Amy

Berkov

Lab website

Education

Ph.D. CUNY, Plant Sciences Subprogram,1999
BFA University of Colorado, Printmaking, 1977

Affiliations

Associate, American Museum of Natural History, Division of Invertebrate Zoology

Honorary Research Associate, New York Botanical Garden, Institute of Systematic Botany

Courses

Botany for Landscape Architects (Biology B4700)
Botany (Biology 34500)
Plant-Animal Interactions (Biology 79301)

Research Interests  

Interdisciplinary studies of tropical plant-insect interactions We investigate the identity and ecological specificity of Neotropical wood-boring beetles associated with the Brazil nut family (Lecythidaceae). Our research includes aspects of wood chemistry that potentially regulate insect distribution, as well as studies of beetle gut microbes that may be critical intermediates in the interaction between insect and plant.

Projects

v     Wood-boring beetles associated with the Brazil nut family in disjunct Neotropical forests

v     Gut symbionts of Neotropical wood-boring beetles

v     Impact of canopy microclimate on beetle colonization

v     Convergent evolution in the antenna of a cerambycid beetle and the sting of a scorpion

v     Saproflorivorous insects from fallen flowers of Lecythidaceae

v     Leaf-footed bugs feeding and breeding on Inga

v     Dating massive tropical trees

Publications

Feinstein J, Purzycki KL, Mori SA, *Hequet V, Berkov A. In press. Neotropical soldier flies (Stratiomyidae) reared from Lecythis poiteaui in French Guiana: do bat-pollinated flowers attract saprophiles? Journal of the Torrey Botanical Society.

Berkov A, Rodriguez N, Centeno P. 2007. Convergent evolution in the antenna of a cerambycid beetle, Onychocerus albitarsis, and the sting of a scorpion. Naturwissenschaften DOI 10.1007/s00114-007-0316-1.

Berkov A, Feinstein J, Centeno P, Small J, Nkamany M. 2007. Yeasts isolated from Neotropical wood-boring beetles in SE Peru. Biotropica 39: 530-538.

Feinstein J, Mori SA, Berkov A. 2007. Saproflorivory: A diverse insect community in fallen flowers of Lecythidaceae in French Guiana. Biotropica 39: 549-554.

Melo MC, Berkov A, Coscoran M. 2005. Redescription of Manicocoris rufipes (Fabricius, 1787), including nymphs I, II, III and V (Reduviidae: Harpactorinae: Apiomerini), and its association with Clusia fruits. Studies on Neotropical Fauna and Environment 40: 55-64.

Mori SA, Gracie CA, Hecklau EF, Lobova TA, Berkov A, de Granville J-J. 2005. Documenting plant diversity in central French Guiana: the first step toward understanding biocomplexity. In Friis I & Balslev H, eds. Plant Diversity and Complexity: Local, Regional and Global Dimensions. Biol. Skr. 55: 11-24.

Berkov A. 2004. Lepuropetalaceae. In Smith N, Mori SA, Henderson A, Stevenson DW, & Heald SV, eds. Flowering Plants of the Neotropics. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, p. 214.

Berkov A. 2004. Pterostemonaceae. In Smith N, Mori SA, Henderson A, Stevenson DW, & Heald SV, eds. Flowering Plants of the Neotropics. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, p. 316.

Berkov A. 2002. The impact of redefined species limits in Palame (Coleoptera, Cerambycidae, Lamiinae, Acanthocinini) on assessments of host, seasonal, and stratum specificity. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society 76: 195-209.

Berkov A, Meurer-Grimes B, Purzycki K. 2000. Do Lecythidaceae specialists (Coleoptera: Cerambycidae) shun fetid tree species? Biotropica 32(3): 440-551.

Berkov A, Tavakilian G. 1999. Host utilization of the Brazil nut family (Lecythidaceae) by sympatric wood-boring species of Palame (Coleoptera, Cerambycidae, Lamiinae, Acanthocinini). Biological Journal of the Linnean Society 67(2): 181-198.

Rovira I, Berkov A, Parkinson A, Tavakilian G, Mori S, Meurer-Grimes B. 1999. Antimicrobial activity of Neotropical wood and bark extracts. Pharmaceutical Biology 37(3): 208-215.

Meurer-Grimes B, Berkov A, Beck H. 1998. Theobromine, theophylline, and caffeine in 42 products of guaraná (Paullinia cupana, Sapindaceae). Economic Botany 52(3): 293-301.

Tavakilian G, Berkov A, Meurer-Grimes B, Mori S. 1997. Neotropical tree species and their faunas of xylophagous longicorns (Coleoptera, Cerambycidae) in French Guiana. The Botanical Review 63(4): 303-355.

Email: berkov@sci.ccny.cuny.edu