This action funds an NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Biology for FY 2025. The fellowship supports research and training of the fellow that will contribute to biology in innovative ways. For many years, scientists have tried to understand how insects evolved to have such a wide diversity of diets. Previous research has revealed that insect diets are determined both by their habitats and by the structure and function of their bodies. Further, some insects host symbiotic bacteria that also may further affect their diets. Over millions of years, insect diets have shifted, and these shifts have driven the formation of new species. However, the exact relationship between diet shifts and species formation remains unclear, as does the relationship between bacterial symbionts and host insect diet shifts. This research will use data from insect and microbial genomes to uncover how diet changes have shaped insect evolution. Results from this work will be important to biology and may have practical applications that could benefit agricultural pest control. Additionally, the fellow will benefit from training in scientific imaging and computational approaches. The fellow will also mentor undergraduate and high school trainees, which will contribute to the fellow’s professional development and support the next generation of biologists. The fellow will reconstruct evolutionary diet shifts in the seed bugs (superfamily Lygaeoidea), which have evolved many different diets. The fello