Life Sciences Commons^™

Impact Of Hydrologic Alteration On Brazos River Pelagophilic Minnows, Christopher M. Taylor, Kevin B. Mayes

School of Integrative Biological & Chemical Sciences (Formerly Dept. of Biology)

The lower Brazos River has been profoundly altered since the construction of multiple impoundments. The resulting river regulation poses problems for organisms adapted to a natural flow regime and is thought to play a major role in the imperilment of seven native minnows that synchronize spawning during high flow pulses. Four of the species are presumably extirpated from the region, but their declines and losses differed across time. To address potential reasons for species’ declines, we assessed pre- and post-impoundment changes in flow regime from five gaging stations across the lower Brazos River to identify river flow characteristics that depart …

Correction To The Probability Of Spotted Lanternfly, Lycorma Delicatula (Hemiptera: Fulgoridae), Escape Differs Among Life Stages And Between Two Trapping Techniques Commonly Used By Landowners, Sticky Bands And Duct Tape. The Great Lakes Entomologist 53(3-4): 170-177., Matthew Desko, Carolyne Schiebel, Samantha Silverman, Jessica Bickel, Karen Felton, Jennifer L. Chandler

The Great Lakes Entomologist

This is a manuscript correction in reference to: Desko M, Schiebel C, Silverman S, Bickel J, Felton K, and Chandler JL. (2020) The Probability of spotted lanternfly, Lycorma delicatula (Hemiptera: Fulgoridae), escape differs among life stages and between two trapping techniques commonly used by landowners, sticky bands and duct tape. The Great Lakes Entomologist 53(3-4): 170-177.

First Records Of Stelis Permaculata Cockerell (Hymenoptera: Megachilidae) In Minnesota, United States Of America And Manitoba, Canada, Colleen D. Satyshur, Thea A. Evans, Britt M. Forsberg, Jason Gibbs

The Great Lakes Entomologist

Abstract

New records are reported for the cleptoparasitic bee Stelis permaculata Cockerell (Hymenoptera: Megachilidae) from Minnesota, United States of America and Manitoba, Canada. Minnesota records come from trap-nests, which also collected the host, Heriades carinata Cresson.

Life History And Laboratory Rearing Of The Red Admiral, Vanessa Atalanta (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae), Layne Leake, Kevin B. Rice

The Great Lakes Entomologist

The red admiral butterfly, Vanessa atalanta (Linneaus, 1758) (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae) is a globally distributed species and model organism for studying migration patterns and effects of climate change. Most previous red admiral research focused on wild populations. Establishing laboratory colonies allow for experimentation with a multitude of lab-based plant-insect interactions. We describe red admiral butterfly life history and laboratory rearing methods.

Rediscovery Of Gnoriste Macra Johannsen In Wisconsin (Diptera: Mycetophilidae: Gnoristinae), Daniel K. Young

The Great Lakes Entomologist

Gnoriste macra Johannsen was described from Whitefish Bay, Wisconsin in 1912. The type locality is now a highly residential region a few miles north of the center of Milwaukee. Herein, collection events are reported for G. macra from Sauk County in southcentral Wisconsin. These new records, nearly a century after the only other literature record, indicate the species still thrives in Wisconsin though likely extirpated from the type locality. The specimens were recovered from unbaited Townes Malaise traps during mid- to late May, 2006 and 2020. Cranial anatomy and functional morphology of the head suggests G. macra may be a …

New Records Of Aphids (Hemiptera: Aphididae) On Industrial Hemp In The Us Midwest, Doris M. Lagos-Kutz, Christina D. Difonzo, Glen L. Hartman

The Great Lakes Entomologist

Industrial hemp (Cannabis sativa L.) production in the USA is increasing, and with it the list of insects colonizing the crop. In this article, we report new records of Aphis craccivora Koch 1854, Aphis fabae Scopoli, Aphis gossypiiGlover 1763, Aphis spiraecola Patch 1914 and Myzus persicae (Sulzer 1776) on industrial hemp in East Lansing, Michigan in fall 2020. In addition, between 2017 and 2020, the number of suction trap sites detecting P. cannabisincreased, and as well as the number of sites with multiple weeks of detections. The timing of detection changed, from only late season (fall migrants) …

Annotated Checklist Of The Notonectidae (Hemiptera: Heteroptera) Or "Backswimmers" Of Iowa, Edwin L. Freese, Stephen W. Chordas

The Great Lakes Entomologist

A review of the Notonectidae or backswimmers of Iowa is presented. New state records for Buenoa macrotibialis Hungerford, Buenoa scimitra Bare, Notonecta insulata Kirby, Notonecta irrorata Uhler, and Notonecta lunata Hungerford are included.

