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Paul Tinerella
My
interest in insects and other "crawly" things began at an early age. Growing
up in South Florida, there were plenty of insects around to keep my interest.
While my parents were busy keeping insects out of the house, I was always
bringing something in. When I was about six years old, I went on a museum
tour and besides getting to see, hold, and experience many different insects
and other arthropods, I got to hold a larva of a magnificent giant silk
moth, the Hickory Horned Devil. That experience remains with me today,
and was a major influence in my life and career plans.
After my first year of college in South Florida, I decided to transfer to Minnesota where I completed my Bachelor of Science degree in Zoology at St. Cloud State University. Besides general course work in Zoology, I focused on invertebrates--mainly aquatic insect taxonomy and ecology. I was fortunate to be involved with projects involving surveys for aquatic beetles and true bugs in Minnesota. These projects involved identification (taxonomy) and distribution of beetles and bugs in the state. This involvement provided valuable experience--allowing me to utilize my classroom training and preparing me for graduate school.
In 1997 I started graduate school in Entomology at North Dakota State University, where I work on the beetle family Carabidae, or ground beetles, on remnant tallgrass prairies in Northwestern Minnesota. I am involved with a large project designed to look at the effects of prairie management practices (fire, grazing, haying, and no-management) on insects. We use several trap types to collect insects on the prairie, but I use mainly pitfall traps to collect the beetles (and other insects), identify the ground beetles to species, record their presence from a prairie site, and analyze their presence for each season, and over multiple years, to look at population cycling before and after the prairie management tool is applied. So far, I have found over 100 species of ground beetles on the tallgrass prairies of Northwestern Minnesota. In the coming months I'll be finishing up the initial analysis on the first few years of data.
I also study the systematics (naming and classification) and biogeography (distribution) of the aquatic bug (order Hemiptera) family Corixidae--the Water Boatmen. Besides studying insects, I enjoy reading, photography, and playing my banjo.
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