Karim Vahed

{{short description|British entomologist}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}} {{Infobox scientist | honorific_prefix = | name = Karim Vahed | honorific_suffix = | native_name = | native_name_lang = | image =  | image_size = | image_upright = | alt = | caption = | birth_name =  | birth_date =  | birth_place = | death_date =  | death_place = | death_cause = | resting_place = | resting_place_coordinates =  | home_town = | other_names = | pronounce = | residence = | citizenship = | nationality = | fields = Entomology<br />Orthopterology | workplaces = University of Derby Buglife | patrons = | education = | alma_mater = University of Exeter<br />University of Nottingham | thesis_title = The evolution and function of the spermatophylax in bushcrickets (Orthoptera:Tettigoniidae). | thesis_url = https://web.archive.org/web/20200229035053/https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/fee1/b61ba850dca4c48fca58ba9e4fda1820bfda.pdf | academic_advisors = Francis Gilbert | thesis_year = 1994 | known_for = | influences = | influenced = | awards = | author_abbrev_bot = | author_abbrev_zoo = | partner = Kate Bellis | children = 1 | signature =  | signature_alt = | website = https://www.derby.ac.uk/staff/karim-vahed/ | footnotes = }} '''Karim Vahed''' FRES is a British entomologist. He is a professor of entomology and England manager at invertebrate conservation charity Buglife, and is an expert in crickets and bushcrickets (katydids).<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|url=https://www.derby.ac.uk/staff/karim-vahed/|title=Professor Karim Vahed|website=www.derby.ac.uk|language=en-GB|access-date=2020-01-16}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Staff |url=https://www.buglife.org.uk/about-us/staff/ |access-date=2022-11-19 |website=Buglife |language=en-GB}}</ref>

== Education and career ==

Vahed has been fascinated by insects since childhood.<ref name=":1" /> He studied biological sciences at the University of Exeter<ref name=":1" /> and did a PhD at the University of Nottingham on the function and evolution of nuptial feeding in bushcrickets, focusing on the role of the spermatophylax.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/13737/|title=The evolution and function of the spermatophylax in bushcrickets (Orthoptera: Tettigoniidae)|last=Vahed|first=Karim|date=1994|website=eprints.nottingham.ac.uk|language=en|access-date=2020-01-16}}</ref> In 1993 he joined the University of Derby, eventually becoming Professor of Entomology.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/profiles/1n6RWWHLjwm8bdk53Dvl57d/professor-karim-vahed|title=BBC Four - The British Garden: Life and Death on Your Lawn - Expert profile Professor Karim Vahed|date=July 2019|website=BBC.co.uk|language=en-GB|access-date=2020-01-16}}</ref> and Programme Leader for the masters programme in conservation biology.<ref name=":2" /> In 2022 he moved to Buglife to become England Manager.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Price |first=Jo |date=22 September 2022 |title=MEET THE SCIENTIST Karim Vahed |work=BBC Wildlife |url=https://www.pressreader.com/uk/bbc-wildlife-magazine/20220922/281840057504799 |access-date=19 November 2022}}</ref>

== Research ==

Vahed's research looks in particular at the sexual behaviour of the Orthoptera order of insects, the crickets and bush crickets and related groups.<ref name=":0" />

He discovered a group of bushcricket species ''Anonconotus sp.'' that are able to mate many times without need to recover.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/science/science-news/3341277/Tireless-cricket-is-ready-to-mate-every-18-seconds.html|title=Tireless cricket is ready to mate every 18 seconds|last=Editor|first=Roger Highfield, Science|journal=Daily Telegraph|date=2005-05-31|access-date=2020-01-16|language=en-GB|issn=0307-1235}}</ref> He has studied the behaviour of giving nuptial gifts in insects.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.ft.com/content/1fc728bc-7bd3-11d9-9af4-00000e2511c8|title=Love Bugs|website=www.ft.com|access-date=2020-01-16}}</ref> His team also discovered a cricket species ''Platycleis affinis'' in which the testes accounted for 14% of the insect's body mass, the largest percentage of any animal at the time of the study.<ref name=":4" /><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lK-YDAAAQBAJ&pg=PT207|title=National Geographic Tales of the Weird: Unbelievable True Stories|last=Braun|first=David|date=2012-10-23|publisher=National Geographic|isbn=978-1-4262-0966-6|language=en}}</ref> The large testes enable the insect to mate more frequently.<ref name=":4">{{Cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/science/2010/nov/10/largest-testicles-species-bush-cricket|title=Largest testicles of any species? That would be the bush cricket|last1=Sample|first1=Ian|date=2010-11-10|work=The Guardian|access-date=2020-01-16|last2=correspondent|first2=science|language=en-GB|issn=0261-3077}}</ref>

