Dr. Gyanpriya Maharaj

I am fortunate to be able to pursue my passion as a career. My research began over a decade ago on butterflies and includes work on diversity, behavior, genetics, physiology and ecology of neo-tropical species, many of which you have seen flitting about. I graduated from the University of Guyana, Guyana, with my B.Sc. in Biology where I received the John Caesar Prize in Plant Physiology, from the University of Warwick, UK, with a M.Sc. in Plant and Environmental Sciences and from the University of Missouri-St. Louis, USA with my Ph.D. in Biology (Bourne and Dunlap Labs), focus areas, Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics where I was the recipient of the Arnold Grobman Prize,  honoring a biology graduate student who has a primary interest in field biology, ecology, evolution, or behavior of animals and plants and maintained high academic standards.

In addition to teaching and conducting research at the University of Guyana I have also worked, as an entomologist, in collaboration with the World Wild Life Fund, Iwokrama International Centre for Rain Forest Conservation and Development, National Agricultural Research and Extension Institute, and the Missouri Botanical Gardens, Butterfly House.

Some of my most notable contributions to butterfly literature were the publication of Guyana's first butterfly identification manual (as part of a Darwin Initiative Project), manuscripts on the ecology of butterflies of mid-Guyana and most recently, passionflower butterflies foraging choices at sweet sage. I am currently working on various aspects of bumblebee and tropical butterfly foraging behaviors as part of my personal research and on various entomology and animal behavior projects with students.