2825

 

Education

  • B.A., Biology with Special Honors in Botany, University of Texas at Austin, 1966
  • Ph.D., Biological Sciences, Stanford University, 1971

Research Interests

Dr. Gilbert's current research ranges from the analysis of coevolved traits of insects and plants to experimental population dynamics and developmental genetics of mimetic color patterns in Heliconius butterflies. By working across different levels of biology in the same tropical food web, he hopes to understand both the context and the mechanisms of evolution and coevolution. By carefully studying population-level events in the system, he hopes to understand rain forest diversity in terms of why low density species persist and coexist with congeners locally. Many of his graduate students have worked on different or overlapping systems at his main field site in Corcovado Park, Costa Rica; others have pursued related problems of species interaction in a variety of sites from Texas to Africa. He is also interested in applying findings of basic evolutionary ecology to conservation of diversity and better management to agroecosystems.

More information - see also the Gilbert Lab web page.

Instruction

  • BIO 373L - Ecology Laboratory
  • ZOO 384L - Grad Field Course in Rainforest Research

Awards/Honors

  • Phi Eta Sigma (UT Austin)
  • Phi Beta Kappa (UT Austin)
  • Omicron Delta Kappa (UT Austin)
  • UT Ex-Students Associate Award, 1966
  • "T" Association (UT Austin)
  • Fulbright Graduate Fellowship to Oxford University, 1966-1967
  • National Institutes of Health Predoctoral Fellowship to Stanford University, 1967-1971

Publications

  • Morrison, L.W., S.D. Porter, and L.E. Gilbert. 1999. Sex ratio variation as a function of host size in Pseudacteon flies (Diptera: Phoridae), parasitoids of Solenopsis fire ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae). Biological Journal of the Linnean Society. In press.
  • Morrison, L.W., E.A. Kawazoe, R. Guerra, and L.E. Gilbert. 1999. Phenology and dispersal in Pseudacteon flies (Diptera, Phoridae), parasitoids of Solenopsis fire ants (Hymenoptera, Formicidae). Annals of the Entomological Society of America. In press.
  • Folgarait, P.J. and L.E. Gilbert. 1999. Phorid parasitoids affect foraging activity of Solenopsis richteri under different availability of food in Argentina. Ecological Entomology. In press.
  • Morrison, L.W. and L.E. Gilbert. 1998. Parasitoid-host relationships when host size varies: the case of Pseudacteon flies and Solenopsis fire ants. Ecological Entomology. 23:409-416.
  • Gilbert, L.E. and L.W. Morrison. 1997. Patterns of host specificity in Pseudacteon parasitoid flies (Diptera, Phoridae) that attack Solenopsis fire ants (Hymenoptera, Formicidae) Environmental Entomol. 26:1149-1154.