My research focuses on the division of labor and colony organization in leaf-cutting ants in the genus Atta. The fifth floor of Morrill Hall is now the home of eight small Atta colonies, that may eventually expand to fill the entire building. In collaboration with Gene Robinson, and using a combination of experiments and computer simulations, I am trying to understand the behavioral rules of individual workers that result in organized and effective colony behavior. I also participated in the Insect Expo this past fall for the third straight year. This year marked the first appearance of the Atta at the Expo, and they gave a fine performance, recruiting heavily to my offerings of clover and dandelion leaves, and carrying their leaf pieces along a 2-meter "highway" back to the nest. For next year we are looking for volunteers to demonstrate the use of Atta heads as natural "sutures" for closing wounds.

In the Fahrbach and Robinson labs, I am studying honey bee learning and memory in a 3-year position funded by NIH. Specifically, I work on the orientation flights that young bees take before they begin to for-age—bees learn about the world outside their hive during these flights. I’d like to determine if the insect brain structure called the mushroom bodies are important for the learning that occurs during orientation flights.

Working with Gene and Susan has created all sorts of terrific research opportunities for me. We are using a new radar technology to track honey bee flight behavior. This cool equipment was developed by the Radar Entomology Unit of the Natural Resources Institute in Malvern, England—I spent some time in England during summer 1997 tracking bees with harmonic radar at the Rothamsted Institute. Last year, I was a visitor at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, where I’m collaborating with Bill Wcislo (he’s on their scientific staff) on a project looking at the neuroanatomy of tropical bee brains; eventually, we’ll try to link the ecology, learning, and brain structure into some sort of phylogenetic analysis. I’ve also participated in a German-American academic exchange, and as a result, have connected with some great scientists in that country.

When I’m not watching bees fly on various continents, I enjoy reading, cooking, and garnering frequent flyer miles. I volunteer for Planned Parenthood of East Central Illinois and visit Chicago for weekends about once every month. I can frequently be seen in an endorphin-induced haze doing group exercises and lifting weights at DCR facilities or worshipping at the altar of NBC’s Law & Order. [back to top]

I have a 12-year-old Labrador retriever who plays frisbee and a financé who just moved here from Seattle. [back to top]

I like to chat, fish, play cards, garden, and watch TV. I also enjoy cooking. Enjoying life with my wife Xiang-xia and daughter Shuqi is definitely my favorite pastime. However, my heart is open to every new friend.

Recently I collaborated with Patrick Dowd and Robert Bartelt at the USDA station in Peoria to study the structure of a beetle gland that produces an aggregation pheromone. We were surprised to discover that the cells producing this pheromone turn out to be oenocytes. This is the first demonstration that oenocytes have been recruited to produce pheromone and that tracheole cells have been recruited as ductule cells to transport pheromone from oenocytes to spiracles. These poorly understood cells may be the source of pheromones in other species of insects.

In addition to our collaborative project dealing with the molecular and cellular basis of insect olfaction, Hugh Robertson and I have also been studying a novel surface protein that is not only very large and complex but that is also dynamically expressed in a variety of tissues. This protein which we have named lacunin has multiple domains that probably exert multiple effects on cell behavior. We have examined its role in remodeling of tissues during development and suspect that it also plays a pivotal role in the insect immune system. A grant from the USDA will enable us to investigate this possibility.

Working on a book about life in the soil for the last 5 years has provided me with many rewarding hours in the field, at the library, as well as at the microscope, examining and getting acquainted with some extraordinary creatures from samples of soil and leaf litter. Both the text and illustrations for the book are nearing completion; only a few more illustrations remain to be done.

My research interest is in medical veterinary entomology, especially the family Culicidae (mosquitoes) and the pathogens they transmit, as well as in urban/public health entomology. My laboratory has long-term field and laboratory investigations in mosquito ecology and genetics, insect pathology, toxicology and management, molecular and classical virology/bacteriology, and mosquito vector competence. Studies on other in-fectious pathogens of public health importance are also being investigated. [back to top]

I received my B.S. degree in agriculture from Western Illinois University in 1996. I graduated as an honors scholar in biology and with cum laude distinction. As an undergraduate, I had two publications with my advisor Dr. Joe Coelho. I am a member of Alpha Zeta, Beta Beta Beta, Sigma Xi, and a number of other organizations.

