Author Archives: David Maddison

Permanent male genitalic mini-preps

Posted on 3 February 2021 by David Maddison

For many insects, examination of the genital structures is vital to understand species diversity. The genitalia of each species are often distinct, and species can be easier to distinguish using genitalia than other morphological traits. In carabid beetles, male genitalia … Continue reading →

Posted in Morphological Techniques, Revising Bembidiina | 1 Comment

Development of the Dicaelus purpuratus drawing

Posted on 1 February 2021 by David Maddison

In 2006, for George Ball’s 80th birthday, I presented him with a drawing of Dicaelus purpuratus. This was the species that captivated his attention and eventually led to his doing a PhD on the carabid beetle tribe Licinini, of which … Continue reading →

Posted in Scientific Illustrations | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Ten years later: the Lionepha paper is out

Posted on 3 April 2020 by David Maddison

In September of 2009, I arrived in Oregon, excited to begin my new position at Oregon State University. I was also excited to live near Marys Peak, as the top of Marys Peak was the locality of capture of the … Continue reading →

Posted in Academia, Fieldwork, Revising Bembidiina, Taxonomic Process | Tagged , | Leave a comment

The Tree of Life Web Project: 25 years online

Posted on 16 November 2019 by David Maddison

On 16 November 1994, we first made public the prototype version of the Tree of Life Web Project. At that time, it was a series of static web pages, with trees made out of text characters, created by a special … Continue reading →

Posted in Tree of Life | 1 Comment

In Memory of George

Posted on 2 May 2019 by David Maddison

As the ship rolls gently upon the waves, I look east toward the Tasman Sea, The relentless surges swallowing time, As they have for millions of years, Through turn after turn of the Milky Way, Beneath and beyond the waves, … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

George Eugene Ball

Posted on 13 January 2019 by David Maddison

25 September 1926 – 12 January 2019 There are those amongst us who, through their words and actions, radiate strength, courage, compassion, and generosity, causing a positive ripple to spread across the communities they touch, increasing the good in the … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments

Zephyr 2.0 and Mesquite 3.3 released

Posted on 13 September 2017 by David Maddison

Yesterday, after about three years in gestation, we released Zephyr 2.0.  Zephyr is a Mesquite package that manages interactions with phylogeny inference packages including RAxML, GARLI, PAUP, and TNT. The most notable additions to Zephyr 2 include implementation of the … Continue reading →

Posted in Software Development, Tree of Life | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Happiness is a Big Tree on the Wall

Posted on 4 December 2016 by David Maddison

  In the hallway outside my lab, about 800 species of Bembidiina, together in one tree.  🙂

Posted in Tree of Life | Tagged , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

A Stained Trepanedoris

Posted on 12 November 2015 by David Maddison

I started learning how to do stained glass pieces over the summer, and for my first piece I decided to honor our Discovering Insect Species class by doing the head of an undescribed species of Bembidion (Trepanedoris) that we discovered.  I … Continue reading →

Posted in Art & Science, Z499 (Discovering Insect Species) | Leave a comment

Flavor 100

Posted on 3 November 2015 by David Maddison

Today we reached a milestone:  our 100th flavor in our approximately weekly Guess the Potato Chip Flavor event in my lab.  Today we decided to celebrate the event not only with our 100th flavor, but also with five other flavors to round … Continue reading →

Posted in fun stuff, Miscellany | 4 Comments