James Costa
Professor and Executive Director of Highlands Biological Station Western Carolina University
- Cullowhee NC
Jim Costa's interests include insect behavior and ecology, environmental history and philosophy, and the history of science.
Media
Social
Biography
Costa's many interests include insect behavior and ecology, environmental history and philosophy, conservation biology and the history of science. His research has focused in recent years on Charles Darwin, Alfred Russel Wallace and the history of evolutionary thought. He has authored numerous research papers, reviews, magazine articles and seven books, most recently "Darwin's Backyard: How Small Experiments Led to a Big Theory" (W. W. Norton, 2017) — a finalist for the American Association for the Advancement of Science/Subaru Prize — and the co-edited volume "An Alfred Russel Wallace Companion" (Chicago, 2019).
Costa has held fellowships at Harvard’s Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, the Berlin Institute for Advanced Study and the New York Botanical Garden's LuEsther T. Mertz Library. He lectures widely in the U.S. and Europe, is a regular travel program leader/lecturer for the Harvard Museums of Science and Culture, and for many years co-instructed Harvard’s Darwin summer program at the University of Oxford. Costa's recent honors include 2017-2019 Sigma Xi Distinguished Lecturer, the Alfred Russel Wallace Medal (2017) and his book Darwin's Backyard was a Finalist for the AAAS/Subaru Prize for Excellence in Science Books.
Industry Expertise
Areas of Expertise
Accomplishments
Distinguished Lecturer Program
2017-2019
Sigma Xi Scientific Research Honor Society
25th Joseph LeConte Scholar
2015
Georgia Southern University
Million Dollar Circle Award
2016
Sponsored Programs, Western Carolina University
Wallace Medal
2017
Alfred Russel Wallace Memorial Fund, London
AAAS/Subaru Prize for Excellence in Science Books
2018
Finalist, for Darwin's Backyard: How Small Experiments Led to a Big Theory
Education
University of Georgia
Ph.D.
Entomology
1992
University of Georgia
M.S.
Entomology
1988
SUNY Buffalo
B.S.
Biological Sciences
1985
Affiliations
- American Association for the Advancement of Science
- Linnean Society of London : Fellow
- Sigma Xi Scientific Research Honor Society
- Society for the History of Natural History
Links
Languages
- English
Media Appearances
Jim Costa publishes book celebrating work of scientist and humanitarian Alfred Russel Wallace
WCU Stories online
2023-03-10
Jim Costa, executive director of Western Carolina University’s Highlands Biological Station, located in Highlands, set out to showcase the life of Wallace and celebrate the great works that he contributed as well as his activism that lasted until his death at age 90 in 1913 in his recently published book.
In Costa’s book, “Radical by Nature – The Revolutionary Life of Alfred Russel Wallace,” he dives into scholarly research, journals, notebooks and letters to help bring Wallace’s fascinating history to life.
How Charles Darwin's Garden Inspired the Theory Of Evolution
English Heritage Blog online
2017-10-04
James Costa has gone one step further with his new book Darwin’s Backyard: How Small Experiments Led to a Big Theory. James spent time at Down House when researching his book and discovered some fresh insights into the ways that Darwin transformed his home into a living laboratory.
Highlands Botanical Gardens to celebrate 60th Anniversary
The Highlander online
2022-07-13
“We kicked off the anniversary year with a program and pilgrimage to see the beautiful Oconee Bells, which is represented in our logo, in its native habitat,” Biological Station Executive Director James Costa said. “But the big celebration is this fall: we and our many ‘Friends of the Highlands Botanical Garden’ thought the 60th anniversary year was a great time to bring back an annual event much-loved by regional native plant lovers: the HBS Native Plant Symposium.”
Darwin's Backyard
C-SPAN online
2017-09-22
Biology professor James Costa talked about his book Darwin’s Backyard, in which he chronicles the life, career, and experiments of Charles Darwin.
