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Home / Exhibits / Curators / Nancy Greig
Nancy Greig, Ph.D.
Curator of Entomology
Joined the museum as Director of the Cockrell Butterfly Center in 1994. In 2005 transferred to the Collection Department as Curator of Entomology.
Although my current title is Curator of Entomology, I was originally hired by the museum as Director of the Cockrell Butterfly Center. Both of these jobs involve insects, but I am actually a plant ecologist by training (my dissertation research investigated the factors affecting distribution and abundance of the 50 species of Piper (shrubs and vines in the black pepper family) occurring at the La Selva Biological Station in Costa Rica). How did a plant ecologist get hired to do entomological work, you may well ask. My standard response is “Butterflies must be good botanists to survive!” But more seriously, my major professor in grad school, Dr. Larry Gilbert of the University of Texas at Austin, has made a career of studying the interactions between plants and insects, especially butterflies and their hostplants. Indeed insects and plants are closely tied in many ways, so it makes sense for a botanist or plant ecologist to know something about insects (and vice versa, although this is often not the case!).
From 1994 until mid-2005 I served the museum as Director of the Butterfly Center, coming on board when the center was not much more than a hole in the ground, and leaving that position to concentrate on a very exciting project as Curator of Entomology. I am still closely tied to the Butterfly Center, as I am heading up the renovation of the Center’s entomology hall and insect zoo, which will be completely transformed into a new “Insect Wing” scheduled to open in mid-2007.
In addition to the renovation project, I oversee the museum’s collection of preserved insects (some of which, along with living specimens, will be incorporated into the new “wing”). Interns are currently reorganizing and making an inventory of the preserved collection, which includes several hundred thousand specimens and is particularly strong in showy butterflies, moths, and beetles. We also hope to “beef up” our collection of local insects in general, so that we have a good synoptic representation of insects found in and around Houston. The museum is fortunate to have the collaboration of entomology professors from Sam Houston State University (Dr. Jerry Cook) and Stephen F. Austin University (Dr. William Godwin and Dr. William Gibson), who are acting as pro-bono advisors/consultants for the entomology collection as well as for the new Insect Wing.
I am also involved in the preservation of the W. 11th Street Park, a natural area in central northwest Houston where a group of interested residents plant wildflowers, maintain butterfly gardens, and remove exotic species. I am also an adjunct professor at Rice University in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, where I have taught plant biology and a field course in tropical ecology.
Education
- B.A. (1980) Department of Linguistics, University of Texas, Austin
- Ph.D. (1991) Division of Biological Sciences, University of Texas, Austin
- Dissertation: Ecology of co-occurring species of neotropical Piper: distribution, reproductive biology, and seed predation
Language Skills
Fluent in spoken and written Spanish
Professional Employment
- 2005–present Curator of Entomology, Houston Museum of Natural Science
- 1994-2005 Director, Cockrell Butterfly Center, Houston Museum of Natural Science
- 1999-2005 Adjunct assistant professor, Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Rice University
- 1998 Temporary lecturer, Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Rice University (spring semester)
- 1993-1994 Postdoctoral Research Associate, Department of Biology, University of Missouri-St. Louis
- 1991-1993 Instructor and Course Coordinator of "Tropical biology: an ecological approach," Organization for Tropical Studies
- 1988 Research Assistant to Dr. Alan Smith, Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Panama (5 months)
- 1984-1990 Teaching Assistant, Division of Biological Sciences, University of Texas, Austin (six semesters).
Honors
1986-1987 Graduate Fellowship, University of Texas
1980 Phi Beta Kappa
Awards and Grants
1987-1990 Dissertation Improvement Grant, National Science Foundation Ecology Program
1986-1987 Graduate Fellowship, University of Texas (stipend, 18 months)
Summer 1985 Tinker Grant, Institute of Latin American Studies, University of Texas (for support of dissertation research)
Professional Societies
American Zoo and Aquarium Association
Association for Tropical Biology
Publications
Journal and book articles
Greig, N., and DeVries, P. J. 1985. Observations on the diurnal gregarious roosting of Ocalaria sp. (Noctuidae) in Costa Rica. Journal of the Lepidopterists' Society 40: 124-126.
