KERGOAT G - cbgp

gael.kergoat@inrae.fr

+33 4 30 63 04 35

All members

Gaël KERGOAT

Research Director, INRAE

Area(s)

Characterisation and evolution of biodiversity

Collective responsibility(ies)

Scientific Animation Group
Senior editor for the journal Systematic Entomology
Associate Editor for the journal BMC Ecology and Evolution
Recommandator for PCI Evolutionary Biology, PCI Ecology and PCI Zoology

INRAE Research Director (PhD. thesis defended in 2004, HDR in 2014)
Assigned to the UMR Centre de Biologie pour la Gestion des Populations (Centre of Biology for the Management of Populations) in Montpellier, France.

Research
Key words: Barcoding, Entomology, Plant-insect interactions, Macroevolution, Crop pests, Systematics, Integrative taxonomy
Coordination and participation in 23 research projects (including five ANR, one CASDAR and one NSF)
Publications: 105 peer-reviewed studies (including 57 as first or last author); six book chapters; three perspectives; 64 communications
H-index: 40; 6642 citations (Google_Scholar as of 02/06/2026)

Selected publications
• Condamine, F.L., Kergoat, G.J. 2021. Antarctica as an evolutionary arena during the Cenozoic global cooling. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA 118: e2108886118. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2108886118
• Condamine, F.L., Sperling, F.A.H., Wahlberg, N., Rasplus, J.-Y., Kergoat, G.J. 2012. What causes latitudinal gradients in species diversity? Evolutionary processes and ecological constraints on swallowtail biodiversity. Ecology Letters 15: 267-277. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1461-0248.2011.01737.x
• Haran, J., Li, X., Allio, R., Shin, S., Benoit, L., Oberprieler, R.G., Farrell, B.D., Brown, S.D.J., Leschen, R.A.B., Kergoat, G.J., McKenna, D.D. 2023. Phylogenomics illuminates the phylogeny of flower weevils (Coleoptera: Curculionidae: Curculioninae) and reveals eleven independent origins of brood-site pollination mutualism. Proceedings of the Royal Society B. 290: 2023088. https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2023.0889
• Hévin, N.-M.C., Goldstein, P.Z., Aduse-Poku, K., Barbut, J., Mitchell, A., Zilli, A., Clamens, A.-L., Capdevielle-Dulac, C., Wahlberg, N., Le Ru, B., Kergoat, G.J. 2024. Habitat opening fostered diversity: impact of dispersal and habitat-shifts in the diversification of a speciose Afrotropical insect group. Ecography 8: e07258. https://doi.org/10.1111/ecog.07258
• Kergoat, G.J., Condamine, F.L., Toussaint, E.F.A., Capdevielle-Dulac, C., Clamens, A.-L., Barbut, J., Goldstein, P.Z., Le Ru, B. 2018. Opposite macroevolutionary responses to environmental changes in grasses and insects during the Neogene grassland expansion. Nature Communications 9: 5089. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-018-07537-8

Scientific and academic duties
2016-2020 /2022-2024: elected member of the UMR CBGP unit council
2016-2020: elected member of IRD’s Sectoral Scientific Commission 3
2016-2020: elected member of the scientific council of INRAE’s Plant Health and Environment department
2015-2020: co-leader of the CBGP ‘origin and characterization of biodiversity’ thematic group
2006-2014: co-leader of the CBGP ‘taxonomy-phylogeny’ thematic group

Expertise
Member of recruitment panels: TR INRAE (2008, 2010), MdC MNHN (2014), CR/DR IRD (2016-2020), PR MNHN (2023, 2025, 2026), CPJ MNHN (2024), PR Univ. Montpellier (2025); member of promotion panels: CR/DR IRD (2018-2019)
Evaluations for 18 national or international institutes or funding agencies; expert for FRB AllEnvi’s Biodiversity group; European Horizon-MSCA expert.
Co-Editor-in-Chief of Systematic Entomology (since 2022); Associate Editor of BMC Ecology & Evolution (2016-2023); Reviewer for 42 scientific journals.

Supervision, teaching, university juries
Teaching at undergraduate, master’s and doctoral school level (200+ hours in total)
2009, 2017, 2019: jury member (M1-M2, University of Montpellier)
Supervision of six doctoral theses (defended in 2011, 2013, 2018 and 2025, two ongoing), including five as official co-supervisor
Supervision of 13 Masters, 2 Licenses and 5 fixed-term contracts
Member of four HDR juries; member of seven thesis juries; member of 32 Ph.D. committees (also referent for Doctoral school GAIA of Montpellier University)

Fellowships
2005-2006: Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) Fellowship
2001-2004: French Ministry of Higher Education and Research (MENRT) Fellowship

Awards
2024: Editor’s choice for a study published in Ecography

2012: F1000 Prime for a study published in Ecology Letters

Field experience
Organized and led one collecting trip to Australia (2009), organized and led one collecting trips to French Lesser Antilles (2013), organized and led five collecting trips to New Caledonia (2008-2009), organized and led one collecting trip to New Zealand (2009), organized and led three collecting trips to the United States of America (2012, 2014, 2017)
Participated to collecting trips in French Guiana (2011), Italy (2013), Kazakhstan (2007), Mali (2007), and Niger (2011).