Vahed is involved in conservation of rare orthopterans and monitors the rare scaly cricket (''Pseudomogoplistes vicentae)'' on the UK mainland<ref name=":2">{{Cite web|url=https://phys.org/news/2014-06-insect-expert-young-son-rediscovering.html|title=Insect expert's young son beats him to rediscovering endangered bug|website=phys.org|language=en-us|access-date=2020-01-16}}</ref> as well as on the Channel Islands including a potential new colony of the species on Guernsey.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.itv.com/news/channel/2019-04-24/could-guernsey-be-a-hotspot-for-endangered-crickets/|title=Could Guernsey be a hotspot for endangered crickets?|website=ITV News|language=en|access-date=2020-01-16}}</ref><ref name=":3">{{Cite web|url=https://www.guernseypress.com/news/2019/04/25/scaly-cricket-expert-joins-local-amateurs-in-hunt-for-insect/|title=Scaly cricket expert joins local amateurs in hunt for insect|website=www.guernseypress.com|date=25 April 2019 |language=en|access-date=2020-02-01}}</ref> On Guernsey he performs surveys of the cricket with volunteers from La Societe Guernesiaise.<ref name=":3" /> He has campaigned against making the Guernsey site a waste dump.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://gsy.bailiwickexpress.com/gsy/news/incredible-spur-point-could-be-filled-waste-entemologist/|title="Incredible that Spur Point could be filled with waste" - Entemologist|website=Bailiwick Express|language=en|access-date=2020-02-01}}</ref> He also studies the mating behaviour of the scaly cricket.<ref name=":2" />

In 2014 Vahed was interviewed on BBC Four television documentary ''Spider House'' by Tim Cockerill,<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p028wfdg|title=BBC Four - Spider House, How do spiders mate?|website=BBC.co.uk|date=17 October 2014 |language=en-GB|access-date=2020-01-16}}</ref> in 2019 he appeared on ''The British Garden: Life And Death On Your Lawn'' with Chris Packham.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.express.co.uk/life-style/life/826267/british-garden-Chris-Packham-bbc-four-documentary-life-death-lawn|title=The British garden: Sex and death in your back garden|last=Petty|first=Moira|date=2017-07-08|website=Express.co.uk|language=en|access-date=2020-01-16}}</ref>

== Awards and honours ==

Vahed is a Fellow of the Royal Entomological Society,<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.postgrad.com/derby_may_12_pg_ezine/|title=Royal Entomological Society Recognition for Dr Karim Vahed {{!}} Postgrad.com|website=www.postgrad.com|access-date=2020-01-16}}</ref> of the Royal Society of Biology, of the Linnean Society and is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.<ref name=":0"/>

==Personal life== Vahed and his partner, Kate Bellis, a photographer, have one son.<ref name=arts>{{cite journal|url=https://issuu.com/artsbeat/docs/april_edition_of_artsbeat_for_issuu|title=Colour captured in black and white|journal=ArtsBeat|date=April 2016|pages=10–11}}</ref>

== Selected publications == * {{Cite journal|last=Vahed|first=Karim|date=1998|title=The function of nuptial feeding in insects: a review of empirical studies|url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/biological-reviews/article/function-of-nuptial-feeding-in-insects-a-review-of-empirical-studies/BF2A7A76F13471090EF247F80C9919DA|journal=Biological Reviews|language=en|volume=73|issue=1|pages=43–78|doi=10.1017/S0006323197005112|issn=1469-185X|url-access=subscription}} * {{Cite journal|last=Vahed|first=Karim|date=2007|title=All that Glisters is not Gold: Sensory Bias, Sexual Conflict and Nuptial Feeding in Insects and Spiders|journal=Ethology|language=en|volume=113|issue=2|pages=105–127|doi=10.1111/j.1439-0310.2006.01312.x|bibcode=2007Ethol.113..105V |issn=1439-0310}} * {{Cite journal|last1=Vahed|first1=Karim|last2=Parker|first2=Darren J.|date=2012|title=The Evolution of Large Testes: Sperm Competition or Male Mating Rate?|journal=Ethology|language=en|volume=118|issue=2|pages=107–117|doi=10.1111/j.1439-0310.2011.01991.x|bibcode=2012Ethol.118..107V |issn=1439-0310}} * {{Cite journal|last1=Lehmann|first1=Gerlind U. C.|last2=Gilbert|first2=James DJ|last3=Vahed|first3=Karim|last4=Lehmann|first4=Arne W.|date=2017|title=Male genital titillators and the intensity of post-copulatory sexual selection across bushcrickets|journal=Behavioral Ecology|language=en|volume=28|issue=5|pages=1198–1205|doi=10.1093/beheco/arx094|issn=1045-2249|doi-access=free}}

== References == {{reflist}}

== External links ==

* [https://www.derby.ac.uk/staff/karim-vahed/ University of Derby profile]

{{DEFAULTSORT:Vahed, Karim}} Category:Living people Category:Year of birth missing (living people) Category:British entomologists Category:Fellows of the Royal Entomological Society Category:20th-century British scientists Category:21st-century British scientists Category:Alumni of the University of Exeter Category:Alumni of the University of Nottingham