Saúl Aguirre

Researcher

Saúl Aguirre has a Masters from Ghent University, Belgium, where he focused on biological control. He joined the project as a researcher in 2022 and first worked on studying the natural enemies of the avian vampire fly, Philornis downsi, in its native habitat of mainland Ecuador. This, with the aim of finding natural enemies that could be used in a biological control program against this invasive fly.

Currently, he is studying the host range of one of these natural enemies, a parasitic wasp, that shows potential in reducing the impacts of the avian vampire fly on Galápagos landbirds.