MSU entomologist discovers 50 species, contributes to university’s ‘library of life’
Before he was the director of the Mississippi Entomological Museum at Mississippi State, JoVonn Hill was a curious kid in Meridian chasing bugs through his backyard. He spent countless hours outdoors, collecting insects without knowing he was building the foundation of his life’s work and passion.
“I’ve got the job a little kid would like to have,” he laughed. “I go and I catch bugs for a living.”
Today, that childhood passion has taken him through prairies and deserts—from Mississippi grasslands to the arid landscape of New Mexico and Arizona—leading him to discover more than 50 new species of grasshopper. Each one Hill documents, names and preserves as a part of MSU’s ever-growing biological archive.
Hill said there’s not a specific formula for grasshopper-catching success, but thanks to his childhood curiosity and years of practice, he’s almost perfected the art.
“There may not be science, but there’s definitely a skill to it,” he said.
Now the director of one of the top entomological collections in the Southeastern Conference—one which houses more than two million specimens—Hill leads the charge in taxonomy and species discovery for the university. He’s quick to credit his team and his mentor, former museum director Richard Brown, for paving the way.
“I’ve added a lot of specimens here, but I’m just keeping up the momentum that my predecessors started,” he said. “Our collection here at MSU spans years. It’s a library of life.”
Finding grasshoppers
In 2010, Hill was walking through a cedar glade in Nashville—a habitat that’s been studied since the 1800s—when a grasshopper caught his eye. It didn’t match anything he’d seen before. He took it back to the lab, placed it under the microscope and compared it with existing collections and literature.
It turned out to be the first new species the then-graduate student would discover. Though it’s happened 49 more times, he claims that first was just pure luck.
“Definitely serendipitous,” he said with a laugh. “There’s a ton of research I do beforehand now. But that day, I just walked into the glades, and it was the first thing I saw.”
After that, he was hooked. He soon discovered enough new species that he started to run out of names. This led him to one of his most noted discoveries: a new Texas hopper he named in honor of one of America’s greatest country music icons.
Melanoplus nelsoni, named after Willie Nelson, was discovered in prairies and grasslands throughout central Texas. Belonging to the Melanoplus genus, one of the largest groups of American grasshoppers, Hill named the new species in honor of the style of music he and his field crew listened to while driving from site to site.
Finding a unique species is a rigorous process, he said. Governed by the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature, every species must be justified, have its differences described in detail and a “type specimen”—the gold standard for that species—designated.
“That one specimen becomes the reference for the whole species going forward,” Hill explained.
Though tasked now with paperwork, teaching courses and managing a team of graduate and undergraduate researchers, fieldwork remains his first love—especially with company.
“I just recently went on a trip to North Georgia by myself. It wasn’t nearly as fun,” he said. “Catching grasshoppers is great, but being out there with my staff and students, that camaraderie and mentorship, makes it twice as fun.”
Helping others
A three-time MSU graduate, Hill said he wants to emulate the impactful mentorship he felt as an undergrad. Being able to pique students’ curiosity and help them find paths to success is just another aspect that makes his job incredibly worth it.
“I love finding ways for others to succeed,” he said. “I always felt I was very fortunate because Dr. Brown reached out to me about graduate school. I felt that I was in the right place at the right time. But that wasn’t it.
“He didn’t grab the first person that walked by. He saw something in me,” Hill continued. “Now I’ve been able to do that and there’s no better feeling than seeing somebody grow and mature, and plugging them into the right thing.”
What his predecessor and mentor did for him, Hill has passed on to museum research associate and Starkville native Shelby Grice. As an undergrad, Hill helped her land a student-worker role, where she quickly fell in love with taxonomy, the science of describing and classifying organisms.
“This was something I could really sink my teeth into,” Grice said. “It’s such a deep field. Surface knowledge doesn’t even begin to explain it.”
Grice remembers her first time in the field—sweeping Sumter Prairies in Alabama. She found a specimen she recognized, but it was one that Hill, despite visiting the site countless times for 20 years, had never encountered in the region.
“I’d never seen a more flabbergasted look on his face,” she said with a laugh. “It ended up being a new state record for Alabama. It was funny to both of us that on my very first trip, I’d make this discovery. Just like he did as a student.”
Along with other graduate students, Grice has traveled with Hill across the country, stopping in Texas and Arizona, collecting specimens, and making pit stops to stretch their legs and sweep through roadside grasslands just in case something interesting was hiding there.
“No matter where we were, everything we found in the field, JoVonn knew,” Grice said. “He could tell us their entire background. He comes out in the field with his utility belt and supplies and looks just like Batman.”
But for all his experience and discoveries, she said, Hill remains humble.
“He doesn’t brag at all,” she said. “He’s very good at what he does, and he’s made a ton of discoveries that have contributed so much to Mississippi State. It feels surreal to work and learn from him. I’ve made all these connections in entomology because of him. He’s the reason I’m here.”
By Mary Pollitz, Photos by Beth Wynn