Beyond The Galapagos: What Was In ‘Darwin’s Backyard’
WUNC North Carolina Public Radio online
2017-08-31
In his forthcoming book, James Costa examines Darwin’s personal history and how his drive to observe the natural world and collaborate with others led to theories that changed the study of biology.
Roaches prefer dinner parties to eating alone
ABC Science online
2010-06-11
"At some level there is some cue," says insect behaviour researcher Professor James Costa of Western Carolina University and executive director of Highlands Biological Station. "It could be either seeing, or smelling or touching; and over time it accumulates more and more."
Word from the Smokies: Couple will focus on insect field guide during park residency
MSN online
2025-04-28
“Those six-legged ‘little things’ in the park form an essential part of the vast ecological web of interconnectedness that constitutes the pulse of the Smokies,” said Jim Costa, author of a forthcoming field guide from Smokies Life that will help park visitors better understand and appreciate these tiny lifeforms. It will be illustrated in part by Jim’s wife, Leslie Costa. The couple was chosen as this year’s Steve Kemp writer and illustrator in residence.
The Costas hail from Cullowhee and Highlands, North Carolina, where Jim is a professor and executive director of the Highlands Biological Station of Western Carolina University and Leslie is a freelance illustrator, editor, and transcriber for the London-based Alfred Russel Wallace Correspondence Project. They met in graduate school at the University of Georgia in the fall of 1987.
Event Appearances
Darwinian Revelation: A Primer to Charles Darwin's 'One Long Argument'
Darwin Day Lecture University of Delaware
2019-02-12
A ‘Central and Controlling Incident:’ Celebrating The Malay Archipelago and the Intellectual Legacy of Alfred Russel Wallace
Linnean Society of London London, UK
2019-11-07
(R)evolutionary War: Darwin’s Origin & Descent, Scientific & Literary Influence
Dahlonega Science and Literary Festival Dahlonega, GA
2018-03-24
Charles Darwin’s ‘Fool’s Experiments’ – Lessons from an Inveterate “Experimentiser”
40th Darwin Festival Lecture Salem State University
2019-02-14
An unnatural naturalness? On the nature of humanity and perspectives on the Anthropocene
Humanities in the Age of Globalization conference Akaki Tsereteli State University, Kutaisi, Georgia
2019-11-01
Articles
Social nutrition: an emerging field in insect science
Current Opinion in Insect Science2018
Nutrition is thought to be a major driver of social evolution, yet empirical support for this hypothesis is scarce. Here we illustrate how conceptual advances in nutritional ecology illuminate some of the mechanisms by which nutrition mediates social interactions in insects.
Invasion and high-elevation acclimation of the red imported fire ant, Solenopsis invicta, in the southern Blue Ridge Escarpment region of North America
Plos One2020
The red imported fire ant (Solenopsis invicta) is a non-native invasive species that rapidly spread northward in the United States after its introduction from South America in the 1930s. Researchers predicted that the northward spread of this invasive ant would be limited by cold temperatures with increased latitude and greater elevation in the Blue Ridge Escarpment region of the United States.
Convergence of Social Strategies in Carrion Breeding Insects
BioScience2021
Carrion is a highly ephemeral and nutrient rich resource, characterized by extreme biotic and abiotic stressors. We hypothesized that specific constraints of the carrion ecosystem, and especially its nutrient richness, ephemerality, and competition with microbes, have promoted the evolution of social behaviors in necrophagous insects.
Four Decades of Table Mountain Pine Demography on Looking Glass Rock (Transylvania Co., North Carolina, USA)
Castanea2020
Table Mountain pine (Pinus pungens) is an Appalachian endemic that requires canopy-opening disturbance such as fire or logging for successful regeneration.
Myrmecochorous plants and their ant seed dispersers through successional stages in temperate cove forests
Ecological Entomology2022
Anthropogenic disturbance can decrease woodland diversity in the species-rich herbaceous layer of eastern deciduous forests, and ant-dispersed (myrmecochorous) plants may be particularly affected due to their limited ability to re-colonise secondary forests.
