KLI Colloquia are informal, public talks that are followed by extensive dissussions. Speakers are KLI fellows or visiting researchers who are interested in presenting their work to an interdisciplinary audience and discussing it in a wider research context. We offer three types of talks:
1. Current Research Talks. KLI fellows or visiting researchers present and discuss their most recent research with the KLI fellows and the Vienna scientific community.
2. Future Research Talks. Visiting researchers present and discuss future projects and ideas togehter with the KLI fellows and the Vienna scientific community.
3. Professional Developmental Talks. Experts about research grants and applications at the Austrian and European levels present career opportunities and strategies to late-PhD and post-doctoral researchers.
- The presentation language is English.
- If you are interested in presenting your current or future work at the KLI, please contact the Scientific Director or the Executive Manager.
Event Details
Topic description / abstract:
Unlike the stripes of zebras or the networks of spots found on the coats of cheetahs, the color patterns of butterflies and moths are composed of a limited number of homologous characters that are fully analogous to better known systems of homologs, such as the bones of pentadactyl limbs. This talk will introduce my recent work on the development and evolution of wing patterning in the tiger moths (Lepidoptera, Arctiidae). These animals show an enormous amount of phenotypic variation both within and across species. I will provide some preliminary hypotheses about the genetic and morphogenetic basis of this diversity, and introduce a new theoretical archetype that allows us to make sense of the patterns of the roughly 11,000 existent species of arctiids.
Biographical note:
Richard Gawne is a developmental and evolutionary biologist, currently working as a postdoctoral fellow at the KLI. He holds a PhD in Biology from Duke University. Richard completed his dissertation on the development and evolution of wing patterning in the bella moth Utetheisa ornatrix in 2017, under the supervision of Fred Nijhout. Before coming to the KLI, he was a visiting researcher at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, and a Fulbright fellow at the University of Copenhagen’s Center for Social Evolution.
