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St Laurent Lab
Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology (EBIO) & Museum of Natural History, University of Colorado Boulder
Welcome to the St Laurent Lab!
New research!
First report of orchid pollinia from a prominent moth
We report on a notodontid moth, found in a mangrove forest in Colombia, which shows evidence of visiting an orchid due to the presence of pollinia attached to its head. While at least one other notodontid was previously known to visit orchids, this is the first case from Nystaleinae, and the first record of pollinia being recovered from a notodontid specimen. An early step towards understanding notodontid-flower interactions in nature.
From Prada-Lara et al. 2024: Revista Chilena De Entomología, 50(4).

Integrative taxonomy of Cerurina-Afrocerura genus pair with the descriptions of four new species
Until very recently, the species-level identification of the related African notodontid genera Afrocerura and Cerurina was extremely confusing, with most species having been misidentified in the literature. Here we reexamine all relevant type specimens together for the first time, along with detailed study of morphology and genetic data to revise the classification of these moths.
From Mulvaney et al. 2024: Insect Systematics and Diversity, 8 (5).