I am married to Ying Ross and have two children, Charity and Michael. I have a 2-year-old grandson, Christopher Michael Averill. I enjoy tree climbing, hiking, and nature (both plants and animals). My favorite pastime is riding my Honda vfr700r motorcycle (at least during our short riding season here in Illinois).

I hope to finish my masters degree in biology (in progress) and pursue a Ph.D. in biology within the next year or so. [back to top]

Several scientific claims had been made that ancient DNA from amber-fossilized insects many millions of years old could be amplified by the polymerase chain reaction. If these claims were true, well preserved fossils would become a treasure trove to molecular biologists and others for answering ecological and evolutionary questions. Because these results had not been replicated independently in other laboratories, most scientists remained skeptical. I focused on one particular amber-fossilized insect, Proplebeia dominicana, a small bee, that was reportedly a source for successful PCRs. After many attempts to extract DNA, amplify it with PCR primers to a multi-copy gene, and obtain sequence, I was only able to identify obvious contaminating sources of DNA. To date, the initial claim has not been replicated, and many fossil DNA hunters have turned their attention to much younger and more reliable sources of "ancient" DNA.

I finished my M.S. in December 1995, and I currently serve as Dr. Robertson’s lab technician. Outside of the lab, I enjoy gardening and watching ruby-throated hummingbirds visit my feeders. I also decorate cakes as a joint hobby with my sister and spend time fishing with my husband during the summer.

My research interests are centered around biological control of insects and weeds. I am interested in foraging strategies of parasitic insects, especially the combinations of morphological and behavioral adaptations that make up those strategies; behavioral and physiological aspects of the ecology of insect parasites of lepidopteran stem borers; how combinations of ecological and physiological interactions among parasites, their hosts, and plant habitats affect host specificity and potential non-target impacts; and facultative phytophagy of predaceous Heteroptera, and how that affects using those predators in IPM strategies. I also have a project on biological control of an exotic weed, purple loosestrife, in northern Illinois, using two species of exotic chrysomelids. Every 2 years, I teach ENT 321, Biological Control of Pests. I am advising one Ph.D. student in Entomology, Marianne Alleyne, and one M.S. student in NRES, Rodrigo Velarde, and my lab has been home to more than a dozen interns from the Pan American School of Agriculture in Honduras. [back to top]

On the research front, I can report some interesting findings. May and I continue to study coevolution between wild parsnips and parsnip webworms (surprise). Until last year, we had no idea just how precisely coevolved these two organisms could be. Comparing the frequencies of toxic furanocoumarin phenotypes in the parsnip populations with the frequencies of furanocoumarin-detoxifying phenotypes of associated webworm populations, we discovered a nearly perfect degree of matching. The findings were published in PNAS. In the future, we hope to manipulate frequencies of plant or insect phenotypes to determine how quickly each organism can track such shifts and to ultimately identify the genes responsible.

On a less entomological note, James Nitao, an alumnus of the department, and I recently published a paper in Evolutionary Ecology that provides what we believe to be the first real evidence of kin conflict in a plant. In short, it appears that wild parsnip offspring are able to manipulate their level of chemical defense while they are developing within the maternal inflorescence. The compelling part of this story is that the offspring only manipulate the level of defense on the outside of the fruit, not the level inside it. It turns out that parsnip webworms taste the outside of fruits and only then decide whether to consume the fruit. That there is a conflict between the interest of the offspring (self survival) versus the maternal plant (survival of as many offspring as possible) is evidenced by the fact that the maternal plant is in sole control of dispensing food to each offspring (endosperm) and does so equally. Thus, there is a mismatch between provisioning of resources and defense that likely results from parent-offspring conflict. [back to top]

Entomology