Assistant Researcher at CONICET, Institute of Animal Diversity and Ecology (IDEA).
My research line is related to the study of courtship and reproductive behavior of arachnids and insects. During my doctoral thesis, I have worked with bothriurid scorpion Bothriurus bonariensis.
I have developed a multidisciplinary study of the reproductive biology of this species, through combined analysis of general morphology, sexual biology, and population genetics, comparing different populations along its geographical distribution. Afterward, I have been on a postdoctoral fellowship at the Museum of Natural History in Paris, where I have worked describing the mating behavior of different species of eneopterinae crickets. This subfamily shows very unique traits related to acoustic communication. Currently, I am developing a project to study the polyandry, sperm precedence and patterns of differential paternity, in the scorpion Bothriurus bonariensis. Among Scorpiones, little is known about the consequences of polyandry, sperm precedence and determinants of differential paternity. My research focuses on the analysis of fertilization success in males of this scorpion species, using microsatellite loci to determine paternity. My objective is to try to elucidate the pattern of spermatic precedence, to determine the pattern of paternity and to begin the study of the determinants of differential fertilization success among competing males.
E-mail: paoolivero@gmail.com