Life Sciences Commons^™

Edna Metabarcoding Of Avocado Flowers: ‘Hass’ It Got Potential To Survey Arthropods In Food Production Systems?, Joshua H. Kestel, Philip W. Bateman, David L. Field, Nicole E. White, Rose Lines, Paul Nevill

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

In the face of global biodiversity declines, surveys of beneficial and antagonistic arthropod diversity as well as the ecological services that they provide are increasingly important in both natural and agro-ecosystems. Conventional survey methods used to monitor these communities often require extensive taxonomic expertise and are time-intensive, potentially limiting their application in industries such as agriculture, where arthropods often play a critical role in productivity (e.g. pollinators, pests and predators). Environmental DNA (eDNA) metabarcoding of a novel substrate, crop flowers, may offer an accurate and high throughput alternative to aid in the detection of these managed and unmanaged taxa. Here, …

Soil Macroinvertebrate Responses To Wildfires In The Blue Ridge Mountains, Usa, Madeline Nicole Olliff, Bruce Snyder, Mac Callaham Jr., Melanie K. Taylor

Graduate Research Showcase

Title: Soil Macroinvertebrate Responses to Wildfires in the Blue Ridge Mountains, USA Authors: 1Madeline N. Olliff, 1Bruce A. Snyder, 2Melanie K. Taylor, and 2Mac A. Callaham

1Georgia College and State University, Milledgeville, Georgia, USA; 2USDA Forest Service, Southern Research Station, Athens, Georgia, USA

Abstract: Wildfires are of increasing concern in light of climate change, more frequent late summer droughts, and increasing incidence of human ignitions. There have been few studies examining the effects of wildland fires on soil macroinvertebrates in the Blue Ridge Mountains, in spite of the importance of these animals to soil processes, and their contributions to the …

Vertical‑Surface Navigation In The Neotropical Whip Spider Paraphrynus Laevifrons (Arachnida: Amblypygi), Patrick Casto, Daniel D. Wiegmann, Vincent J. Coppola, Daniele Nardi, Eileen A. Hebets, Verner P. Bingman

Eileen Hebets Publications

Studies on whip spider navigation have focused on their ability to locate goal locations in the horizontal plane (e.g., when moving along the ground). However, many species of tropical whip spiders reside and move along surfaces in the vertical plane (e.g., trees). Under controlled laboratory conditions, the current study investigated the ability of the tropical whip spider, Paraphrynus laevifrons, to return to a home shelter on a vertical surface in the presence of numerous, similar, and competing refuge sites, as well as the distribution of navigational errors in the vertical, horizontal, and diagonal plane. We also assessed the relative …

Chemical Defenses Shift With The Seasonal Vertical Migration Of A Panamanian Poison Frog, Edmund W. Basham, Ralph Saporito, Marcario González-Pinzón, Angel Romero-Marcucci, Brett R. Sheffers

2020 Faculty Bibliography

Dendrobatid poison frogs sequester lipophilic alkaloids from their arthropod prey to use as a form of chemical defense. Some dendrobatid frogs seasonally migrate between the leaf litter of the forest floor in the dry season to the canopy in the wet season, which may yield differences in prey (arthropods) and therefore alkaloid availability over space and time. Here, we document a seasonal vertical migration of Andinobates fulguritus (the yellow-bellied poison frog) from ground to canopy between dry and wet seasons. We observed turnover in alkaloid composition between seasons and found that dry season frogs contained a lower relative quantity of …

Identification Of The Alternative Oxidase Gene And Its Expression In The Copepod Tigriopus Californicus, Allison Mcdonald, Carly E. Tward, Willie Cygelfarb, Jaspreet Singh

Biology Faculty Publications

In addition to the typical electron transport system (ETS) in animal mitochondria responsible for oxidative phosphorylation, in some species there exists an alternative oxidase (AOX) pathway capable of catalyzing the oxidation of ubiquinol and the reduction of oxygen to water. The discovery of AOX in animals is recent and further investigations into its expression, regulation, and physiological role have been hampered by the lack of a tractable experimental model organism. Our recent DNA database searches using bioinformatics revealed an AOX sequence in several marine copepods including Tigriopus californicus. This species lives in tidepools along the west coast of North …

Importance Of The Antenniform Legs, But Not Vision, For Homing By The Neotropical Whip Spider Paraphrynus Laevifrons, Verner P. Bingman, Jacob M. Graving, Eileen Hebets, Daniel D. Wiegmann

Eileen Hebets Publications

Amblypygids, or whip spiders, are nocturnal, predatory arthropods that display a robust ability to navigate to their home refuge. Prior field observations and displacement studies in amblypygids demonstrated an ability to home from distances as far away as 10 m. In the current study, micro-transmitters were used to take morning position fixes of individual Paraphrynus laevifrons following an experimental displacement of 10 m from their home refuge. The intention was to assess the relative importance of vision compared with sensory input acquired from the antenniform legs for navigation as well as other aspects of their spatial behavior. Displaced individuals were …

River Drying Lowers The Diversity And Alters The Composition Of An Assemblage Of Desert Riparian Arthropods, Kevin E. Mccluney, John L. Sabo

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

Summary 1. Many studies have shown negative effects of river drying on in‐stream animals. However, the influence of river drying on riparian animals remains poorly studied. We examined ground‐dwelling riparian arthropod assemblages along a drying section of the semi‐arid San Pedro River in southeastern Arizona, U.S.A.

2. We found strong differences in assemblage composition, taxon diversity and the abundance of key taxa between dry and flowing sites, with higher diversity and abundance of most taxa at flowing sites.

3. Changes in assemblage composition, taxon diversity and abundance of representative taxa were associated with a combined measure of water availability that …

A Motor And A Brake: Two Leg Extensor Muscles Acting At The Same Joint Manage Energy Differently In A Running Insect, Anna N. Ahn, Robert J. Full

All HMC Faculty Publications and Research

The individual muscles of a multiple muscle group at a given joint are often assumed to function synergistically to share the load during locomotion. We examined two leg extensors of a running cockroach to test the hypothesis that leg muscles within an anatomical muscle group necessarily manage (i.e. produce, store, transmit or absorb) energy similarly during running. Using electromyographic and video motion-analysis techniques, we determined that muscles 177c and 179 are both active during the first half of the stance period during muscle shortening. Using the in vivo strain and stimulation patterns determined during running, we measured muscle power output. …

Energy Absorption During Running By Leg Muscles In A Cockroach, Robert J. Full, Darrell R. Stokes, Anna N. Ahn, Robert K. Josephson

All HMC Faculty Publications and Research

Biologists have traditionally focused on a muscle's ability to generate power. By determining muscle length, strain and activation pattern in the cockroach Blaberus discoidalis, we discovered leg extensor muscles that operate as active dampers that only absorb energy during running. Data from running animals were compared with measurements of force and power production of isolated muscles studied over a range of stimulus conditions and muscle length changes. We studied the trochanter-femoral extensor muscles 137 and 179, homologous leg muscles of the mesothoracic and metathoracic legs, respectively. Because each of these muscles is innervated by a single excitatory motor axon, …