Entomology Commons^™

Remote Sensing To Detect Crop Damage By An Invasive Species, Cole Butler

Biology and Medicine Through Mathematics Conference

No abstract provided.

Influence Of Pollinator Island Patch Size On Forb Establishment And Pollinator Networks In Palouse Prairie Restoration, Yaelle Esther Reeve

2026 Symposium

The Palouse Prairie Ecoregion is one of North America’s most endangered grassland ecosystems, with less than 1% retaining native vegetation. Restoration efforts have struggled to re-establish ecologically important native forbs and the plant–pollinator interactions necessary for long-term community stability. Spatial configuration of floral resources is known to influence pollinator foraging behavior and interaction network structure, yet few studies have evaluated how planting scale affects both plant establishment and pollinator community assembly in early-stage prairie restoration. My research aims to evaluate how variations in the size (0.1, 1, and 10 m²) of grouped wildflower plantings (pollinator islands) affect native forb establishment, …

Dietary Preferences And Food-Seeking Behavior Of Discoid Cockroaches, Blaberus Discoidaliscont., Robert Larsen, Sadie Ariola

2026 Student Academic Showcase

Blaberus discoidalis, also known as discoid cockroaches, inhabit the tropics of South America where their diet consists of leaf litter and decaying organic matter on the ground. This experiment expands on research from two previous years, originally based on the loitering time of the roach's different food types. Such as peanuts, leaf litter, and bananas. The experiment this year was to determine which food was preferred by determining how much it was eaten. Each food item, peanuts, banana, and leaf litter (peanuts alone are crushed) were dried in an oven for 24 hours and weighed before and after each trial. …

Horned Oak Galls And Their Dispersal On Lindenwood's Campus, Peyton Birkenmeier, Timothy Sesterhenn

2026 Student Academic Showcase

Horned oak galls are woody growths found on the branches of oak trees (Quercus sp.). These growths are caused by the parasitic wasp, Callirhytis cornigera. These wasps produce the galls by piercing the branch with their ovipositors and laying eggs into the branch. Based on the severity of infestation, these galls can cause severe damage or even death to oak trees. This research determined the dispersal and severity of horned oak galls infesting the different species of oak trees around the heritage side of Lindenwood. This was done by walking around the heritage side of campus and observing different species …

Environmental Stability Drives Development In Drosophila Melanogaste, Nestor Omar Rivera Guevera

2026 Student Academic Showcase

The development of Drosophila melanogaster is highly sensitive to environmental conditions, particularly temperature, which has been shown to influence both developmental rate and lifespan. Previous studies report that higher temperatures accelerate development but may reduce adult longevity, while field observations in related Drosophila species indicate that stable environmental conditions support greater population success compared to fluctuating ones. Building on this, the present study examined the combined effects of temperature and humidity on fruit fly development. Groups of 10 female flies were placed in culture tubes containing standard medium, with three replicates per treatment. After 48 hours of egg-laying, adults were …

Bluebird Bait: Quantifying The Attraction Of Ectoparasites To Nestling Eastern Bluebirds (Sialia Sialis), Ella Grace Bollinger

ATU Scholars Symposium

Ectoparasites, such as mosquitoes (Culicidae), blackflies (Simuliidae), and biting midges (Ceratopogonidae), have been shown to reduce population viability by lowering post-fledging survival and decreasing the lifetime reproductive success of adult birds. This issue is particularly concerning for songbirds such as the Eastern Bluebird (Sialia sialis) because their nestlings are relatively naked and have limited mobility, making them highly vulnerable to attacks by biting flies. However, the specific mechanisms attracting ectoparasites to nests remain understudied. We hypothesized that biting fly and mosquito abundance would be significantly higher at active Eastern Bluebird nests than that of empty boxes and would increase with …

Seasonal Activity Pattern Of Ambrosia Beetles In Southeast Virginia, Umme H. Akter, Sajrim Chowdhury, Deborah A. Waller

Knowledge and Creativity Expo

Ambrosia beetles (Curculionidae: Scolytinae) are wood-boring insects that influence forest ecosystems through fungal symbioses, rapid host colonization, and invasive species dynamics. Despite their ecological importance, seasonal activity patterns remain poorly characterized in southeastern Virginia. This study integrates field trapping and statistical modeling to examine species-specific seasonal activity across two forested sites in Norfolk, Virginia. Beetles were monitored using ethanol and essential oil-baited bottle traps alongside ethanol-soaked bolt traps. Overall abundance peaked in April, indicating strong early-season emergence. Ethanol-baited traps captured 3-7 times more beetles than essential oil traps, and negative binomial generalized linear models confirmed bait type as a significant …

Trapping Ambrosia Beetles (Curculionidae) With Ethanol-Soaked Tree Bolts In Southeastern Virginia., Sajrim Chowdhury, Umme H. Akter, Deborah A. Waller

Knowledge and Creativity Expo

Native and invasive ambrosia beetles infest a wide variety of tree species in southeastern Virginia and cause significant damage. We investigated trapping ambrosia beetles by using ten different tree species as lures. One objective of the study was to determine the most effective lure for each species of ambrosia beetle related to tree species and the diameter of the bolt. Sections of tree limbs of two different diameters and 25cm in length were soaked in ethanol and hung from trees in several natural locations, both near water and away from water. Beetles attracted to the lures bored into the bolts …

Dietary Preferences And Food-Seeking Behavior Of Discoid Cockroaches, Blaberus Discoidalis, Claire O'Brien, Darcci Freie, Robert Larson

2025 Student Academic Showcase

Blaberus discoidalis, commonly known as discoid cockroaches, are native to South American tropics where they consume leaf litter and decaying organic matter on forest floors. This experiment expands upon previous research concerning the diet preference of discoid cockroaches based on their loitering time when presented with different food types. Utilizing their preferred foods, peanuts, leaf litter, and banana, this experiment aims to determine how much of each food is being consumed to further support their diet preferences.

