Mr Alessandro Giusti

Biography

Employment history

2008-Present: The Natural History Museum, Entomology Department

Curator of Lepidoptera (butterflies and moths)

2007-2008: The Natural History Museum, Entomology Department

Research Assistant, Soil Biodiversity Group

2006-2007: The Grant Museum of Zoology, University College London 

Documentation Assistant

The Grant Museum of Zoology

2005-2006: Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew 

Project Officer for the Aluka2 Project on African plants

Royal Botanical Gardens, Kew

2003-2004: The Natural History Museum, Entomology Department

Project Officer for the Lepindex Project on Lepidoptera

Qualifications

April 2004                                 

Course in Taxonomy and Biology of Parasitic Hymenoptera at Imperial College, Silwood Park, UK. 

Imperial College, Silwood Park

April 1996                               

BSc (Hons) in Natural Sciences at the Faculty of Mathematical, Physical and Natural Sciences of the University of Florence. 

Università degli Studi di Firenze, Corso di Laurea in Scienze Naturali

September 1992 / February 1993                 

Course in Animal Physiology at the Zoofysiologiska Institutionen of the University of Lund.

June 1988                              

Diploma in Agriculture at the Institute of Agricultural Studies of Grosseto. 

Istituto Tecnico Agrario Statale Leopoldo II di Lorena, Grosseto

Curation

• Curation of the Noctuidae subfamilies Hadeninae and Amphipyrinae (in collaboration with Martin Honey)
  

• Incorporation and curation of the Cadiou collection of Sphingidae moths (in collaboration with Dr Ian Kitching)
  

• Sorting and accessioning of new material
• Re-housing of various taxa of Lepidoptera (including Gracillariidae, Chalcosiinae, Limacodiidae, Brahamaeidae, Saturniidae, Lasiocampidae, Euripteridae, Pterothysanidae, Anthelidae, Lymantriidae, Bombycidae)
  

• Supervising visitors, students and volunteers

Research

Fieldwork

• 2003-2006 UK, New Forest, Hampshire and other British woodlands. Collecting soil invertebrates as part of the NHM soil biodiversity program. 

 

• February 2008 Gabon, Ivindo Forest. Collecting termites, ants and soil invertebrates as part of the NHM soil biodiversity program.

Interests

• Moth collecting
• Photography of insects and plants
  

• Nature painting (plants and insects, what else?)
  

Memberships

• Butterfly Conservation Society 

Visit the British Butterfly Conservation Society website

• Selborne Society 

Find out about Perivale Nature Reserve and the Selborne Society

Publications

2010

• Thorsten-Krell, F., Ross, E., Giusti, A., Krell-Westerwalbesloh, S., Eggleton, P. ( 2010 ) Comparison of leaf litter & litter plus upper soil extractions in assessing forest floor macroinvertebrate fauna Entomologist's Monthly Magazine 146 : 71-82 . Entomologist's Monthly Magazine

2007

• Alessandro Giusti ( 2007 ) Records of Planeustomus flavicollis Fauvel (Staphylinidae) and Eutheia formicetorum Reitter (Scydmaenidae) from the New Forest. The Coleopterist 16 (3) : 134 .

2005

• Frank-Thorsten Krell, Arthur Y.C. Chung, Emma DeBoise, Paul Eggleton, Alessandro Giusti, Kelly Inward and Sylvia Krell-Westerwalbesloh ( 2005 ) Quantitative extraction of macro-invertebrates from temperate and tropical leaf litter and soil: efficiency and time-dependent taxonomic biases of the Winkler extraction. Pedobiologia 49 : 175-186 . Pedobiologia | 10.1016/j.pedobi.2004.10.005
• Paul Eggleton, Adam J. Vanbergen†, David T. Jones, Matthew C. Lambert, Carole Rockett, Peter M. Hammond, Janet Beccaloni, Douglas Marriott, Emma Ross and Alessandro Giusti  ( 2005 ) Assemblages of soil macrofauna across a Scottish land-use intensification gradient: influences of habitat quality, heterogeneity and area. Journal of Applied Ecology 42 : 1153-1164 . Journal of Applied Ecology | 10.1111/j.1365-2664.2005.01090.x