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David H. Kavanaugh
B.A. San Jose State University (1967); M.A. University of Colorado (1970);
Ph.D. University of Alberta (1978). National Research Council of Canada
Predoctoral Scholar (1972-75). Assistant Curator, California Academy of
Sciences (1974-78); Associate Curator (1979-84); Curator (1984-88); Director
of Research (1986-88); Senior Curator (1988- ). Adjunct Professor, Sonoma
State University (1987- ). Research Professor, San Francisco State University
(1998- ). President, Coleopterists Society (1982); Executive Council (1978-81).
Chairman, Section A, Entomological Society of America (1979-80). President,
Pacific Coast Entomological Society (1981); Executive Council (1976-83).
Executive Council, Society of Systematic Zoology (1979-83). Fellow, California
Academy of Sciences.
The primary focus of my research program is the systematics, biogeography,
and evolution of members of the beetle family Carabidae, the "predaceous
ground beetles". Worldwide in distribution, this family includes
more than 40,000 described species and many thousands of additional species
yet to be discovered and described. Members of the family are also highly
diverse in their form, behavior, habitat preference, and life history.
For the past 20 years, my main research effort has been a monographic
study of the genus Nebria Latreille, which presently includes about
500 known species, all restricted to one or both of the northern (Holarctic)
continents. About 55 species are found in North America, all confined
to cool or cold habitats, and, therefore, found mainly in northern or
montane areas. Many species live at the margins of cold mountain streams
or alpine snowfields and glaciers. Active mainly at night, they emerge
from daytime hiding places under the protective cover of darkness to hunt
their prey--other insects and invertebrates. My studies of these beetles
have taken me to all the major mountain ranges in North America to learn
first hand about the distributions, habitat requirements, and other aspects
of biology of these species. I am also investigating the evolutionary
relationships and geographical histories of members of this group through
the study of fossil specimens and the use of such analytical techniques
as cladistics and vicariance biogeography.
Concurrently, I am investigating evolutionary relationships among the
different subgroups (tribes and genera) of ground beetles in an attempt
to reconstruct their genealogy. Such work depends on inference gained
from detailed comparative studies of internal and external structure,
life history, behavior, distribution, and habitat. I am also working on
faunal inventories for several areas around the world, including Costa
Rica, Madagascar, China, and Papua New Guinea.
I am also interested in theoretical aspects of systematics, biogeography,
and evolution and plan to continue contributing to the conceptual development
of these active research fields.
Kavanaugh, D. H. 1972. Hennig's principles and methods of phylogenetic
systematics. The Biologist 54:115-127.
_____________. 1978. Chapter 8. Hennigian phylogenetics in contemporary
systematics: principles, methods, and uses. Pp. 139-150. In: Beltsville
symposia in agricultural research, 2. Biosystematics in agriculture.
Allenheld, Osmun and Company, Montclair, New Jersey (distributed by Halstead
Press, New York), xii + 340 pp.
_____________. 1979. Rates of taxonomically significant diiferentiation
in relation to geographical isolation and habitat: examples from a study
of the Nearctic Nebria fauna. Pp. 35-57. In: Erwin, T. L., G. E.
Ball, D. R. Whitehead, and A. L. Halpern (editors), Carabid beetles:
their evolution, natural history, and classification (Proceedings
of the First International Symposium of Carabidology, Smithsonian Institution,
Washington, D. C. , August 21, 23, and 25, 1976). W. Junk, b.v., Publishers,
The Hague, 635 pp.
_____________. 1979. Studies on the Nebriini (Coleoptera: Carabidae),
III. New Nearctic Nebria species and subspecies, nomenclatural
notes, and lectotype designations. Proceedings of the California Academy
of Sciences 42:87-133.
_____________. 1980. Insects of western Canada, with special reference
to certain Carabidae (Coleoptera): present distribution patterns and their
origins. The Canadian Entomologist 112:1129-1144.
_____________. 1986. A systematic review of amphizoid beetles (Amphizoidae:
Coleoptera) and their phylogenetic relationships to other Adephaga. Proceedings
of the California Academy of Sciences 44:67-109.
_____________. 1992. Carabid beetles (Coleoptera: Carabidae) of the
Queen Charlotte Islands, British Columbia. Memoirs of the California
Academy of Sciences, 16, vii + 113 pp.
Kavanaugh, D.H. and T.L. Erwin. 1991. The tribe Cicindini Bänninger
(Coleoptera: Carabidae): comparative morphology, classification, natural
history, and evolution. Proceedings of the Entomological Society of
Washington, 93:356-389.
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