Invertebrate Zoology Division Chair and Curator James Carpenter joins Dennis Stevenson of the New York Botanical Garden on a Constantine S. Niarchos Expedition to Australia in search of pollen wasps, their host plants, and the ways they might be adapted to each other.
Along the way, they discover a new pollen wasp species, Paragia ozoe, and a plant family, Proteaceae, previously unknown to host wasp pollinators. The rare teaming of zoologist and botanist underscores the value of interdisciplinary collaboration and of building scientific collections.