DeVries, P. J., Schul, J., and Greig, N. 1986. Synchronous nocturnal activity and gregarious roosting in the neotropical skipper butterfly Celaenorrhinus fritzgaertneri (Lepidoptera: Hesperiidae). Zoological Journal of the Linnaean Society 89: 89-103.
Greig, N., and Mauseth, J. D. 1991. Structure and function of dimorphic prop roots of Piper auritum L. Journal of the Torrey Botanical Club 118: 176-183.
Greig, N. 1993. Predispersal seed predation on five species of co-occurring Piper in tropical rainforest. Oecologia 93: 412-420.
Greig, N. 1993. Regeneration mode in neotropical Piper: habitat and species comparisons. Ecology 74: 2125-2135.
Greig, N. 2004. Introduction. In: Piper: a model genus for studies of phytochemistry, ecology, and evolution. Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers. Pp. 1-4.
Conference papers
Greig, N. 1994. Hindsight is 20/20: opening a live butterfly exhibit in a hurry. Proceedings of the 1994 annual Invertebrates in Captivity Conference, pp. 156-162. Sonoran Arthropod Institute, Tucson, AZ.
Greig, N., and Watts, J. R. 1995. Cockrell Butterfly Center: the first year. Proceedings of the 1995 annual Invertebrates in Captivity Conference, pp. 12-17. Sonoran Arthropod Institute, Tucson, AZ.
Greig, N. 1996. Economics or extravagance?: the butterfly rearing program at the Cockrell Butterfly Center. Proceedings of the American Zoo and Aquarium Association 1996 western regional meeting, Denver, CO.
Greig, N. 1996. Butterflies are not free: live butterfly “zoos” in North America. Proceedings of the 1996 annual American Association of Zoo Veterinarians meeting, Pto. Vallarta, Mexico, pp. 271-279.
Greig, N. 1997. Plant collecting abroad to enhance exhibits. Proceedings of the 1997 annual Association of Zoo Horticulturists meeting, Galveston, TX., pp. 123-126.
Greig, N., and Stuart, C. 1998. Welcome to the Crawloseum: the Insect Zoo at the Cockrell Butterfly Center. Proceedings of the 1998 annual Invertebrates in Captivity Conference, pp. 67-77. Sonoran Arthropod Institute, Tucson, AZ.
Greig, N. 2003. From cultivating plants to cultivating donors: creative fund-raising in a cash-challenged economy. Proceedings of the 2003 annual Invertebrates in Captivity Conference, pp. 114-122. Sonoran Arthropod Institute, Tucson, AZ.
Abstracts
Greig, N. 1989. Association between habitat type and method of propagation in congeneric rain forest shrubs. Bulletin of the Ecological Society of America, Vol. 70 (Supplement), p. 128.
Greig, N. 1990. Seed size and predation: large-seeded, low fecundity species lose more seeds to predispersal seed predators. Bulletin of the Ecological Society of America, Vol. 71 (Supplement), p. 174.
Greig, N., and Marquis, R. J. 1993. Vegetative propagation allows a neotropical understory treelet to exploit adjacent areas of higher light. Bulletin of the Ecological Society of America, Vol. 74 (Supplement), p. 257.
Books edited
Greig, N. (ed.). 1992. OTS 91-3: Tropical biology--an ecological approach. Organization for Tropical Studies, Durham, NC.
Greig, N., and Morris, M. R. (eds.). 1992. OTS 92-1: Tropical biology--an ecological approach. Organization for Tropical Studies, Durham, NC.
Greig, N., and Webster, M. S. (eds.). 1993. OTS 92-3: Tropical biology--an ecological approach. Organization for Tropical Studies, Durham, NC.
Greig, N., and Blake, J. G. (eds.). 1994. OTS 93-1: Tropical biology--an ecological approach. Organization for Tropical Studies, Durham, NC.
Research Interests
Butterfly-plant interactions, tropical insect and plant communities, butterfly gardening for the public and schools, conservation
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