A Survey Of The Beetles (Insecta: Coleoptera) In Several Natural Areas Across Indiana, U.S.A., Kyle E. Schnepp, R. Michael Brattain, Gareth S. Powell

The Great Lakes Entomologist

A broad survey of the beetle (Insecta: Coleoptera) fauna of several managed parks and natural areas was undertaken over the past decade across the state of Indiana, USA. These areas represent many of the habitat types present in Indiana including forests, grassland, freshwater streams, and wetlands, as well as more unique habitats found in limited areas in the state such as sand dunes and cypress swamps. The specific localities are: Indiana Dunes State Park, Kankakee Sands, Ross Hills Park, Shades State Park, Muscatatuck National Wildlife Refuge, and Twin Swamps Nature Preserve. Beetles were surveyed using a variety of active and …

New State And Provincial Records For Some Nearctic True Bugs (Hemiptera: Heteroptera) From The Illinois Natural History Survey Insect Collection, Daniel R. Swanson

The Great Lakes Entomologist

157 state records for 133 heteropteran species in 99 genera in 33 different families from 40 states are newly-reported based on material housed in the Illinois Natural History Survey Insect Collection. Families represented by new records include Acanthosomatidae, Alydidae, Anthocoridae, Aradidae, Blissidae, Belostomatidae, Coreidae, Corixidae, Cymidae, Gelastocoridae, Geocoridae, Hebridae, Hydrometridae, Largidae, Lasiochilidae, Lygaeidae, Mesoveliidae, Miridae, Nabidae, Naucoridae, Nepidae, Notonectidae, Piesmatidae, Pleidae, Reduviidae, Rhopalidae, Rhyparochromidae, Saldidae, Schizopteridae, Scutelleridae, Thyreocoridae, Tingidae, and Veliidae, and the following 9 records represent new family records: Acanthosomatidae (West Virginia), Cymidae (Kentucky), Hebridae (Tennessee), Lygaeidae (Delaware), Naucoridae (Georgia), Piesmatidae (Mississippi, North Dakota), Pleidae (North Dakota), and Schizopteridae …

An Updated Checklist To The Non-Biting Midges (Chironomidae) Of Illinois, Daniel R. Swanson, Erika E. Bilger

The Great Lakes Entomologist

The Chironomidae, or non-biting midges, of Illinois have been untreated since the early 20^th century, and the high level of taxonomic flux in the family necessitates an update, particularly for a group with importance as bio-indicators of freshwater ecosystem health. Herein, 181 species of Chironomidae in 76 genera are recorded from the state of Illinois. Each species entry is annotated with the first Illinoisan record of the species. Two genera, Brillia Kieffer, 1913 and Prodiamesa Kieffer, 1906, are recorded for the first time from Illinois, as are three species: Xenochironomus xenolabis (Kieffer in Thienemann and Kieffer, 1916) (Chironominae); Brillia …

Management Of Wireworms In Sweet Potatoes With Persistent Ny Entomopathogenic Nematodes, Elson Shields, Antonio Testa, Teresa Rusinek, Charles Bornt

The Great Lakes Entomologist

Wireworms are the larval stages of click beetles (Coleoptera: Elateridae) and common polyphagous soil dwelling pests feeding on different plant parts including seeds, roots, stems, and tubers inhibiting plant growth eventually leading to plant death. With the ban of persistent synthetic insecticides such as lindane in 2009 due to negative effects on the environment, no effective control tactics (chemical or biological) are available for wireworms. Some entomopathogenic nematode species/strains have been reported to attack wireworms in the soil, causing death. Non-native EPN species have the advantage of being easily available commercial products for insect pest control. However, these strains do …

Cover Art For Tgle Vol. 54 Nos. 3 & 4

The Great Lakes Entomologist

Cover Art for TGLE Vol. 54 Nos. 3 & 4

Cover Pages For Tgle Vol. 54 Nos. 3 & 4

The Great Lakes Entomologist

Cover Pages for TGLE Vol. 54 Nos. 3 & 4

Full Issue For Tgle Vol. 54 Nos. 3 & 4

The Great Lakes Entomologist

Full issue for TGLE Vol. 54 Nos. 3 & 4

Smokejumper Obituary: Sleight, James Scott “Jim” (Mccall 1977), National Smokejumper Association

Smokejumper Obituaries

No abstract provided.

