Systems Biology Commons^™

The Mayfly Newsletter, Donna Giberson, Peter M. Grant

The Mayfly Newsletter

The Mayfly Newsletter is the official newsletter of the Permanent Committee of the International Conferences on Ephemeroptera.

The Mayfly Newsletter, Donna Giberson, Peter M. Grant

The Mayfly Newsletter

The Mayfly Newsletter is the official newsletter of the Permanent Committee of the International Conferences on Ephemeroptera.

The Bellarmine Bee Bed: Organizing A Native Plant Garden Using Feedback From The Local Community, Kate Moran

Undergraduate Theses

Animal pollinators are the cornerstone of healthy ecosystems. Their survival is essential for the persistence of entire food chains: from the flowers they cross-pollinate directly, to the animals who depend on those plants for nutrition. The establishment of pollinator gardens—particularly ones that consist of native plants—is an effective way to enhance their biodiversity, abundance, and well-being.

The main goal of this thesis is to construct a pollinator garden that maximizes the benefits for animal pollinators using feedback from local gardeners. A survey was used to gather information about the popularity and preferences of 40 flowering plants, and after analyzing the …

The Mayfly Newsletter, Donna Giberson, Peter M. Grant

The Mayfly Newsletter

The Mayfly Newsletter is the official newsletter of the Permanent Committee of the International Conferences on Ephemeroptera.

The Mayfly Newsletter, Donna Giberson, Peter M. Grant

The Mayfly Newsletter

The Mayfly Newsletter is the official newsletter of the Permanent Committee of the International Conferences on Ephemeroptera.

The Mayfly Newsletter, Donna Giberson, Peter M. Grant

The Mayfly Newsletter

The Mayfly Newsletter is the official newsletter of the Permanent Committee of the International Conferences on Ephemeroptera.

The Mayfly Newsletter, Donna Giberson, Peter M. Grant

The Mayfly Newsletter

The Mayfly Newsletter is the official newsletter of the Permanent Committee of the International Conferences on Ephemeroptera.

The Mayfly Newsletter, Donna Giberson, Peter M. Grant

The Mayfly Newsletter

The Mayfly Newsletter is the official newsletter of the Permanent Committee of the International Conferences on Ephemeroptera.

The Host Gatekeeper: Using The Flagellar Pathway To Understand Symbiont Host Adaptation, Adam R. Pollio

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

The acquisition of microbial partners is a strategy used by a diverse group of arthropods to overcome ecological barriers that might normally make certain niches uninhabitable. The unique phylogenetic opportunities attainable from the natural experiment of the Sodalis-allied clade allow for better understanding of how molecular structures evolve through time. Here, we focus on the evolution of the flagellar synthesis pathway, due to its complexity and ability to diverge in response to ecological pressures. We used this molecular pathway and natural experiment to show that normal evolutionary outcomes associated with symbiosis (i.e., genome reduction) do not explain the predicted conservation …

The Mayfly Newsletter, Donna Giberson, Peter M. Grant

The Mayfly Newsletter

The Mayfly Newsletter is the official newsletter of the Permanent Committee of the International Conferences on Ephemeroptera

The Mayfly Newsletter, Donna J. Giberson, Peter M. Grant

The Mayfly Newsletter

The Mayfly Newsletter is the official newsletter of the Permanent Committee of the International Conferences on Ephemeroptera.

Lingering Impacts Of Hurricane Hugo On Rhizophora Mangle (Red Mangrove) Population Genetics On St. John, Usvi, Paul Ax Bologna, James J. Campanella, Dena J. Restaino, Zachary A. Fetske, Matthew Lourenco, John V. Smalley

Marine Biology and Coastal Sciences Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

Stochastic events can have catastrophic effects on island populations through a series of genetic stressors from reduced population size. We investigated five populations of red mangrove (Rhizophora mangle) from St. John, USVI, an UNESCO Biosphere Reserve, which were impacted by Hurricane Hugo in 1989. Our goal was to determine diversity and to ascertain potential population bottlenecks two decades after the event. With the lowest observed heterozygosity, highest inbreeding coefficient, and evidence of a major bottleneck, our results demonstrated that the Great Lameshur mangroves, devastated by Hurricane Hugo, were the least diverse stand of trees. The other four populations from St. …

South Dakota Aquatic Invertebrate Collection And Database, Ashlee Nilson, Nels H. Troelstrup Jr.

Oak Lake Field Station 30th Anniversary Retreat Presentations

No abstract provided.

