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Derek Uhey, Contributing Editor
Full name:
Derek Uhey
City, state, country:
Flagstaff, AZ
Biography:

I'm fascinated by a wide-range of arthropods, but especially fond of ants and beetles. For my doctorate I am examining harvester ants (Pogonomyrmex spp.) ecology. Over the past decade I have done many investigations into ground-dwelling arthropod communities using pit traps around the SW US. These projects have lead me into the photography and identification of many groups, and most of my photographs here are from my research collections. I seek to curate my specimens in museums, mainly the Colorado Plateau Arthropod Museum of Biodiversity, Forest Entomology Museum at Northern Arizona University, and Museum of Northern Arizona. I am fortune to work in an understudied area and greatly appreciate the help the bugguide community has provided me over the years, which has contributed to many range-expansions, records of rare specimens new to bugguide, and even a new ant species!

New ant species, Strumigenys superstes:

Booher, D. and Uhey, D., 2020. New Native Trap-Jaw Ant, Strumigenys Smith1, from the Neotropical Excisa Species Group Discovered in a Disjunct Region and Climate on the Colorado Plateau. Southwestern Entomologist, 45(3), pp.663-672.

Third known locality of a rare cave-dwelling louse:

Uhey, D. and Kendall, D., 2020. Third Known Locality for the Booklouse Speleketor flocki Gurney1 Found in Big Gypsum Valley, Colorado. Southwestern Entomologist, 45(1), pp.297-299.

Below are some of my other favorites:

Ground beetles:


Weevils:




Clown beetles:


Ants:


Others:


List of publications associated with my bugguide records:

Uhey, D.A., K.A. Haubensak, and R.W. Hofstetter. 2021. Mid-elevational Peaks in Diversity of Ground-dwelling Arthropods with High Species Turnover on the Colorado Plateau. Environmental Entomology. https://doi.org/10.1093/ee/nvaa166

Uhey, D.A., H. Riskas, A. Smith, and R. Hofstetter. 2020. Ground-dwelling arthropods of pinyon-juniper woodlands: climate and productivity drive community patterns. PLoS ONE, 15(8):e0238219. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0238219.

Uhey, D.A., R.W. Hofstetter, M. Remke, S. Vissa, and K.A. Haubensak. 2020. Climate and vegetation structure shape ant communities along elevational gradients on the Colorado Plateau. Ecology and Evolution, 10(15), 8313-8322. https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.6538.

Uhey, D.A., A.K. Rowe, and D. Kendall. 2020. Tamarisk alters arthropod composition but has little negative effect on richness and abundance in southwestern Colorado. Southwestern Entomologist. 45(3): 585-600.


"Why are there so many kinds of plants? As a zoologist I do not want to attack that question directly, I want to stick with animals, but also to get the answer."
-Hutchinson, 1959