Optimization Of Sample Unit Size For Sampling Stink Bugs (Hemiptera: Pentatomidae) In Soybean, Arthur V. Ribeiro, Rafael Carlesso Aita, Daniela T. Pezzini, Christina D. Difonzo, Thomas Hunt, Janrt J. Knodel, Christian H. Krupke, Lia Marchi-Werle, Andrew P. Michel, Nicholas J. Seiter, Robert J. Wright, William D. Hutchison, Robert L. Koch

Department of Entomology: Faculty Publications

Cost-effective and reliable sampling procedures are crucial for integrated pest management. Sweep net sampling is commonly used for stink bugs (Hemiptera: Pentatomidae) in soybean, with sample size being the number of sets of sweeps, and sample unit size the number of sweeps in each set. Sample unit size has received little attention, but can affect sampling parameters. Here, two sample unit sizes (10 vs. 25 sweeps) were compared for the sampling of stink bug taxa. On average, sampling for stink bugs took 3.6 more minutes with the 25-sweep than with the 10-sweep sample unit size. Generally, estimates of the mean …

Targeted Osmotic Lysis: A Novel Approach To Targeted Cancer Therapies, Harry J. Gould, Dennis Paul

School of Medicine Faculty Publications

The conventional treatment of cancer has been based on the delivery of non-selective toxins and/or ionizing energy that affect both the cancer and normal tissues in the hope of destroying the offending disease before killing the patient. Unfortunately, resistance often develops to these treatments and patients experience severe, dose-limiting adverse effects that reduce treatment efficacy and compromise quality of life. Recent advances in our knowledge of the biology of tumor cells and their microenvironment, the recognition of surface proteins that are unique to specific cancers and essential to cell growth and survival and signaling pathways associate with invasion and metastasis …

Host-Pathogen Coevolution Between Tasmanian Devils (Sarcophilus Harrisii) And Devil Facial Tumor Disease, Dylan Garret Gallinson

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Coevolution is a driving force of rapid evolution, yet the complexity of coevolutionary interactions has made it difficult to characterize the genomic basis of traits mediating such relationships. Coevolutionary dynamics are especially important in host-pathogen systems where the host and pathogen must constantly adapt to one another. The Tasmanian devil and its species-specific transmissible cancer, devil facial tumor disease (DFTD), provide the rare opportunity to study host-pathogen coevolution in a complex natural system. Extensive spatiotemporal devil sampling, high linkage disequilibrium in devils, and a large selective pressure imposed by DFTD facilitate a system tractable for study. Here, we characterized devil …

Ubjective Information And Survival In A Simulated Biological System, Tyler S. Barker, Massimiliano Pierobon, Peter J. Thomas

School of Computing: Faculty Publications

Information transmission and storage have gained traction as unifying concepts to characterize biological systems and their chances of survival and evolution at multiple scales. Despite the potential for an information-based mathematical framework to offer new insights into life processes and ways to interact with and control them, the main legacy is that of Shannon’s, where a purely syntactic characterization of information scores systems on the basis of their maximum information efficiency. The latter metrics seem not entirely suitable for biological systems, where transmission and storage of different pieces of information (carrying different semantics) can result in different chances of survival. …

Privacy-Preserving Logistic Regression With Secret Sharing, Ali Reza Ghavamipour, Fatih Turkmen, Xiaoqian Jiang

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

BACKGROUND: Logistic regression (LR) is a widely used classification method for modeling binary outcomes in many medical data classification tasks. Researchers that collect and combine datasets from various data custodians and jurisdictions can greatly benefit from the increased statistical power to support their analysis goals. However, combining data from different sources creates serious privacy concerns that need to be addressed.

METHODS: In this paper, we propose two privacy-preserving protocols for performing logistic regression with the Newton-Raphson method in the estimation of parameters. Our proposals are based on secure Multi-Party Computation (MPC) and tailored to the honest majority and dishonest majority …

Fishing Without A Scale, Kaleb Miller, Luke Lemaitre

Student Scholarship - College of Business

Our study looks at different species of fish and uses their cross-length and volume to find correlations in weight among the different fish. The different type of fish that we compare include perch, pike, parkki, whitefish, bream, roach, and smelt. The dependent variable that we are using is weight. Once we predict the weight of the individual fish, we will also compare that weight to other fish species. The result of the data are that there is linearity, where the adjusted R squared is between 0.94 and 0.97, depending on our model. Therefore, 94 to 97 percent of the variability …

Understanding The Natural History Of Juvenile Amblyomma Maculatum In Southeastern Virginia, Christina Espada, Holly Gaff

College of Sciences Posters

Amblyomma maculatum, the Gulf Coast tick, is a species of increasing public health concern. Adult A. maculatum is a known vector of several pathogens including Rickettsia parkeri, the causative agent of Rickettsia parkeri rickettsiosis. Amblyomma maculatum has expanded northward from its historic range along the Gulf Coast, with populations reportedly establishing in southeastern Virginia in 2010. Recently established populations of A. maculatum tend to have higher R. parkeri infection prevalence compared to longer established populations. This pattern holds for all populations found so far in southeastern Virginia, with a prevalence of R. parkeri in about 60% of A. …