The Mayfly Newsletter, Donna J. Giberson, Peter M. Grant

The Mayfly Newsletter

Crabwalkers and sand minnows: Searching for psammophilic mayflies in the central and western states (& provinces)¹

Greg Courtney Department of Entomology, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa, USA

Motivated by a number of collaborative photography projects with Steve Marshall (e.g., Courtney & Marshall, 2019), I have devoted a bit of time recently to searching for non-dipteran aquatic insects. Among the ongoing projects is a book on which I am not only lead author but in charge of several chapters focused on taxa outside my usual bailiwick (e.g., Ephemeroptera!). Thankfully, Steve has already established an excellent template for such a book …

The Mayfly Newsletter, Donna J. Giberson, Peter M. Grant

The Mayfly Newsletter

No abstract provided.

Radical Social Ecology As Deep Pragmatism: A Call To The Abolition Of Systemic Dissonance And The Minimization Of Entropic Chaos, Arielle Brender

Student Theses 2015-Present

This paper aims to shed light on the dissonance caused by the superimposition of Dominant Human Systems on Natural Systems. I highlight the synthetic nature of Dominant Human Systems as egoic and linguistic phenomenon manufactured by a mere portion of the human population, which renders them inherently oppressive unto peoples and landscapes whose wisdom were barred from the design process. In pursuing a radical pragmatic approach to mending the simultaneous oppression and destruction of the human being and the earth, I highlight the necessity of minimizing entropic chaos caused by excess energy expenditure, an essential feature of systems that aim …

The Mayfly Newsletter, Donna J. Giberson, Peter M. Grant

The Mayfly Newsletter

No abstract provided.

A Comparison Of Community Structure In Regulated And Unregulated Reaches In The Upper Eel River, California, Lara Stephanie Jansen

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

Flow regulation of rivers by impoundments and diversions can reduce hydrological variability. As a result, densities of algae and benthic macroinvertebrates often increase, but many sensitive taxa are lost, causing shifts across the food web. In Northern California, dams that reduce winter peak floods can result in the primary consumer community becoming dominated by grazers that are relatively invulnerable to predation, which can reduce the amount of energy transferred up the trophic levels. The steeper slope of the spring hydrograph recession limb downstream of a dam can also greatly impact instream diversity of periphyton, invertebrates and fish. The dam and …

Allergen Homologs In The Euroglyphus Maynei Draft Genome, S. Dean Rider, Majorie S. Morgan, Larry G. Arlian

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

Euroglyphus maynei is a house dust mite commonly found in homes worldwide and is the source of allergens that sensitize and induce allergic reactions in humans. It is the source of species-specific allergens as well as allergens that are cross-reactive with the allergens from house dust mites Dermatophagoides farinae and D. pteronyssinus, and the ectoparasitic scabies mite Sarcoptes scabiei. The genomics, proteomics and molecular biology of E. maynei and its allergens have not been as extensively investigated as those of D. farinae, D. pteronyssinus, and S. scabiei where natural and recombinant allergens from these species have been characterized. Until now, …

The Mayfly Newsletter, Donna J. Giberson, Peter M. Grant

The Mayfly Newsletter

No abstract provided.

The Mayfly Newsletter, Donna J. Giberson, Peter M. Grant

The Mayfly Newsletter

No abstract provided.

A New Tachinid Genus And Species Record For North America: Iceliopsis Borgmeieri Guimarães, John O. Stireman Iii, Jane E. Dell

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

The Iceliini are a small, enigmatic New World tribe of Tachininae consisting of three genera, Icelia RobineauDesvoidy, Iceliopsis Guimarães, and Erviopsis Townsend, and five recognized species (Guimarães 1976). All known species are exclusively Neotropical in distribution with the exception of Icelia triquetra (Olivier), which ranges from Brazil, through Central America, and as far north as New York state (O’Hara & Wood 2004). Members of the tribe are generally medium-sized (ca. 7–12 mm), elongate, yellowish or grayish in color, and resemble Dexiini or Leskiini in general appearance. Species of Iceliini are relatively rarely collected and there is but a single host …

Evidence For Use Of Alliaria Petiolata In North America By The European Cabbage White Butterfly, Pieris Rapae, Sam L. Davis, Don Cipollini

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

Pieris rapae L., an invasive crop pest, may have recently begun using Alliaria petiolata Bieb. (Cavara & Grande), a European invasive biennial. We investigated how P. rapae uses forest habitats for nectar and oviposition and examined larval performance on A. petiolata in the field and laboratory. Being known primarily to occupy open habitats, we found that P. rapae regularly uses forest edge habitats, most surveyed A. petiolata plants had P. rapae damage, and P. rapae successfully used both stages of A. petiolata for larval development.

