As a lifelong plant and insect fancier, I am excited to be starting a lab to study the fascinating interactions - herbivory, pollination, protective mutualisms, and more - between these two diverse and wonderful groups. I mostly study these interactions in two systems: sticky plants (a diverse and fascinating group of functionally similar, yet unrelated, plants) and the sand verbenas (Abronia/Tripterocalyx), a small, understudied, yet morphologically and ecologically diverse group of Western North American wildflowers.