Do you have a love of holometabolic insects? Ivonne Garzón is the president of their fan club! She studies a subset of geometrid moths that may look drab, but their colorful caterpillars and relationships with toxic plants make them endlessly interesting. “There is no way to get bored,” Ivonne says, “There is no way! You are amazed all the time.” 

The story of these moths also includes community; a visit to a caterpillar lab, a collaboration with the local herbarium, and a poll where over 5,000 people chose the name for one of her new species. For Ivonne, taxonomy makes her life joyful and interesting. Make your life more joyful and interesting by listening to Ivonne’s interview as she shares her wealth of knowledge and curiosity with all of us.

Ivonne Garzón’s paper “A new cryptic Phyllodonta Warren (Lepidoptera: Geometridae) from Mexico City with documentation of its life history” is in volume 5666 of Zootaxa. 

It can be found here: www.doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.5666.1.8

A transcript of this episode can be found here: Ivonne Garzón - Transcript

New Species: Phyllodonta coztomatlivora

Episode image credit: Ivonne Garzón

Check out Ivonne’s lab instagram page: https://www.instagram.com/leps.de.mx/

Listen to Rosemary Gillespie’s episode on New Species: https://www.newspeciespodcast.net/release-happy-face-spiders-with-rosemary-gillespie

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