Bell Award

The Coleopterists Society is pleased to announce two winners of the 2026 Ross Taylor Bell and Joyce Rockenbach Bell Research Grant! The awardees are:

Dr. Vinicius S. Ferreira for the project “Resolving the Calopteron complex: a revision of the largest New World Endemic Net-winged beetle genus (Elateroidea: Lycidae)”. The awardee will take important steps towards finalizing a taxonomic revision by dissecting and digitizing numerous primary type specimens at the Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle (Paris, France).

Dr. Kyle Schnepp for the project “Phylogeny and classification of Melolonthinae (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae): a targeted enrichment approach”. This project involves using new molecular methods to reconstruct a phylogeny of the largest subfamily of scarab beetles to study their evolution, classification, and phylogeographic history.

We would like to thank Joyce Bell for making this grant possible with her generous donation to The Coleopterists Society in memory of her husband, Ross Bell. This grant is awarded on April 23 rd , which would have been Ross’s 97 th birthday.

The Coleopterists Society is pleased to announce two winners of the 2025 Ross Taylor Bell and Joyce Rockenbach Bell Research Grant!  The awardees are:

Dr. M. Guadalupe del Río for the project “Unlocking biodiversity and applied research on the broad-nosed weevil tribe Naupactini (Curculionidae: Entiminae) in Colombia”. The principal investigator will curate naupactine weevils in Colombian entomology collections, which will culminate in an illustrated catalog, key to genera, and the baseline taxonomy for necessary generic revisions.

 

Dr. Vinícius da Costa-Silva for the project “An illustrated catalogue of Trogidae (Coleoptera: Scarabaeoidea) type specimens from key European collections: a foundational resource for future taxonomic and phylogenetic studies”.  This project involves the principal investigator visiting the Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle (Paris, France) and The Natural History Museum (London, UK) to catalog and curate specimens and take high-resolution photographs of all trogid primary types.

We would like to thank Joyce Bell for making this grant possible with her generous donation to The Coleopterists Society in memory of her husband, Ross Bell. This grant is awarded on April 23rd, which would have been Ross’s 96th birthday.