Europe
José Ramón Guzman Álvarez
Ramón is a naturalist who became fascinated by glow-worms during his childhood in Granada, Spain. He has studied Forest Engineering and holds a Ph.D. in Agronomy. In 2008, worried about the status of these insects, he launched a citizen science firefly survey web project in collaboration with Raphaël De Cock. “Have you ever seen a glow-worm?” has increased the knowledge about Lampyrids all over Spain.
email: gusanosdeluz[at]gmail.com
Raphaël De Cock
Raphaël is an Associate Researcher at the University of Antwerp in Belgium, and co-organizer of the first international firefly network meeting. His “fireflyer” interests range from taxonomy, phylogeny, physiology, to biogeography, but mainly focus on behaviour, ecology and conservation. He has been involved in the set-up of many citizen science firefly survey projects. His own research focuses on “aposematic” warning signals (colour patterns and glows) in lampyrid larvae and on the behaviour and sexual communication of diurnal and nocturnal fireflies.
email: rdecock[at]hotmail.com
Martin Novák
Martin is a researcher at the University of Life Sciences in Prague, Czech Republic, with a Ph.D. in entomology. He specializes in European species of fireflies and is interested in middle-eastern and north-African taxa as well. His research deals with morphology of larvae and adults, behavior, ecology and taxonomy with possible implications for conservation. Besides fireflies, Martin also studies necrophagous beetles and their utilization in forensic sciences.
email: martas.novak[at]centrum.cz
Alan Stewart
Alan is a Reader in Ecology at the University of Sussex in the UK. His primary research interests are the ecology and conservation of insects in general, and glow worms (Lampyris noctiluca, the main lampyrid species that occurs in Britain) in particular. He is currently studying the potential impact of artificial lighting at night (ALAN) on glow worm behaviour and population conservation.