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Full-Text Articles in Life Sciences

Suitability Of Native Milkweed (Asclepias) Species Versus Cultivars For Supporting Monarch Butterflies And Bees In Urban Gardens [Research Data], Daniel A. Potter Oct 2020

Suitability Of Native Milkweed (Asclepias) Species Versus Cultivars For Supporting Monarch Butterflies And Bees In Urban Gardens [Research Data], Daniel A. Potter

Entomology Research Data

Public interest in ecological landscaping and gardening is fueling a robust market for native plants. Most plants available to consumers through the horticulture trade are cultivated forms that have been selected for modified flowers or foliage, compactness, or other ornamental characteristics. Depending on their traits, some native plant cultivars seem to support pollinators, specialist insect folivores, and insect-based vertebrate food webs as effectively as native plant species, whereas others do not. There is particular need for information on whether native cultivars can be as effective as true or “wild-type” native species for supporting specialist native insects of conservation concern. Herein …


Suitability Of Native Milkweed (Asclepias) Species Versus Cultivars For Supporting Monarch Butterflies And Bees In Urban Gardens, Adam M. Baker, Carl T. Redmond, Stephen B. Malcolm, Daniel A. Potter Sep 2020

Suitability Of Native Milkweed (Asclepias) Species Versus Cultivars For Supporting Monarch Butterflies And Bees In Urban Gardens, Adam M. Baker, Carl T. Redmond, Stephen B. Malcolm, Daniel A. Potter

Entomology Faculty Publications

Public interest in ecological landscaping and gardening is fueling a robust market for native plants. Most plants available to consumers through the horticulture trade are cultivated forms that have been selected for modified flowers or foliage, compactness, or other ornamental characteristics. Depending on their traits, some native plant cultivars seem to support pollinators, specialist insect folivores, and insect-based vertebrate food webs as effectively as native plant species, whereas others do not. There is particular need for information on whether native cultivars can be as effective as true or “wild-type” native species for supporting specialist native insects of conservation concern. Herein …


Data For Rosenberger & Conforti. Native And Agricultural Grassland Use By Stable And Declining Bumble Bees In Midwestern North America. Insect Cons. & Div., Derek W. Rosenberger, Mckenna Conforti Sep 2020

Data For Rosenberger & Conforti. Native And Agricultural Grassland Use By Stable And Declining Bumble Bees In Midwestern North America. Insect Cons. & Div., Derek W. Rosenberger, Mckenna Conforti

Faculty Scholarship – Biology

Little is known about how agricultural and native grasslands impact bumble bee populations in the Midwestern United States. We surveyed bumble bee populations over 3 years (2017-2019) at Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie in restored prairie, cattle and bison pastures. Raw data from that work is included in this file. These data were used in the manuscript "Native and agricultural grassland use by stable and declining bumble bees in Midwestern North America" by Derek Rosenberger and McKenna Conforti, and published in the journal Insect Conservation and Diversity in 2020.


Wireworms, Ryan Davis, Jay B. Karren, Alan H. Roe Aug 2020

Wireworms, Ryan Davis, Jay B. Karren, Alan H. Roe

All Current Publications

Wireworms are the larvae (immatures) of click beetles. Adults are elongate, slender, hardshelled beetles that take their name from their habit of flipping into the air (sometimes with an audible clicking sound) when they are placed on their backs. This fact sheet reviews the management of wireworms.


The Impacts Of Prescribed Burning And Mechanical Thinning On Insect Communities In The Arkansas Ozarks, Aaron P. Tormanen Aug 2020

The Impacts Of Prescribed Burning And Mechanical Thinning On Insect Communities In The Arkansas Ozarks, Aaron P. Tormanen

Theses and Dissertations from 2020

Insects are important in woodland ecosystems due to their role as pollinators and as prey for bats. My research investigated the relationships between forest management, vegetation, and insects in the Ozark National Forest in Arkansas. I selected 30 stands burned at varying frequencies in the last 12 years. Twelve of these stands were burned and mechanically thinned, 12 were only burned, and 6 were untreated. I deployed blacklight traps and malaise traps in each stand monthly from mid-March to mid- November 2019. Over 42,391 insects were collected, and Lepidoptera was the most abundant order. Insects were dried, weighed, and identified …


Current Applications And Limitations Of Forensic Entomology, Helena Volckaert May 2020

Current Applications And Limitations Of Forensic Entomology, Helena Volckaert

Themis: Research Journal of Justice Studies and Forensic Science

Forensic entomology is the study of arthropods concerning their application in crime scene investigation as a method of predicting postmortem interval (PMI) in deceased or missing individuals. PMI is determined by the life stage of insects present on-scene. Insects used in criminal investigations are primarily beetles, flies, or moths; this may also include various scavenging insects and hitchhiking mites. These creatures help colonize decayed tissue, providing crime scene personnel with live specimens collected and examined for biological evidence. Forensic entomology is currently a niche application in most investigations—as qualified entomologists are often needed—and proper analysis of collected evidence can be …


Historical And Contemporary Variables Affecting The Range And Distribution Of Aedes Aegypti, The Yellow Fever Mosquito, In The United States, Nicole Mackey May 2020

Historical And Contemporary Variables Affecting The Range And Distribution Of Aedes Aegypti, The Yellow Fever Mosquito, In The United States, Nicole Mackey

Master's Theses

Aedes aegypti, the primary mosquito vector of the yellow fever virus, threatens global health by passing on this virus, as well as chikungunya, dengue, and Zika viruses. Through its natural tendency to live in highly urban areas and bite human hosts; understanding the factors that affect the historical and current range of the pest is invaluable (Gubler, 1998). Although these viruses are not normally found in the United States, lack of vaccinations and wide-spread presence of the mosquito could lead to these diseases being reintroduced with potentially devastating effects (Monath, 2001). To determine a partial historical range of A. aegypti …


