University of Wyoming Student Earns Award for Groundbreaking Beetle Research

A University of Wyoming Ph.D. student, Audrey Lindsteadt, has received the prestigious 2024 Rocky Mountains Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit Student Award for her research on the narrow-foot Hygrotus diving beetle, Casper Star-Tribune reports.

Lindsteadt’s findings have expanded knowledge about this rare aquatic beetle, which was previously thought to inhabit only a few streams in central Wyoming.

Lindsteadt, a student in Wyoming’s Program in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, focused on the narrow-foot Hygrotus, a small pale-yellow beetle known to thrive in harsh, saline conditions found in intermittent streams and ephemeral pools. Discovered in 1964, the beetle is native to just 16 streams in Fremont, Johnson, Natrona, and Washakie counties, but Lindsteadt’s research revealed populations in three additional streams in new watersheds, including the Big Horn Basin.

Her findings offer crucial insights for species conservation. Despite several attempts to list the narrow-foot Hygrotus as endangered, the beetle remains imperiled but unlisted under the federal Endangered Species Act. Lindsteadt’s work played a key role in the US Fish and Wildlife Service’s 2023 decision not to list the beetle as endangered, thanks to her research on its adaptability and viability across its habitats.

“Without the information from Ms. Lindsteadt and our partnership with Wyoming Natural Diversity Database, the Service would not have been able to fully understand the resiliency, redundancy and representation of the narrow-foot Hygrotus diving beetle,” stated former USFWS biologist Julie Reeves.

Lindsteadt’s advisor, UW invertebrate zoologist Lusha Tronstad, praised her student’s dedication and innovation, noting that Lindsteadt’s findings could redefine conservation practices for other rare species in extreme habitats.