Dr. Adrian Richter

Research Interest

I am an entomologist focusing ants and other hymenopterans. The research areas I am most interested in are insect morphology and evolution, as well as systematics and taxonomy. The main goal of all my research is to understand the phenotypic evolution of insects and how it shaped their past and present diversity.

Research Topics

I started my scientific work studying the morphology of female Strepsiptera. After this, I have mostly focused on the ant head and investigated this in several publications focusing on head anatomy of one or a few species. As a next step, I expanded this to analyze character evolution of ants and other Aculeata more widely to reconstruct the morphological ground plan and character transitions within the Formicidae. I have also contributed to studies on the functional morphology of ants and morphology of other Hymenoptera. Recently, I have also started incorporating paleontology in my work, investigating the anatomy of fossil ant species. In the future, I want to study morphological evolution in ants from a macroevolutionary perspective.

Research Methods

• µCT scanning and 3D reconstruction
• Scanning electron microscopy
• Histology
• Phylogenetic analysis
• Ancestral state reconstruction

Publications

(please see GoogleScholar External linkfor latest and use ResearchGateExternal link for full-text requests)

Richter, A., Boudinot, B.E., Yamamoto, S., Katzke, J., Beutel, R.G., 2022. The first reconstruction of the head anatomy of a Cretaceous insect, †Gerontoformica gracilis (Hymenoptera, Formicidae), and the early evolution of the ants. Insect Syst. Divers., 6(5), 4, 1–80. https://doi.org/10.1093/isd/ixac013External link

Boudinot, B.E., Richter, A.K., Hammel, J., Szwedo, J., Bojarski, B., Perrichot, V., 2022. Genomic-phenomic reciprocal illumination: †Desyopone gen. nov., an exceptional aneuretine-like fossil ant from Ethiopian amber (Hymenoptera: Formicidae: Ponerinae). Insects, 13, 796. https://doi.org/10.3390/insects13090796External link

Aibekova, L., Boudinot, B.E., Beutel, R.G., Richter, A., Keller, R.A., Hita-Garcia, F., Economo, E.P., 2022. The skeletomuscular system of the mesosoma of Formica rufa workers (Hymenoptera: Formicidae). Insect. Syst. Divers. 6, 1–26. https://doi.org/10.1093/isd/ixac002External link

Boudinot, B.E., Richter, A., Beutel, R.G., Katzke, J., Keller, R.A., Economo, E.P., Yamamoto, E., 2022. Evidence for the evolution of eusociality in stem ants and a systematic revision of †Gerontoformica (Hymenoptera, Formicidae). Zool. J. Linn. Soc. https://doi.org/10.1093/zoolinnean/zlab097External link

Boudinot, B.E., Moosdorf, O.T.D., Beutel, R.G., Richter, A., 2021. Anatomy and evolution of the head of Dorylus helvolus (Formicidae: Dorylinae): Patterns of sex‐and caste‐limited traits in the sausagefly and the driver ant. J.Mor. 282, 1616–1658.

Richter, A., Hita Garcia, F., Keller, R.A., Billen, J., Katzke, J., Boudinot, B.E., Economo, E.P., Beutel, R.G., 2021. The head anatomy of Protanilla lini (Hymenoptera: Formicidae: Leptanillinae), with a hypothesis of their mandibular movement. Myrmecol. News 31, 85–114.

Richter, A., Schoeters, E., Billen, J., 2021. Morphology and closing mechanism of the mandibular gland orifice in ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae). J. Morph 282, 1127–1140.

Wöhrl, T., Richter, A., Guo, S., Reinhardt, L., Nowotny, M., Blickhan, R., 2021. Comparative analysis of a geometric and an adhesive righting strategy against toppling in inclined hexapedal locomotion. J. Exp. Biol. 224, jeb242677.

Beutel, R.G., Richter, A., Keller, R.A., Hita Garcia, F., Matsumura, Y., Economo, E.P., Gorb, S.N., 2020. Distal leg structures of the Aculeata (Hymenoptera): A comparative evolutionary study of Sceliphron (Sphecidae) and Formica (Formicidae). J.Mor. 281, 737–753.

Richter, A., Garcia, F.H., Keller, R.A., Billen, J., Economo, E.P., Beutel, R.G., 2020. Comparative analysis of worker head anatomy of Formica and Brachyponera (Hymenoptera: Formicidae). Arthr. Syst. Phyl. 78, 133–170.

Pohl, H., Hammel, J.U., Richter, A., Beutel, R.G., 2019. The first fossil free-living late instar larva of Strepsiptera (Insecta). Arthr. Syst. Phyl. 77, 125–140.

Liu, S.-P., Richter, A., Stoessel, A., Beutel, R.G., 2019. The mesosomal anatomy of Myrmecia nigrocincta workers and evolutionary transformations in Formicidae (Hymenoptera). Arthr. Syst. Phyl. 77, 1–19.

Richter, A., Keller, R.A., Rosumek, F.B., Economo, E.P., Hita Garcia, F., Beutel, R.G., 2019. The cephalic anatomy of workers of the ant species Wasmannia affinis (Formicidae, Hymenoptera, Insecta) and its evolutionary implications. Arthropod Struct. Dev. 49, 26–49.

Wipfler, B., Kočárek, P., Richter, A., Boudinot, B., Bai, M., Beutel, R.G., 2019. Structural features and life habits of †Alienoptera (Polyneoptera, Dictyoptera, Insecta). Palaeoentomology 2, 465–473.

Beutel, R.G., Yan, E., Richter, A., Büsse, S., Miller, K.B., Yavorskaya, M., Wipfler, B., 2017. The head of Heterogyrus milloti (Coleoptera: Gyrinidae) and its phylogenetic implications. Arthr. Syst. Phyl. 75, 261–280.

Richter, A., Wipfler, B., Beutel, R.G., Pohl, H., 2017. The female cephalothorax of Xenos vesparum Rossi, 1793 (Strepsiptera: Xenidae). Arthr. Syst. Phyl. 75, 327–347.