As an entomologist and curator of the University insect collection, I am broadly interested in biodiversity of all insects. I have maintained my research on the systematics of two beetle groups, the Anthicidae and Pselaphinae (Staphylinidae) in North America, Central America, and Australia, while also carrying on applied biodiversity studies in forest entomology, and aquatic entomology. These studies have focused on documenting changes in the insect fauna of unique or old-growth forest habitats in New England, Costa Rica, and Australia for comparisons of sites that that have been extensively disturbed. Research in aquatic entomology has pursued characterization of the stream faunas and their seasonality in New England.
Several season-long inventories have been carried out in unique or old-growth areas of New Hampshire, and these insect records have been incorporated into the a database that is accessible at insectcoll.unh.edu. Currently, the collection holds 11,506 species of insects taken in New Hampshire. A course in insect biodiversity (ZOOL 745/845) is used to introduce students to approaches in sampling insect biodiversity, managing the data, and statistics useful for working with alpha and beta biodiversity.
Selected Publications
- Chandler, D.S. and S.B. Peck. 1992. Seasonality and diversity of Leiodidae (Coleoptera) in an old-growth and 40 year-old forest in New Hampshire. Environmental Entomology 21:1283-1293.
- Wolda, H. and D.S. Chandler. Diversity and seasonality of tropical Pselaphidae and Anthicidae (Coleoptera). Proceedings Koninklijke Nederlandse Akademie van Wetenschappen 99:313-333.
- Chandler, D.S. and J.R. Reddell. 2001. A review of the ant-like litter beetles found in Texas caves (Coleoptera: Staphylinidae: Pselaphinae), pp. 115-128. In J.R. Reddell and J.C. Cokendolpher, eds., Studies on the cave and endogean fauna of North America III. Texas Memorial Museum, Speleological Monographs 5. vii + 192 pp.
- Chandler, D.S. 2001. Biology, morphology and systematics of the ant-like litter beetle genera of Australia (Coleoptera: Staphylinidae: Pselaphinae). Memoirs on Entomology International 15. x + 562 pp.
- Chandler, D.S. 2002. Subfamily Pselaphinae (Coleoptera: Staphylinidae). Zoological Catalogue of Australia, www.ea.gov.au/biodiversity/abrs/abif/fauna/index.html.
- Chandler, D.S. 2002. Anthicidae of Costa Rica. Instituto Nacional de Biodiversidad (INBio), Information Services, www.inbio.ac.cr/papers/Cranthicidkeys/index2.html.
- Chandler, D.S. 2002. 5. Subfamilia Pselaphinae Latreille, 1802, pp. 49-102. In J.L. Navarrete-Heredia, A.F. Newton, M.K. Thayer, J.S. Ashe, and D.S. Chandler, Guia illustrada para los generos de Staphylinidae (Coleoptera) de Mexico [Illustrated guide to the genera of Staphylinidae (Coleoptera) of Mexico]. Comision Nacional para el Conocimiento y Uso de la Biodiversidad (CONABIO). Universidad de Guadalajara. xii + 401 pp.
- Hlaváč, P. and D.S. Chandler. 2005. World catalog of the species of Tyrini with a key to the genera (Coleoptera: Staphylinidae: Pselaphinae). Folia Herkovskyana 13:1-64.
- Chandler, D.S., G.D. Whitmore, S.K. Burian, and J.F. Burger. 2006. The mayflies (Ephemeroptera) of New Hampshire: seasonality and diversity of the stream fauna. Transactions of the American Entomological Society 132:25-73.
