Karim Vahed

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).

Education and career

Vahed has been fascinated by insects since childhood. In 1993 he joined the University of Derby, eventually becoming Professor of Entomology. and Programme Leader for the masters programme in conservation biology.

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. He has studied the behaviour of giving nuptial gifts in insects. 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. The large testes enable the insect to mate more frequently.

Vahed is involved in conservation of rare orthopterans and monitors the rare scaly cricket (Pseudomogoplistes vicentae) on the UK mainland as well as on the Channel Islands including a potential new colony of the species on Guernsey. On Guernsey he performs surveys of the cricket with volunteers from La Societe Guernesiaise. He also studies the mating behaviour of the scaly cricket. in 2019 he appeared on The British Garden: Life And Death On Your Lawn with Chris Packham.

Awards and honours

Vahed is a Fellow of the Royal Entomological Society, of the Royal Society of Biology, of the Linnean Society and is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.

Selected publications