Randall T. Schuh

George T. Willett Curator Emeritus, Hemiptera, Minor Orders

Professor Emeritus, Richard Gilder Graduate School

Email:
schuhSPAMFILTER@amnh.org
Phone:
212-769-5610
Download Curriculum Vitae

Education

  • University of Connecticut, Ph.D., 1971
  • Michigan State University, M.S., 1967
  • Oregon State University, B.S., 1965

Research Interests

The systematic study of the 40,000 species Heteroptera (true bugs) is the empirical focus of Dr. Schuh's work.  His program of field and revisionary work on the family Miridae has encompassed North America, South America, South Africa, and Australia. Dr. Schuh has worked to create a phylogenetic classification for the mirid subfamily Phylinae and in the process has described nearly 100 genera and more than 600 species.  A 5-year Planetary Biodiversity Inventory award from the NSF funded description and integration of the Australian and South African faunas into a world classification, with the concomitant training of postdocs and PhD students.  

 In 2011 Dr. Schuh spearheaded a proposal to the NSF to study plant-herbivore-parasitoid interactions through the creation of a large-scale specimen database.  This project involves seven collaborating institutions and 25 additional zoological and botanical collections.  A database of more than 1.4 million specimens of Hemiptera is being created using software and methods developed as part of the the Plant Bug Planetary Biodiversity Inventory award. 

As part of his commitment to furthering our understanding of systematic methods Dr. Schuh co-authored with Andrew Brower the graduate-level textbookBiological Systematics: Principles and Applications(2009).  He is also co-author of the reference workTrue Bugs of the World (Hemiptera: Heteroptera), Classification and Natural History(1995).  Both works are published by Cornell University Press.  Dr. Schuh has also published extensively on the phylogenetic relationships and classification of the Heteroptera as a whole.

Links

Division of Invertebrate Zoology

Richard Gilder Graduate School

Planetary Biodiversity Inventory (PBI) for Plant Bugs

NSF Tritrophic Digitization Project

Facebook Tritrophic Digitization Project

Publications

Cassis, G. and R.T. Schuh. 2010. Systematic methods, fossils, and relationships within Heteroptera (Insecta). Cladistics  26: 262–280.

Schuh, R. T.  1995.  Plant bugs of the World (Heteroptera: Miridae):  Systematic catalog, distributions, host list, and bibliography.  New York Entomological Society. 1329 pp.  (see:  http://research.amnh.org/pbi/catalog/)

Schuh, R.T. and A.V.Z. Brower.  2009.  Biological Systematics:  Principles and Applications.  Second Edition.  Cornell University Press, Ithaca.  311 pp.

Schuh, R.T. and P. Pedraza. 2010.Wallabicoris, new genus (Hemiptera: Miridae: Phylinae: Phylini) from Australia, with the description of 37 new species and an analysis of host associations. Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History  338: 117 pp

Schuh, R. T. and J. A. Slater.  1995.  True Bugs of the World (Hemiptera: Heteroptera).  Classification and Natural History.  Cornell University Press, Ithaca, New York.  xii + 338 pp.

Schuh, R.T. and C. Weirauch.  2010.  Myrtaceae-feeding Phylinae (Hemiptera: Miridae) from Australia.  Description and analysis of phylogenetic and host relationships for a monophyletic assemblage of three new genera.  Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History  344: 95 pp.

Schuh, R.T., S. Hewson-Smith, and J.S. Ascher.  2010.  Specimen databases:  A case study in entomology using Web-based software.  American Entomologist  56: 206–216.

Schuh, R.T., C. Weirauch, and W.C. Wheeler.  2009.  Phylogenetic analysis of family-group relationships in the Cimicomorpha (Hemiptera).  Systematic Entomology, 34: 15--48.

Schuh, R.T., C. Weirauch, T.J. Henry, and S.E. Halbert.  2008.  A new family of Heteroptera from the Eastern United States (Insecta).  Annals of the Entomological Society of America, 101:20--29.

Weirauch, C. and R.T. Schuh.  2011.  Systematics and evolution of Heteroptera:  25 years of progress.  Annual Review of Entomology  56: 487–510.

Teaching Experience

Faculty Appointments

  • Adjunct Professor, Doctoral Program in Evolutionary Biology, CUNY, 1978–present
  • Adjunct Professor, Department of Entomology, Cornell University, 1988–present

Courses Taught

  • Principles of Systematics, CUNY (1994, 1996, 1998, 2000, 2002, 2004)
  • Biogeography, CUNY (1988, 1990, 1992)

Graduate Advisees

  • Christiano Schwertner, CAPES Fellow, Brazil
  • Christiane Weirauch, Frei Universitat, Berlin, Annette Kade Fellow
  • Sabra Turnbull, CUNY/New York Botanical Garden
  • Marc Williams, CUNY
  • Michael D. Schwartz, CUNY

Graduate Committees

  • Dimitri Forero, Cornell University
  • Thomas J. Henry, University of Maryland
  • Joe McHugh, Cornell University
  • Kurt Johnson, CUNY
  • Mary Rauchenberger, CUNY
  • Steve Churchill, CUNY
  • Bonnie Bain, CUNY