Haran J., Kergoat G.J. & de Medeiros B.A.S. 2023. Most diverse, most neglected: weevils (Coleoptera: Curculionoidea) are ubiquitous specialized brood-site pollinators of tropical flora. Peer Community Journal 3 : e49. (https://dx.doi.org/10.24072/pcjournal.279)

Kamiński M.J., Smith A.D., Kanda K., Iwan D. & Kergoat G.J. 2022. Old origin for an European-African amphitropical disjunction pattern? New insights from a case study on wingless darkling beetles. Journal of Biogeography 49 : 130-141. (https://dx.doi.org/10.1111/jbi.14288)

Hévin N.M.-C., Hansen* S., Addison P., Benoit L., Kergoat G.J. & Haran J. 2022. Late Cenozoic environmental changes drove the diversification of a weevil genus endemic to the Cape Floristic Region. Zoologica Scripta 51 : 724-740. (https://dx.doi.org/10.1111/zsc.12563)

Haran J., Procheş Ş., Benoit L. & Kergoat G.J. 2022. From monocots to dicots: host shifts in Afrotropical derelomine weevils shed light onto the evolution of non-obligatory brood pollination mutualism. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society 137 : 15-29. (https://dx.doi.org/10.1093/biolinnean/blac069)

Haran J., Benoit L., Procheş Ş. & Kergoat G.J. 2022. Ebenacobius Haran, a new southern African genus of flower weevils (Coleoptera: Curculioninae: Derelomini) associated with dicotyledonous plants. European Journal of Taxonomy 818 : 1-54. (https://dx.doi.org/10.5852/ejt.2022.818.1771)

Gotty K., Kergoat G.J., Jouannais P., Invernon V., Merlot S. & Pillon Y. 2022. Relict lineages with extreme ecology and physiology: metal hyperaccumulation on ultramafic substrates in New Caledonian Alseuosmineae (Asterales). Plant Ecology and Diversity 15 : 227-242. (https://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17550874.2022.2093290)

Fiteni E., Durand K., Gimenez S., Meagher R.L., Legeai F., Kergoat G.J., Nègre N., d'Alençon E. & Nam K. 2022. Host-plant adaptation as a driver of incipient speciation in the fall armyworm (Spodoptera frugiperda). BMC Ecology and Evolution 22 : 133. (https://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12862-022-02090-x)

Le Ru B., Hévin N.M.-C., Capdevielle-Dulac C., Musyoka B.K., Sezonlin M., Conlong D., Van Den Berg J., Ndemah R., Le Gall P., Cugala D., Nyamukondiwa C., Pallangyo B., Njaku M., Goftishu M., Assefa Y., Bani G., Molo R., Chipapika G., Ong’amo G., Clamens A.-L., Barbut J. & Kergoat G.J. 2022. Phylogenetics, integrative taxonomy and systematics of the Sesamia cretica Lederer, 1857 species group (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae: Apameini: Sesamiina), with the description of 21 new species from the Afrotropical region. Annales de la Société entomologique de France (NS) 58 : 387-454. (https://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00379271.2022.2113341)

Orsucci* M., Mone Y., Audiot P., Gimenez S., Nhim S., Nait-Saidi R., Frayssinet M., Dumont G., Boudon J.-P., Vabre M., Rialle S., Koual R., Kergoat G.J., Nagoshi R.N., Meagher R.L., d'Alencon E. & Nègre N. 2022. Transcriptional differences between the two host strains of Spodoptera frugiperda (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae). Peer Community Journal 2 : e1. (https://dx.doi.org/10.24072/pci.evolbiol.100102)

Yainna S., Tay W.T., Durand K., Fiteni E., Hilliou F., Legeai F., Clamens A.-L., Gimenez S., Asokan R., Kalleshwaraswamy C.M., Deshmuk S., Meagher J., R.L., Blanco C.A., Silvie P., Brévault T., Dassou A., Kergoat G.J., Walsh T., Gordon K., Nègre N., d'Alençon E. & Nam K. 2022. The evolutionary process of biological invasion in the fall armyworm (Spodoptera frugiperda). Scientific Reports 12 : 25529. (https://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-25529-z)