The Effects Of Temperature Changes On Bioluminescent Dinoflagellates (How Climate Change May Affect Our Ocean's Raves), Kayleigh X. Ambrose, Molly Fleming, Carla Caceres

PRECS student projects

Many species of Dinoflagellates are capable of producing bioluminescence. Most species will have an optimal temperature range for bioluminescence production. With sea surface temperatures expected to rise, we have designed an experiment to test the relationship between temperature and bioluminescence in Pyrocystis fusiformis.

Bacterial Metabolism Of Glucosinolates From Brassica: Association With Isothiocyanate Production, Stephanie Thomas, Jiaxuan Li, Michael J. Miller

PRECS student projects

Study Focus: To explore the alternative metabolic pathways of GSLs in bacteria, present on the surface of brassica vegetables.

Hypothesis: The alternative pathways used to metabolize GSLs in bacteria located on the surface of brassica vegetables, may contribute to the high variance of human gut GSL conversion to ITC.

Concentrating On Carbon Concentration In Algae, Chandra Davies, Steven Burgess

PRECS student projects

Carbon Concentrating Mechanisms Improve Photosynthesis Rates in Low-Carbon Environments. CCMs allow the aggregation of carbon near the site of rubisco, that way even small amounts of available carbon are being utilized.

Yes, this is important to you!

Albeit somewhat indirectly, but massively nonetheless! Algae are a driving force behind the global carbon cycle, they sequester CO2 in the oceans. Understanding the mechanisms behind the tiny marine alga O. tauri gives us a better understanding of a vital global process.

Polinators In Peril - Are Illinois Native Bees Getting Smaller?, Anthony Lamb, Tristan Barley, Adam Dolezal

PRECS student projects

Why it matters.

Pollination services provided by native bees are an important natural process, providing ~150 billion dollars globally in agricultural gains.

A bee’s body size is a trait that is an important indicator of the nutritional environment. A loss of habitat results in a loss of rich nutritional environments as flowers and resource become more fragmented and scarcer.

It has been discovered that a bee’s body size is a determinant of their foraging range. The smaller the bee, the less distance they can travel for food, therefor, the more susceptible they are to habitat loss and resource limitation.

Exploration Of Squash Plant Floral Volatiles Influencing Beetle Attraction, Olivia Barrett, Nicholas Seiter, Esther Ngumbi, Joseph Spencer, Sarah Hind

PRECS student projects

Flowers emit volatiles to attract pollinators, but these volatiles can also attract pest insects. Our study builds on earlier findings that showed that cucumber beetle attraction to squash flowers is mediated by volatile release and cucurbitacin accumulation (Theis, 2014, DOI: 10.3732/ajb.1400171). Of the three main domesticated squash species, only a few varieties of Cucurbita maxima had large quantities of floral volatiles and cucurbitacin (Andersen and Metcalf, 1987, doi: 10.1007/BF01020152); however, these studies were limited in the number of varieties that were examined. Here, we increased the number of C. maxima varieties examined, to identify patterns in floral volatile production, with …

How To Quantify Female Mate Preference In Threespine Stickleback, Kaithren Garcia, Megan Tucker, Meghan Maciejewski, Usan Dan, Alison M. Bell

PRECS student projects

Social behavior is diverse. For example, males from two stickleback ecotypes (whites and commons, Fig. 1) are highly divergent in courtship and parental care behavior [1]. Little is known about ecotypic differences in female behavior. In this study, we develop methods to quantify female preference in this system.

Intra- And Interspecific Variation In Tadpole Lateral Line Cells, Sarah Porth, Lisa Surber, Eva Fischer

PRECS student projects

Background

• The lateral line is a sensory system that detects motion and pressure in fish & larval amphibians.
• The sensory end organs are called neuromasts.
• A gosner stage describes the 46 stages of tadpole development

Hypothesis: We hypothesize that the number of neuromasts will vary more between species than within a species.

Stressed Out: Why Does Ancient Maize Thrive In High-Stress Conditions?, Alexander C. Lozano, Aaron Mleziva, Esther Ngumbi

PRECS student projects

Why is understanding stress response in maize so important?

• Maize, along with rice and wheat, provide at least 30% of calories to over 4.5 billion people
• Increases in flooding events has heavily impacted natural vegetation and crop production
• Combinatorial stresses, particularly flooding and herbivory, remain understudied for both modern and ancient verities of maize
• Ancient maize may be a superior genetic resource for flood-tolerant corn