Cleide Costa

Entomologist, specialist in systematics, bionomics and metamorphosis of Coleoptera; researcher and lecturer at the Museu de Zoologia da Universidade de São Paulo, (Museum of Zoology of the University of São Paulo), where she still carries out her researches and orientates post-graduate students even after her retirement. She has a Natural History degree from the ?Universidade Estadual de São Paulo? and a Ph.D. in Zoology from the ?Universidade de São Paulo?. At the Museum of Zoology she was the Head of the Entomology Department several times, in different periods. As a Professor she has taught "Metamorphosis of Insects" in various postgraduate courses. Her research projects comprise the study of immature morphology of insects in general and of Coleoptera in particular. Her primary focus is on the Elateroidea, mainly the Elateridae family, which includes cladistics analyses of various groups. She also develops projects on the bioluminescence of Pyrophorini, involving a multi-disciplinary approach to a better understanding of the origin and evolution of beetles bioluminescence. In the biodiversity area, she has published several scientific articles on the diagnoses of the Brazilian collections of Coleoptera. She took part in the Cyted PrIBES network (Ibero-American Project of Biogeography and Systematic Entomoloy) from 1999 to 2002. She actively participated as an assistant coordinator, and as a founding member in the organization and introduction of Red CYTED XII.I. RIBES (Ibero-American Entomology Network), together with J.H.Llorente (UNAM-Mexico). She was a founding member of Red XII: L ?Red Iberoamericana para la Conservación e Informatización de Colecciones Biológica Sistemas de Información?, coordinated by E. Romero, (MACN Bernardino Rivadavia-Buenos Aires) (2004-2008). She is a charter member (founding member) of AMNAT Associação Memória Naturalis: Cidadania, Ciência & Cultura, (Naturalis Memory Association: Citizenship, Science & Culture), (2002-2008), at which she was engaged in the articulation of the Association with the connections on the Cyted?s biodiversity and biological collections in Latin America. By now it is in preparation a new book on immature Coleoptera untitled "Neotropical Immature Beetles" (Source: Lattes Curriculum)