Ummat Somjee

Assistant Professor of Insect Diversity and Evolution, Department of Entomology

About

Sexual selection is a form of social evolution that has produced a remarkable diversity of elaborate animal traits, from the elongated heads of giraffe weevils to the weaponized legs of leaf-footed bugs. I focus on highly understudied insects whose unusual morphologies and behaviors provide opportunities to uncover fundamental processes underlying development, morphological diversification, and ecological adaptation. My research centers on four interconnected themes: trade-offs associated with elaborate morphology; the energetic costs of social signals; the physiological consequences of producing and maintaining these traits; and the interaction between social and ecological selection.

Education

Ph.D., University of Florida, USA 2018 —Interdisciplinary Ecology / Entomology

M.S., University of Florida, USA 2014 —Entomology

B.S., Simon Fraser University, Canada, 2011 – Ecology and Evolution

Recent Research

Selected Publications:

Evans-Blake, C., Rubin, J. J., & Somjee, U. (2026). Flag-waving behavior in matador bugs is an antipredatory strategy. Current Zoology, 72(2), 293–302.
Somjee, U., Marting, P., Anzaldo, S., Simmons, L. W., & Painting, C. J. (2024). Extreme range in adult body size reveals hidden trade-offs among sexually selected traits. Evolution, 78(8), 1382–1395.
Somjee, U., Powell, E. C., Hickey, A. J., Harrison, J. F., & Painting, C. J. (2021). Exaggerated sexually selected weapons maintained with disproportionately low metabolic costs in a single species with extreme size variation. Functional Ecology, 35(10), 2282–2293.
Somjee, U. (2021). Positive allometry of sexually selected traits: Do metabolic maintenance costs play an important role? BioEssays, 43(6), e2000183.
Somjee, U., Woods, H. A., Duell, M., & Miller, C. W. (2018). The hidden cost of sexually selected traits: The metabolic expense of maintaining a sexually selected weapon. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 285, 20181685.
Somjee, U., Miller, C. W., Tatarnic, N. J., & Simmons, L. W. (2018). Experimental manipulation reveals a trade-off between weapons and testes. Journal of Evolutionary Biology, 31, 57–65.

Awards & Honors

Maxwell/Hanrahan Award in Field Biology, 2026

NOMIS-Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Postdoctoral Fellowship for research in the tropics, 2025

Stengl-Wyer Scholars Fellow, University of Texas at Austin, 2022

Smithsonian Earl S. Tupper Post-doctoral Fellowship for independent study, 2018

Contact Information

uss7 [at] cornell.edu

- Lab website
- Publications on Google Scholar