Nocturnal visitor to the UV light - a sphinx moth!

Moria Robinson | she/her | PI

I am a community ecologist and educator fascinated by insects that eat plants. I get particularly excited about native caterpillars, and much of my research uses these diverse and charismatic organisms to explore basic evolutionary and ecological processes. As a faculty member at a land-grant institution and with a great love for Great Basin ecosystems, I seek to develop knowledge relevant for conservation and management in sagebrush steppe, shrubland, and riparian habitats. See the “research” page for more on lab projects, and “natural history” to learn more about some of the organisms we study.
moria.robinson(at)usu.edu
Google Scholar | CV |

Jakob Palmer | he/him | Graduate student

I currently study the ways in which varying levels of drought stress differentially impact the performance of generalist versus specialist herbivores. I am particularly interested in how disparities in performance are driven by differences in plant secondary metabolites across varying levels of drought stress. To investigate these questions I am conducting greenhouse experiments using Nicotiana attenuata as well as the herbivores Manduca sexta and Spodoptera exigua.
jakob.palmer(at)usu.edu (email)

Ryan Stuart | he/him | Graduate student

Ryan is interested in the intersection of plant-microbe interactions and invasion ecology. Specifically, how invasive plants disrupt the mycorrhizal symbionts of native conifers. He also enjoys trail/ultra running, baking, art, and music. Ryan started his PhD in 2023.
ryan.stuart(at)usu.edu (email)
@rstu525 (instagram)

Anna Goates | Graduate student

Anna is interested in the interactions between herbivory and pollination and the impacts of global change. Her current research focuses on how pollinators are affected by herbivory across elevation. Anna loves to hike, ski, run, and make music at the piano. She is currently working on her MS and is co-advised by the Robinson and McCabe labs.
anna.goates(at)usu.edu

Emily Burgess | Graduate student

Emily is a PhD student interested in understanding the impacts of climate change on species interactions. Her dissertations research is centered on investigating how differential phenological responses and shifts in abiotic conditions interact to shape floral microbiomes. Emily also enjoys knitting, reading, and spending time outside with her pup.
emily.burgess(at)usu.edu

Cadie Andrew | Undergraduate research assistant

Cadie is interested in many ecological interactions, from the community scale to microbial/plant interactions. She is curious about the natural world and loves studying insects and plants! Outside of school and work, she enjoys hiking, camping, art, reading, and travelling. She is currently finishing her undergraduate degree in Forest Ecology and Management.

Brighton Bennett | Undergraduate research assistant

Brighton is interested in the interactions between organisms and the environment. She has a special interest in making connections between nature and the conditions that act on it. Outside of school and work, she competes as a member of the USU Climbing Team, gardens, and explores around Logan. She is working on her Bachelor's in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology.

Lab mascots & field assistants

L-R: Peanut, Farley, Cedar, Juniper, and Bob.

Lab alumni

Jackie Melone | Research Technician
Jackie (she/her) graduated college in 2024, and joined our lab for the summer of 2025. Jackie is currently a research technician with the Roth Lab (University of Maine) working on a songbird ecology project.

Mia Stevens | Graduate Student Mia studies how plants interact with pollinators and herbivores, and how these interactions are shifted by hybridization and disturbance. In their free time, they explore the great outdoors, knit, and annoy their cat Dalea. Mia is currently a PhD Candidate in the Rushworth Lab at USU.

Sara Deschaine | Undergraduate researcher Sara is a soon-to-be graduate of USU. She hopes to attend graduate school in plant ecology or a related field.

Alysia Butters | Undergraduate researcher Alysia graduated from Utah state in 2024 with her bachelors in human biology and plans to attend medical school. She grew up in Ogden, UT playing competitive soccer and was on the USU womens team. Besides soccer, her other hobbies include baking, spending time outdoors, and being with her friends and family.

