Florida Museum of Natural History
Kawahara Lab
Led by Akito Y. Kawahara · Florida Museum of Natural History (McGuire Center for Lepidoptera and Biodiversity)
What we study
The Kawahara Lab studies the evolution and diversity of insects, especially butterflies and moths. It uses museum specimens, behavior studies and genome sequencing to ask questions such as how moths evolved ears to hear bats, and also studies how habitat loss and artificial light affect common insects.
What working here is like
- Wet lab
- Fieldwork
- Computational
- Other insects
- Coding helps
- Papers
- 5
Recent papers, explained
- Extensive climate-induced range shifts in butterflies across the globe
2026 · Nature Ecology & Evolution
Shows climate change drives most butterfly range shifts globally.
- Morphological and phylogenetic data support a new bagworm moth subfamily, Tenuipsychinae (Lepidoptera: Psychidae)
2026 · Insect Systematics and Diversity
Describes a new subfamily of bagworm moths with unique biology and morphology.
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- Diversity of swimming behavior in larval Lepidoptera
2026 · Journal of Insect Science
Observes diverse swimming behaviors in butterfly larvae when submerged in water.
- Genomics and CT imaging reveal diversity in silk genes and gland morphology of webspinners
2026 · G3 Genes Genomes Genetics
Analyzes the genomes and silk glands of webspinners to study silk evolution.
- The repeated evolution of anti-bat bioacoustics in hawkmoths
2026 · Proceedings of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences
Examines how hawkmoths evolved sounds to avoid bats, using genetics and imaging.
Plain-language summaries are AI-written and reviewed by us; check the paper for details.
How to reach out
Akito Y. Kawahara hasn't set up this page yet. Their UF Scholars profile lists their publications.