Member list
Current members
- Lan-Wei Yeh
- Ecology and evolution of Taiwanese Carabus ground beetles.
- Chung-Hsin Huang
- Master topic: Flucuating Asymmetry and Developmental Asymmetry of Cyclommatus mniszechi; PhD topic: Evolution of Mandible Morphology and Fighting Behavior in Stag Beetles
- Ying-Yuan Lo
- Systematics, Behavior and Evolution of Lynx Spiders.
- Leocris Batucan Jr.
- New Species and DNA Barcoding of the Mayfly (Ephemeroptera) in Mt. Malindang, Mindanao, Philippines.
- Chun-Yu Lin
- Parasitoid Wasps of Damselflies; Phylogenetics and Evolution Histories of Treehoppers
- Hsu-Yi Lin
- Fighting Behavior of Odontolabis siva parryi Stag Beetles
- Sheng Lin
- Transcriptome Profiling Psolodesmus mandarinus mandarinus Damselfly
- Pei-Hsuan Chang
- Thermal Adaptation and Habitat Preference of Psolodesmus mandarinus Damselfly
- Min-Chen Lin
- Masahiko Tanahashi
- Ecology and Evolution of Pachyrhynchus Weevils.
- Su-Ping Lin
- Symbiotic Yeasts of Stag Beetles
- Jun-Ying Wang
- Conservation of Mortonagrion hirosei Damselflies
- Chin-Han Hsiao
- Fighting Behavior of Rhaetulus crenatus Stag Beetles
- Wei-Zhe Tseng
- Systematics and Evolution of Weevils
- Cheng-Tse Yung
- Maternal Gift of Pachyrhynchus sarcitis Weevils
Past members
- Jo-Fan Wang
- Territorial behavior, trait evolution.
- Yu-Hsun Hsu
- Mating strategy, behavioural ecology, molecular ecology, population genetics, molecular phylogenetics, biostatistics.
- Yi-Shou Yang
- Reproductive Isolation of Psolodesmus mandarinus subspecies.
- Wataru Kojima
- Evolution of male sexual traits in Taiwanese scarab beetles.
- Zhen-Yi Chen
- Fighting behavior and reproductive strategy of stag beetles.
- Teng-Yu Liu
- Fighting behaviour and life history observation of a stag beetle Rhaetulus crenatus crenatus.
- Princess Angelie S. Casas
- Insect Diversity and Evolution
- Lu-Yi Wang
- Defense Mechanism of Pachyrhynchus weevils.
- Hui-Yun Tseng
- Aposematic coloration, island biogeography.
- Yu-Jen Yu
- Variation and Adaptation of wings.
- Yen-Ting Chen
- Systematics and evolution of insects.
- Yun-Chieh Cheng
- Damselfly larval diet, molecular evolution.
- Tai-Chia Chiang
- The effect of aposematic colors of Pachyrhynchus weevils on avian predators.
- Yong-Chao Su
- Behavioral ecology, sociobiology, population genetics, and molecular phylogenetics.
- I-Ting Hsiao
- Variation of genitalia in Euphaea amphicyana.
- Jyun-Huei Huang
- The fighting behavior of a stag beetle, Rhaetulus crenatus.
- Shi-Ting Wu
- Membracis Phyllotropis.
- Chiao-Wei Lin
- The fighting behavior of a stag beetle, Rhaetulus crenatus.
- Wei-Liang Xiao
- Variation of wing veins in Euphaea amphicyana.
- Hung-Nien Chen
- 1. The effect of typhoon on survivalship of Matrona cyanoptera. 2. Modes of phenotypic variation in Euphaea amphicyana.
- Chu-Yen Cheng
- Phylogeography of a Philippine's treehopper, Leptocentrus reponens.
- Che-Yu Kuan
- Variation of mandibles in stag beetles.
- Yat-Hung Lee
- Speciation of Euphaea damselflies.
- Ming-Yu Chen
- Phylogeography and population history of the treehoppers, Centrochares horifficus from the Philippines Archipelago.
- Shao-Chang Huang
- Visual Communication of Matrona cyanoptera
- Jen-Pan Huang
- Population Genetics and Phylogeographic Analyses of Formosan Damselfly, Euphaea Formosa (Insecta: Odonata: Euphaeidae) from Taiwan
- Wei-Yun Chen
- Molecular and Phylogenetic Characterization of Endosymbiotic Bacteria of the Froghopper, Okiscarta uchidae (Insecta: Hemiptera: Cercopidae)
Visiting scholars and students
- Jillian del Sol
- Behavioral Ecology; Mating System Ecology; Weapon Ecology and Evolution; Evolutionary Biology
- Ian Dela Cruz
- New Species and DNA Barcoding of the Stonefly (Plecoptera) in Mt. Malindang, Mindanao, Philippines.
- Shinya Komata
- Ecology & Evolution of Wing Polymorphism in a Mimetic Swallowtail Butterfly, Papilio memnon.
- Vanitha Williams
- Predatory potential of waterbug, Diplonychus rusticus and dragonfly, Diplacodes trivialis on mosquito larvae.
- Marina Vilenica
- Dragonfly composition (Insecta, Odonata) in wetland area of Turopolje region, Croatia
- Klaas-Douwe 'KD' B. Dijkstra
- History, diversity and identification of dragonflies and damselflies (Odonata).
- Erin McCullough
- " Diversification of weapon form: aerodynamic costs of beetle horns.
- Ashley E. King
- Intrasexual combat and intersexual antagonistic co-evolution in horned beetles.
Min-Chen Lin

Title
Master student 2019-
Species: Pachyrhynchus

Project
Disruptive Camauflage of Colors of Pachyrhynchus Weevils.
Abstrct
E-mail:o58582626@gmail.com
Can Warning Coloration of Pachyrhynchus Weevils Function as Disruptive Camouflage?
Animal colors have many functions. Under different backgrounds, animal colors can change from warning to disruptive function. Disruptive coloration is a form of camouflage that uses body patterns to disrupt body outlines, create false boundaries, and interfere with predator’s identification. Pachyrhynchus weevils use two mechanisms to defend against predators, the aposematism and the hard exoskeleton. Field observations also found that when predators approach, Pachyrhynchus weevils feign death and fall to the ground. Most color types of Pachyrhynchus weevils are spots and stripes. Both color types can create false boundaries on their body outlines, but the stripe type may also have an effect of surface disruption, that is, the stripe visually divides the body into several segments. Therefore, the colors of Pachyrhynchus weevils can form false boundaries that disrupt the insect’s shapes under complex backgrounds. This study investigates the effect of disruptive camouflage of colors in Pachyrhynchus weevils and tests the defensive function of color patterns against predators. First, GabRat tool was used to quantify the degree of edge disruption in 37 weevil species under three backgrounds. Most of the species have medium degree of marginal disruption (GabRat values: 0.2-0.4). Only a few species have high (GabRat>0.4) or low (GabRat <0.2) degree of marginal disruptive. Especially when insects were on leaf background, they have low degree of marginal disruption. Secondly, humans were used as visual predators to test whether different color models have different degree of camouflage. The basic model was made into models with different degrees of marginal or surface disruption, and randomly placed on the background photos of different habitats. We present the picture on the computer screen, and use the Tobii 4C eye tracker to record the participant's search path, search time and model-finding rate. Preliminary results indicate that the stripe type has a higher effect of camouflage than the spot type, but the degree of disruption did not affect the effect of camouflage.