Prof. Inon Scharf is an associate curator of Neuroptera at the Steinhardt Museum. He completed his PhD at Ben-Gurion University in 2009, studying the foraging behavior, life history, and morphology of pit-building antlions. During his postdoctoral research at the University of Munich and the University of Mainz, Germany, he studied behavior and ecology of forest-dwelling ants.
Inon’s main research themes are the evolution of insect behavior, and how behavior is affected by external and internal factors, such as climate, predation pressure, hunger and balancing conflicting demands. His current research focuses on: (1) the effect of unfavorable climate on insect behavior and life history; (2) habitat selection and foraging behavior of trap-building insect predators, such as antlions and wormlions; (3) the contribution of learning to successful foraging in ants. Inon is the recipient of the Rothschild, Minerva, and Humboldt scholarships. He has published more than 80 publications in peer-reviewed journals.