Sacha Spector

Sacha Spector with baited pitfall trap.

Sacha Spector manages the Invertebrate Conservation Program at the American Museum of Natural History's Center for Biodiversity and Conservation, where he has several projects aimed at including invertebrates in the process of biodiversity conservation. One of his current efforts is the formation of the Scarabaeinae Research Network, an international group of dung beetle taxonomists, ecologists, and systematists working together to establish scarabaeine dung beetles as an invertebrate focal taxon for biodiversity study and conservation.

Sacha's research focuses on understanding the patterns of dung beetle community distributions across landscapes and their relationships with plant communities in order to define large-scale conservation plans that benefit insect species. He has worked extensively in Latin America since 1993, doing both field research and conducting field workshops for training local entomologists in rapid biodiversity survey techniques. Dr. Spector also serves as an adjunct assistant professor at Columbia University, where he teaches conservation biology and insect conservation to undergraduates. Sacha earned his Ph.D. in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Connecticut.

SCARAB-RELATED PUBLICATIONS:

J. Hayden and S. Spector. 2003. Dung Beetles of northeastern North America: An Interactive Guide. http://pick1.pick.uga.edu/cgi-bin/20q?guide=Scarabaeidae

Spector, S. and S. Ayzama 2003. Rapid Turnover and Edge Effects in Dung Beetle Assemblages (Scarabaeidae) at a Bolivian Neotropical Forest-Savanna Ecotone. (in press) Biotropica

Spector, S. 2002. Biogeographic Crossroads as Priority Areas for Biodiversity Conservation. Conservation Biology 16:1480-1487.

Spector, S. and A. B. Forsyth, 1998. Indicator taxa in the vanishing tropics, p. 181-210. In, A. Balmford and G. Mace (Eds.). Conservation in a Changing World. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

Forsyth, A. and S. Spector 1998. Dung beetles (Coleoptera, Scarabaeidae, Scarabaeinae) of Parque Nacional Noel Kempff Mercado. In, Timothy J. Killeen and Thomas Shulenburg (Eds.). A Biological Assessment of Parque Nacional Noel Kempff Mercado, Bolivia. RAP Working Papers 10, Conservation International, Washington DC.

Forsyth, A., S. Spector, and B. Gill, 1997. The dung beetle (Scarabaeidae, Scarabaeinae) assemblages of the Cordillera del Condor, Amazonas Province, Peru. In, Thomas Schulenburg and Kim Awbrey (Eds.). The Cordillera  Working Papers 7,
Conservation International, Washington, D.C.