Thalles Platiny Lavinscky Pereira

Associate, Organismic and Evolutionary Biology
Thalles Lavinscky Pereira, smiling and holding a drawer of insect specimens, in front of gray collections cabinets
Museum of Comparative Zoology Harvard University 26 Oxford Street Cambridge, MA 02138
tlavinsckypereira@fas.harvard.edu

MCZ Biodiversity Postdoctoral Fellow, 2023-2025

50 new species for the 49th state - Alaska: using integrative taxonomy to illuminate a dark taxon (Diptera: Phoridae)

Thalles’ research focuses on the diversity of flies (Diptera), especially the Phoridae family, using morphological and molecular data (barcoding with nanopore sequencing technology). Additionally, his interests include natural history collections-based research, taxonomy, systematics, and co-phylogeny of ant parasitoid flies (Apocephalus series: Phoridae: Diptera). Although his previous papers and new species described (9) were based on neotropical specimens, his new project will focus on Alaskan and Beringian specimens (from +40°C to -40°C!). He will be using Large-scale Integrative Taxonomy, aiming to better understand the diversity of Phoridae in the Arctic and Subarctic Regions and its distribution patterns across Alaska, Canada, and Sweden.

Recent activities:

Science Spotlight at the Harvard Museum of Natural History: "How to Help a Scientist Find a New Species."

Discussing snakeworm gnats on the New Species podcast

Recent Publication: 

Boeger WA, Valim MP, Zaher H, Rafael JA, Forzza RC, Percequillo AR, Serejo CS, Garraffoni ARS, Santos AJ, Pereira TPLavinsc, et al. Catálogo Taxonômico da Fauna do Brasil: Setting the baseline knowledge on the animal diversity in Brazil. Zoologia (Curitiba). 2024;41 :e24005. DOI (full text)