LoPresti Plant/Insect Ecology Lab
Welcome to the LoPresti Lab's website. We are a group of passionate plant/insect ecologists and evolutionary biologists at the University of South Carolina.
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I am currently recruiting undergraduates (at U of SC) for the lab. While I do not have post-doc or visiting scientist funding, I would be happy to work with anyone on fellowship applications. Please get in touch if anything the lab does sounds interesting!
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At this time, I have a wonderful set of graduate students and am not considering any more.
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Research
Our research is varied, but doesn't stray far from how plants and insects are able to survive and reproduce. We are currently studying pollination, generally, and more specifically the effects of pigment and morphology on pollination success in sand verbenas, seed ecology and seed defense against granivores, as well as "bodyguard" mutualisms in sticky plants. We also dabble in plant evolution, volatile chemistry, floral structure, insect community dynamics, and several other topics that are of interest to our lab members.