Bowling Green, Ky. - A team of scientists and students from Western Kentucky University’s biology department and the University of Ghana’s zoology department will continue their study of insect diversity this summer in the West African nation.

Ghana is one of 25 globally recognized biodiversity hotspots -- areas with extremely high species diversity that are under great threat from human population pressure, mining, logging and bushmeat hunting.

The project is funded with $403,000 from the National Science Foundation. The team from WKU will include associate professor Keith Philips, post-doctoral researcher Karen Bell, and graduate students Jesus Orozco and Clement Akotsen-Mensah.

During Winter Term, Dr. Philips and graduate student Chris DeWildt began a three-week survey of Ghana’s cave invertebrates, a completely undocumented fauna, as one step in the scientific exploration of the region’s poorly known fauna.

Also in a previous trip, WKU undergraduate students Douglas Foster and Brent Collins traveled to Ghana for studies of dung beetle biology and diversity.

More WKU news is available at www.wku.edu. If you’d like to receive WKU news via e-mail, send a message to WKUNews@wku.edu.

For information, contact Keith Philips at (270) 745-3419.