Rafael Rodriguez Sevilla

Professor, Biological Sciences

Education

PhD, University of Kansas, Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, Entomology, 2002
MS, University of Costa Rica, Biology, 1996
BS, University of Costa Rica, Biology, 1991

Research Interests

The study of behavior reveals how animals relate to their environment, and the nature of the selection that they exert on the individuals they interact with. Descriptions of mate preferences, for instance, constitute hypotheses about the form of sexual selection. Studying the causes of variation in behavior can thus help understand the course of evolution and divergence. Examples of current research topics include:

substrate-borne vibrational communication in insects
causes of phenotypic plasticity in mating signals and mate preferences
how sexual and ecological selection influence the role of communication systems in speciation
memory and predatory behavior in web spiders

Selected Publications

Sergi CM & Rodríguez RL. 2025. A test for basic animal consciousness through distraction by inward-directed attention, and a case study with black widow spiders. Behaviour 162(3-4), 259-276.

Rodríguez RL, Wood TK, Stearns FW, Snyder RL, Tilmon KJ, Cast M, Hunt RE & Cocroft RB. 2025. The means of signal divergence early in a host shift. The American Naturalist 206(2), 130-149.

Desjonquères C, Speck B, Seidita S, Cirino LA, Escalante I, Sergi C, Maliszewski J, Wiese C, Höbel G, Bailey NW & Rodríguez RL. 2023. Social plasticity enhances signal-preference codivergence. The American Naturalist 202(6), 818-829.

Höbel G & Rodríguez RL. 2022. Positive-to-negative behavioural responses suggest hedonic evaluation in treefrog mate choice. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 289(1967).

Rodriguez RL, Wood TK, Stearns FW, Snyder RL, Tilmon KJ, Cast MS, Hunt RE & Cocroft RB. 2021. Adaptation without specialization early in a host shift. The American Naturalist 198(3), 333-346.

Rodríguez RL. 2020. Back to the basics of mate choice: the evolutionary importance of Darwin’s sense of beauty. The Quarterly Review of Biology 95(4), 289-309.

Speck B, Seidita S, Belo S, Johnson S, Conley C, Desjonquères C & Rodríguez RL. 2020. Combinatorial signal processing in an insect. The American Naturalist 196(4), 406-413.

Kilmer JT & Rodríguez RL. 2019. Miniature spiders (with miniature brains) forget sooner. Animal Behaviour 153, 25-32.

Kilmer JT, Fowler‐Finn KD, Gray DA, Höbel G, Rebar D, Reichert MS & Rodríguez RL. 2017. Describing mate preference functions and other function‐valued traits. Journal of Evolutionary Biology 30(9), 1658-1673.

Mendelson TC, Fitzpatrick CL, Hauber ME, Pence CH, Rodríguez RL, Safran RJ, Stearn CA & Stevens JR. 2016. Cognitive phenotypes and the evolution of animal decisions. Trends in Ecology & Evolution 31(11), 850-859.

Rebar D & Rodríguez RL. 2015. Insect mating signal and mate preference phenotypes covary among host plant genotypes. Evolution 69(3), 602-610.

Rodríguez RL, Briceño RD, Briceno-Aguilar E & Höbel G. 2015. Nephila clavipes spiders (Araneae: Nephilidae) keep track of captured prey counts: testing for a sense of numerosity in an orb-weaver. Animal Cognition 18(1), 307-314.

Rodriguez Sevilla, Rafael L., Boughman, Janette W., Gray, David A., Hebets, Eileen A., Höbel, Gerlinde, and Symes, Laurel B.“Diversification under sexual selection: the relative roles of mate preference strength and the degree of divergence in mate preferences” Ecology Letters16. (2013): 964-974.

Fowler-Finn, Kasey D., and Rodriguez Sevilla, Rafael L.“The evolution of experience–mediated plasticity in mate preferences” Journal of Evolutionary Biology25. (2012): 1855-1863.

Rodriguez Sevilla, Rafael L., Ramaswamy, K., and Cocroft, R. B.“Evidence that female preferences have shaped male signal evolution in a clade of specialized plant–feeding insects” Proceedings of the Royal Society B273. (2006): 2585–2593.

Cocroft, R. B., and Rodriguez Sevilla, Rafael L.“The behavioral ecology of insect vibrational communication” BioScience55. (2005): 323-334.