Julian Stark

Ph.D., Queensborough Community College

Research Interests

In addition to my association with the Museum, I am an Assistant Professor of Biology at Queensborough Community College, where I teach Anatomy and Physiology and General Biology II. My research interests involve two families of the Ephydroidea (Diptera), the Ephydridae and the Drosophilidae. More specifically, I have revised the genus Dagus of the Ephydrinae and am currently working on a description of amber fossil specimens in the apparently frog-parasitic genus Beckeriella of the Gymnomyzinae. This is part of a larger project to revise the sister genera Beckeriella and Gastrops. Past and future interests in the Ephydridae also include the predaceous gymnomyzine genus Ochthera   My interest in the Hawaiian Drosophila became the subject of my Ph.D. thesis and has been my major focus for the last 10 years. I am specifically interested in the Antopocerus-Modified Tarsus-Cilated Tarsus Clade, which are characterized by highly unusual foretarsal morphology. I am investigating the evolutionary relationships both within this clade, and of the clade to the rest of the Hawaiian Drosophila by means of a combined morphological/ molecular systematic approach.

Publications

2010    Stark, J, and P.M. O’Grady. Morphological variation in the forelegs of the Hawaiian Drosophilidae. I. The AMC clade. J. Morph. 271(1): 86-103. 

2002    Bonacum, J., J. Stark, and E. Bonwich. PCR. Chapter 14: PCR Methods and Approaches. In: Methods and Tools in Biosciences and Medicine: Techniques in Molecular Evolution and Systematics (DeSalle, R., Giribet, G., and Wheeler, W., eds.). Pg. 302-327. Birkhäuser Verlag, Basel 

1999    Stark, J., J. Bonacum, J. Remsen, and R. DeSalle. The Evolution and Development of Dipteran Wing Veins: A Systematic Approach. Ann. Rev. Ent. 44: 97-130. 

1993    Stark, J. A revision of the Neotropical Genus Dagus Cresson (Diptera: Ephydridae). Amer. Mus. Nov. 3080: 21 pp.