Elvira Hernández Gutiérrez

My research focuses on Agrilus, a genus of jewel beetles that feed on plants. Although they tend to be innocuous in their native ranges, some, like Emerald Ash Borer, have proved devastating to novel hosts in new areas. This raises the question of whether other seemingly harmless Agrilus species could pose a threat outside their native range. As such, we aim to use phylogenetics to assess the risk to the UK flora from future Agrilus invasions, i.e., to identify Agrilus species that pose the highest threat and plants that are most at risk. I am a DEFRA-funded student based at Kew Gardens and Queen Mary University of London.

• BSc Biochemistry, University of Seville, 2018
• MSc Ecological and Evolutionary Genomics, Queen Mary University of London, 2020