Collaborators

Sharon Strauss (UC Davis)

Sharon thinks a lot about evolution of plants and plant-insect interactions. Most recently, we have collaborated on questions related evolution of protective coloration in caterpillars. She is also a 2023 inductee into the National Academy of Sciences - bravo, Sharon!

David Wagner (UCONN)

Dave is Lepidopteran systematist and caterpillar aficionado. Some of the larvae we collect and photograph will be in Dave’s upcoming field guide to Caterpillars of the Western United States! Check out a recent article in the New Yorker profiling Dave’s work and race to document these ecologically foundational organisms in an era of global insect decline.

Kevin Keegan (Carnegie Museum of Natural History); Kathy Toll (USC); Eric LoPresti (USC)

Kevin demystifies moth identification; Kathy inspires us to think about the molecular basis of plant traits; and Eric reminds us that there is an experiment for everything.

Marjorie Weber (U. Michigan)

Marjorie studies plant-insect interactions and the evolution of mutualism at the University of Michigan. She also inspires for her dedication to making science a more diverse and inclusive space. She was also recently named a Top-10 Scientist to Watch by Science News magazine - Bravo, Marj!

Micah Freedman (UBC)

Micah studies plant-insect interactions; evolution of plant chemical defense (and insect response); and the evolution of monarch migration. He will be on his way to a faculty job soon - stay tuned!

Sam Jaffe (The Caterpillar Lab)

Sam is a force for caterpillars. He created and runs The Caterpillar Lab, a non-profit in New Hampshire focused on education, outreach, and study of native moth and butterfly larvae. Sam’s photographs are an incredible resource to all who admire the diversity of caterpillar form.

Lin Jiang (Georgia Tech)

Lin asks fundamental questions in community ecology using protists in the lab and plant communities in the field. Current collaborations relate herbivory to plant temporal stability, using data from a globally-distributed experiment (The Nutrient Network).

Photo gallery

2025

It was another big year! Summer was full of fieldwork and greenhouse projects. Jakob did a second round of drought experiments and bioassays, finding cool impacts on plant traits and herbivores; Emily dove into wet bench work and many new data analysis methods, finding intriguing patterns of microbial diversity in flowers; Mia collected insect community data at their field sites and piloted caterpillar preference/performance bioassays; Ryan documented fine-scale co-occurrence of his focal invasive plants in Idaho forests; Anna completed a very ambitious field experiment that involved many scissors, many snipped leaves, and many sore backs; and Cadie wrote her first grant proposal for independent research. The lab welcomed Jackie Melone as a summer technician and Sara Deschaine as a summer research assistant. The rabbitbrush common gardens completed their first full year of survival and growth, with exciting patterns of differential survival across gardens. Big collective efforts were phenotyping 300+ rabbitbrush plants in the greenhouse; caging painted lady caterpillars on the same rabbitbrush plants to measure their quality to herbivores; and running a field experiment looking at associations between caterpillar coloration and bird predation, which was a spectacular but highly informative fail (out of 200 caterpillars, only 1 received a bird beak mark!). And, we painted our second ceiling tile: Anna passed her comprehensive exam in December!

2024

Lots of science and fun (and fun science!) was had this year. Mia, Ryan, and Jakob completed their first field seasons and lab experiments; rabbitbrush common gardens were planted; the lab welcomed new graduate students Anna and Emily, and undergraduate researchers Cadie and Brighton; and said farewell to graduating USU senior Alysia, on to a career in the medical field. The lab shared some memorable good times themed around The Very Hungry Caterpillar - in crochet and pumpkin form - and started a new lab tradition of ceiling tile decoration (don’t tell facilities!) in celebration of Emily’s advancement to candidacy.

2023

The lab opened its doors this year! Incoming lab members spent the summer doing research before beginning their graduate degrees in the Fall. Mia studied urban evolution of plants in the upper midwest; Ryan and Jakob collected and reared caterpillars from rabbitbrush in the Great Basin. Seeds from rabbitbrush populations across the West were collected for a collaborative common garden project.