Recent Hybrids Recapitulate Ancient Hybrid Outcomes, Samridhi Chaturvedi, Lauren K. Lucas, C. Alex Buerkle, James A. Fordyce, Matthew L. Forister, Chris C. Nice, Zachariah Gompert May 2020

Recent Hybrids Recapitulate Ancient Hybrid Outcomes, Samridhi Chaturvedi, Lauren K. Lucas, C. Alex Buerkle, James A. Fordyce, Matthew L. Forister, Chris C. Nice, Zachariah Gompert

Ecology Center Publications

Genomic outcomes of hybridization depend on selection and recombination in hybrids. Whether these processes have similar effects on hybrid genome composition in contemporary hybrid zones versus ancient hybrid lineages is unknown. Here we show that patterns of introgression in a contemporary hybrid zone in Lycaeides butterflies predict patterns of ancestry in geographically adjacent, older hybrid populations. We find a particularly striking lack of ancestry from one of the hybridizing taxa, Lycaeides melissa, on the Z chromosome in both the old and contemporary hybrids. The same pattern of reduced L. melissa ancestry on the Z chromosome is seen in two …


An Overview Of Hypotheses And Supporting Evidence Regarding Drivers Of Insect Gigantism In The Permo-Carboniferous, Ryssa Parks Apr 2020

An Overview Of Hypotheses And Supporting Evidence Regarding Drivers Of Insect Gigantism In The Permo-Carboniferous, Ryssa Parks

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

Insects provide powerful examples of the responses of organisms to environmental change. For example, insect body size gives us insight into the consequences of climate change due to shifts in atmospheric composition, both in the present and in the past. Indeed, one common hypothesis behind the enormous sizes of insects during the late Carboniferous to early Permian (323.2 to 265.0 million years ago) is that such sizes were enabled by elevated oxygen levels (hyperoxia) during the Permo-Carboniferous, when atmospheric oxygen was as high as 60% greater than its present-day concentration. To examine whether the giant body sizes of insects were …


Effects Of A Neonicotinoid Insecticide On The Growth Of Honey Bee Gut Microbes, Macee Mitchell, Daniel Franzese, Taylor Morales, Shane Lucht, Jesse Steele, Jenifer Walke Jan 2020

Effects Of A Neonicotinoid Insecticide On The Growth Of Honey Bee Gut Microbes, Macee Mitchell, Daniel Franzese, Taylor Morales, Shane Lucht, Jesse Steele, Jenifer Walke

2020 Symposium Posters

The gut microbiome plays an essential role in the overall health of organisms. However, the presence and abundance of these microbes may be altered by environmental factors, such as exposure to pesticides. The goals of this project were to understand 1) the prevalence of pesticide residues in honey bees in eastern Washington, and 2) the impact of pesticides to the honey bee gut microbiome. Accordingly, we tested bees from 24 hives among six sites across eastern Washington. High-performance liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (HPLC-MS) was used to detect the presence and concentration of six commonly used agricultural pesticides: Carbaryl, Chlorpyrifos, Coumaphos, Cypermethrin, …


Fate Of White Fringetree Through The Invasion Wave Of Emerald Ash Borer And Its Variation In Resistance To Attack, Emily A. Ellison Jan 2020

Fate Of White Fringetree Through The Invasion Wave Of Emerald Ash Borer And Its Variation In Resistance To Attack, Emily A. Ellison

Browse all Theses and Dissertations

Ornamental white fringetrees in IL, IN, OH, and PA were reassessed in 2018 as a follow-up study to determine the fate of the white fringetree through the invasion wave of emerald ash borer. Attack rates decline by half from 2015-2018 and only 13% of trees were infested. Health of not reinfested trees in 2018 improved suggesting resilience against EAB attack whereas currently infested trees in 2018 displayed signs of declining health. Trees differed in their resistance to EAB attack and 41 additional ornamental and wild white fringetrees were studied in OH to determine if the anti-herbivory defense chemical, oleuropein, influenced …


Effects Of Forest Age And Composition On Coleoptera Associated With Fungal Fruiting Bodies In Southwest Ohio, Jeffrey M. Brown Jan 2020

Effects Of Forest Age And Composition On Coleoptera Associated With Fungal Fruiting Bodies In Southwest Ohio, Jeffrey M. Brown

Browse all Theses and Dissertations

Mature forests often harbor greater biodiversity than younger woods. As this relationship of forest age to biodiversity has not been examined for all taxa, this study sought to document the diversity of mycophilous beetle communities in deciduous forests of southwest Ohio and understand how they vary in relation to forest age. I surveyed fungus associated beetles using baited traps at eight forested sites in the Dayton, Ohio region. Traps were surveyed three times during 2018 to account for seasonal variation, something that has not been done for this geographic region. Forest age had no significant effect on beetle abundance or …


Ground Beetle (Coleoptera: Carabidae) Assemblages In Native, Invasive, And Encroaching Grassland Habitats, Madison Pittenger Jan 2020

Ground Beetle (Coleoptera: Carabidae) Assemblages In Native, Invasive, And Encroaching Grassland Habitats, Madison Pittenger

Master's Theses

Ground beetles (Carabidae) are increasingly used as ecological indicators in studies regarding land use because they are ubiquitous, respond quickly to environmental change, have a well-understood taxonomy, and can be trapped with ease. While the effects of various plant communities on ground beetle assemblages are relatively well-known, past studies have operated within boreal and tropical forests and have not placed much emphasis on the effects of native and nonnative species. In this study, ground beetles were investigated as indicators of invasion in a grassland setting. Ground beetles were sampled using pitfall traps throughout the 2018 growing season at Quivira National …