Education
Period	University	Subject	Degree	Year awarded
1992-1994	Tel Aviv University	Biology	B.Sc.	1994
1995-1997	Tel Aviv University	Zoology	M.Sc.	1997
1997-2003	Tel Aviv University	Zoology	Ph.D.	2003

Academic and professional experience

- Taxonomy and systematics of gall midges (Diptera: Cecidomyiidae)

- Evolution and speciation of phytophagous insects

- Ecology of insect-plant interactions

Taxonomy is the science that explores biodiversity. A good taxonomist does not merely discover and name species but conducts a thorough comparative study of taxa and characters of various sources that lead to conclusions about phylogenetic relationships. It is ironical that at a time of biodiversity crisis and fundamental environmental changes, when we need taxonomy more than ever, this field is itself in crisis and nearing extinction. Instead of being a high priority, it has been reduced in recent decades to a service provider for supposedly ‘more serious’ scientific disciplines. Fashionable initiatives such as DNA taxonomy and DNA barcoding that sound sophisticated and ‘sexy’ are destructive to taxonomy both because they promote the idea that limited sequence data can replace all other sources of data in characterizing taxa, and because they draw funds away from good taxonomic work.

Taxonomy is at its prime when it is done for its own sake, not just as a name-providing service for ecologists, physiologists or molecular systematists. It is a challenging, rewarding discipline with its own goals and standards, and should be promoted as such if we want to understand biodiversity before large parts of it are gone forever, and face the challenge of documenting the estimated 10 million animal species that still await discovery.

My study focuses on the taxonomy and ecology of phytophagous insects, in particular gall inducers. I use an integrative approach that combines comparative morphology, life history attributes, and genetic data to infer phylogenetic relationships and conclude about evolutionary trends such as the role of host associations in speciation processes. My major interests are the taxonomy and phylogeny of gall-inducing midges of the family Cecidomyiidae (Diptera). I conduct an ongoing survey of the gall-midge fauna of Israel, study the phylogeny and host-use patterns of certain North American cecidomyiid genera, and conduct taxonomic revisions of various taxa from different parts of the world.

Gall midges (Diptera: Cecidomyiidae)

Laboratory and greenhouse settings for behavioral experiments

Some bud, stem, inflorescence and flower galls induced by various insects in Israel

Morphological diversity in cecidomyiid male genitalia (From Dorchin et al. 2009)

Superimposition of ecological attributes (host-association and gall type) on a phylogenetic tree that is based on sequence data of gall-midge species (From Dorchin et al. 2004).

Insects – the flagship of biodiversity
Biology and ecology of insect-induced galls

Harris K.M. and Dorchin N. 2011. The taxonomic status of Kieffer's type specimens of Afrotropical Cecidomyiidae (Diptera). African Invertebrates (in press).

Dorchin N. and Freidberg A. 2011. The gall midges (Diptera: Cecidomyiidae) of Apiaceae in Israel. Zootaxa 3044: 28-48.

Dorchin N. and Adair R.J. 2011. Two new Dasineura species (Diptera: Cecidomyiidae) from coastal tea-tree, Leptospermum laevigatum (Myrtaceae) in Australia. Australian Journal of Entomology 50: 65-71.

Sinclair B.J. and Dorchin N. 2010. Isoptera, Embioptera, Neuroptera, Mecoptera, Raphidioptera and Diptera types in ZFMK. Bonn zoological Bulletin 58: 49-88.

Dorchin N., Jordan S.D., Scott E.R., Clarkin C.E., Luongo M.P., and Abrahamson W.G. 2009. Behavioral, ecological, and genetic evidence confirm the occurrence of host-associated differentiation in goldenrod gall midges. Journal of Evolutionary Biology 22: 729-739.

Dorchin N., Hoffmann J.H., Stirk W.A., Novák O., Strnad M., and van Staden J. 2009. Sexually dimorphic structures correspond to differential phytohormone contents in male and female larvae of a pteromalid wasp. Physiological Entomology 34: 359-369.

Dorchin N., McEvoy M.V., Dowling T.A., Abrahamson W.G., and Moore J.G. 2009. Revision of the goldenrod-feeding Rhopalomyia (Diptera: Cecidomyiidae) in North Amercia. Zootaxa 2152: 1-35.

Dorchin N., 2008. Gall Midges (Diptera: Cecidomyiidae), pp. 1576-1580 In: Encyclopedia of Entomology. 2nd edition. John L. Capinera (ed.). Springer Verlag.

Dorchin N. and Freidberg A. 2008. The Chenopodiaceae gall midges (Diptera: Cecidomyiidae) of the Na’aman salt marsh, Israel. Zootaxa 1937: 1-22.

Dorchin N. and Gullan P.J. 2007. A new genus and species of a lasiopterine gall midge (Diptera: Cecidomyiidae) from bud galls on renosterbos, Elytropappus rhinocerotis (Asteraceae), in South Africa. African Entomology 15: 233-240.

Dorchin N., Clarkin C.E., Scott E.R., Luongo M.P., and Abrahamson W.G. 2007. Taxonomy, life history and population sex ratios of North American Dasineura (Diptera: Cecidomyiidae) on goldenrods (Asteraceae). Annals of the Entomological Society of America 100: 539-548.

Dorchin N. 2006. Resource partitioning and exploitative competition in stem-galling midges (Diptera: Cecidomyiidae) mediated by the host plant. Entomologia Experimentalis et Applicata 118: 111-119.

Dorchin N., Scott E.R., and Abrahamson W.G. 2006. First record of Macrolabis (Diptera: Cecidomyiidae) in America: a new inquiline species from Dasineura folliculi galls on goldenrods. Annals of the Entomological Society of America 99: 656-661.

Dorchin N., Cramer M.D., and Hoffmann J.H. 2006. Photosynthesis and sink activity of wasp-induced galls in Acacia pycnantha. Ecology 87: 1781-1791.

Dorchin N., Freidberg A. and Mokady O. 2004. Phylogeny of the Baldratiina (Diptera: Cecidomyiidae) inferred from multiple data sources, and evolutionary patterns in plant-galler relationships. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 30: 503-515.

Dorchin N. and Freidberg A. 2004. Sex ratio in relation to season and host plant quality in a monogenous stem-galling midge (Diptera: Cecidomyiidae). Ecological Entomology 29: 677-684.

Dorchin N., Freidberg A. and Aloni, R., 2002. Morphogenesis of stem gall tissues induced by larvae of two cecidomyiid species (Diptera: Cecidomyiidae) on Suaeda monoica (Chenopodiaceae). Canadian Journal of Botany 80: 1141-1150.

Dorchin N. 2001. Gall midges (Diptera: Cecidomyiidae) infesting Suaeda monoica (Chenopodiaceae) in Israel. Proceedings of the Entomological Society of Washington 103: 561-581.

Dorchin N. 1998. Gall midges infesting Chenopodiaceae: biology and taxonomy. pp. 18-21 In: Biology of Gall Inducing Arthropods (Csóka, G., Mattson, W. J., Stone, G. N. and Price, P. W., Eds.). Forest service – USDA. Mátrafüred, Hungary.