Paula Cristina Pinto Simões

For many years I have been involved in biodiversity and entomofauna characterization studies and the monitoring of insect communities in projects related with environment, conservation and ecology.

I am presently, working on the biosystematics and evolution of species of cicadas (Insecta: Hemiptera) with focus on the divergence among populations of closely related species in the Mediterranean area.

My current research is driven by three main objectives:

1. collect long-term ecological data to investigate the processes affecting patterns of species distribution and diversity;
2. use different levels of analysis, namely genetic, behavioural and morphometric;
3. use cicadas as a model system to investigate ecological and evolutionary mechanisms and processes leading to population divergence and speciation.