Tachinid Collecting In Temperate South America. Expeditions Of The Phylogeny Of World Tachinide Project. Part Iii. Chile, John O. Stireman Iii, James E. O'Hara, Pierfilippo Cerretti, Diego J. Inclán

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

As readers of this newsletter are likely familiar, we and our collaborators have been working for the past several years on a family-wide phylogeny of the Tachinidae of the world (see Stireman et al. 2013, Winkler et al. 2014). We have already published a morphological analysis of tachinid phylogenetics (Cerretti et al. 2014), as well as an initial molecular phylogenetic framework for the family (Winkler et al. 2015). An in-depth molecular phylogenetic analysis of the Phasiinae led by Jeremy Blaschke (originally at University of Tennessee and now at Union University, TN) and Kevin Moulton (U. of Tenn.) is currently being …

Sampling Terrestrial Arthropod Biodiversity: A Case Study In Arkansas, Michael Joseph Skvarla

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The Interior Highlands is a biodiversity hotspot, with at least 200 known endemic species, but is understudied compared to hotspots, such as the Southern Appalachians. In order to begin to rectify this issue, a nine month study was conducted from mid-March through early December at a 4 ha site at Steel Creek, Buffalo National River, in Newton County, Arkansas. Thirteen collecting methods were employed, including three colors of Lindgren funnel trap, five colors of pan trap, Malaise traps, canopy traps with upper and lower collectors, pitfall traps, and Berlese-Tullgren extraction of leaf litter, which resulted in the collection of 1311 …

Systematics Of Testudacarine Torrent Mites (Parasitengona: Torrenticolidae), Joseph Charles O'Neill

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Thirteen new species of Testudacarus (Torrenticolidae: Testudacarinae) are described, four species are redescribed, and the status of previously problematic species are addressed. For Testudacarinae this represents the first published: 1) descriptions from multiple specimens (therefore providing ranges); 2) colored photographs; 3) explicit illustrations and discussion of sexual dimorphism within the subfamily; 4) genetic data. A comprehensive literature review is also included.

The Greenhouse Effect: Decomposition Rates In Human Remains Wrapped In Plastic, Barbara R. Forman

Masters Theses

Determining an accurate estimation of the postmortem interval (PMI) of human remains is important for several reasons. First, it is used to determine whether the individual is recently deceased, and therefore of medicolegal concern. If so, the estimated PMI is used in narrowing the possible identities of the deceased. PMI can also be used in excluding, or convicting, a murder suspect.

Though deviations may occur, it has been found that PMI can be calculated from the decomposition stages with reasonable accuracy (Galloway 1989, Megyesi 2001, Megyesi et al. 2005, Schiel 2008, Simmons et al. 2010). Some factors, such as low …

Habitat Eradication And Cropland Intensification May Reduce Parasitoid Diversity And Natural Pest Control Services In Annual Crop Fields, D. K. Letourneau, Sara G. Bothwell Allen, Robert R. Kula, Michael J. Sharkey, John O. Stireman Iii

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

California’s central coast differs from many agricultural areas in the U.S., which feature large tracts of monoculture production fields and relatively simple landscapes. Known as the nation’s salad bowl, and producing up to 90% of U.S. production of lettuces, broccoli and Brussels sprouts, this region is a mosaic of fresh vegetable fields, coastal meadow, chaparral shrubs, riparian and woodland habitat. We tested for relationships between the percent cover of crops, riparian and other natural landscape vegetation and the species richness of parasitic wasps and flies foraging in crops, such as broccoli, kale and cauliflower, and interpreted our results with respect …

Continuing Progress Towards A Phylogeny Of Tachinidae, John O. Stireman Iii, James E. O'Hara, John K. Moulton, Pierfilippo Cerretti, Isaac S. Winkler, Jeremy D. Blaschke, Z. L. Burington

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

Readers of this newsletter are likely familiar with our ongoing project to establish a framework phylogeny of world Tachinidae (see articles in The Tachinid Times 26 and 27). This collaborative project, involving myself, Jim O’Hara, Kevin Moulton, Pierfilippo Cerretti, Isaac Winkler and a long list of collaborating tachinidophiles was initiated in 2012 with funding from the U.S. National Science Foundation. Our goal is to produce a robust phylogenetic framework of Tachinidae that can be used to inform tachinid taxonomy, systematics research, and the patterns of tachinid evolution. In previous issues of The Tachinid Times we summarized our progress to date …

A New Species And Synonymy Of The Neotropical Eucelatoria Townsend And Redescription Of Myiodoriops Townsend, Diego J. Inclán, John O. Stireman Iii

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

The New World tropics represents the most diverse region for tachinid parasitoids (Diptera: Tachinidae), but it also contains the most narrowly defined, and possibly the most confusing, tachinid genera of any biogeographic region. This over-splitting of genera and taxonomic confusion has limited progress toward our understanding the family in this region and much work is needed to revise, redefine, and make sense of the profusion of finely split taxa. In a recent analysis of the Neotropical genus Erythromelana Townsend, two species previously assigned to this genus, Euptilodegeeria obumbrata (Wulp) and Myiodoriops marginalis Townsend were reinstated as monotypic genera. In the …