Unearthing Connections: Characterizing Populations Of Local Harvester Ants, Carson Lyman

Student Research Symposium

What is Hybridization?

• Hybridization is the combination of two different species or subspecies, to create hybrid offspring¹.
• The offspring inherits some genetic material from both parents and so exhibits characteristics of both.

Exploring The Role Of Ethanol In Bumblebee-Yeast Interactions, Austen Grizzell

Student Research Symposium

Why care? Bumblebees are known to be attracted to yeasts present in nectar when foraging. Yeasts produce ethanol via fermentation of sugars found in flower nectar and bee honey. Ethanol may act as a foraging cue for bumblebee species. This has wider implications for plant-pollinator interactions, including the pollination of dozens of bumblebee-pollinated crops such as tomato, eggplant, and strawberries.

02 - Habitat Preference Of Ambrosia Beetles (Curculionidae) Using Bottle Traps In Southeastern Virginia, Sajrim Chowdhury, Morgan Harrison, Deborah A. Waller, Umme Akter

Undergraduate Research Symposium

Ambrosia beetles attack host trees by boring into the stem and infecting the tree with a symbiotic fungus. Infected trees suffer damage to the vascular system which often results in tree mortality. We examined whether different species of native and invasive ambrosia beetles prefer different habitats by placing bottle traps in riparian areas near streams and in forested habitats in several locations in southeastern Virginia. Numerous ambrosia beetles were collected in the traps, and we related ambrosia beetle species to the habitat in which it was collected.

Survey Of Mosquito Larval Habitats At The Ksu Field Station, Rose Sofia, Eli Lovvorn, Aspen Hartman, Andrew Haddow

Symposium of Student Scholars

The greater Atlanta metropolitan area hosts numerous mosquito species that are nuisance biters and can transmit arthropod-borne diseases to humans. We surveyed the Kennesaw State University (KSU) Field Station – an incredibly biodiverse location – where student, staff, and faculty-led groups engage in outdoor research and teaching activities. The KSU Field Station located in Cobb County, GA is a heavily trafficked 25-acre property that may attract various mosquito species capable of transmitting pathogens to humans and animals alike. On August 27th, 2024, our team investigated the KSU Field Station to quantify and record potential water-holding containers that serve as mosquito …

Impacts On Malaria Transmission Of Altered Biogenic Amine Levels In {\It Anopheles} Mosquitoes: Insights From A Mathematical Model, Michael Robert

Annual Symposium on Biomathematics and Ecology Education and Research

No abstract provided.

Gaff-Msis-Ledder: Agent-Based Modeling Of Tick Population Genetics, Holly Gaff

Annual Symposium on Biomathematics and Ecology Education and Research

No abstract provided.

Geometry Of Competition And Stability For One-Host, Two-Parasitoid Systems With Application To Biocontrol, Michael Kerckhove

Annual Symposium on Biomathematics and Ecology Education and Research

No abstract provided.

Gaff-Msis-Robertson: Assessing Lyme Disease Dynamics With Lymesim 2.0, Holly Gaff

Annual Symposium on Biomathematics and Ecology Education and Research

No abstract provided.

Assessment Of Dna Concentration And Degradation From Extracted Bumble Bee Thorax Muscle 2023, Joel Lado, Ai Wen, Kenneth Elgersma

Summer Undergraduate Research Program (SURP) Symposium

Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) is the foundation of an organism's ability to develop, survive, and reproduce. High genomic DNA is imperative for many scientific studies and applications such as Biotechnology, Genetics, & Pharmaceuticals. The separation of genomic DNA once purified from other cellular components (RNA, protein) can be sequenced to study entire genomes, develop antibodies, and limit genetic mutations.

Although a very stable molecule, DNA is susceptible to degradation under normal cellular conditions to various factors. Hence it is essential to properly extract genetic material from bee specimens, to better understand their population genetics.

DNA often needs to be stored for …

Comparison Of Gut And Leg Pollen Composition In Female Halictus Ligatus With Flower Source, Sriya Kalala, Ai Wen

Summer Undergraduate Research Program (SURP) Symposium

It is commonly believed by bee biologists that wild bees visit one single flower species during each trip to make nest provision. However, the exact foraging behavior is not clear and may vary in different species of bees, and therefore the pollination patterns have continued to be studied. When a bee undergoes the process of pollination, the majority of the pollen consumed by the bee passes through the digestive tract and remains undigested. However, when the pollen is digested and used as an energy source, the pollen grain digestion occurs in the midgut intestine within the bee instead of the …

Mathematics Of Population-Genetics Model For Assessing The Impacts Of Insecticide Resistance And Temperature On Population Abundance Of Malaria Mosquitoes, Jemal Mohammed-Awel

Biology and Medicine Through Mathematics Conference

No abstract provided.

Phylogenetic Analysis Of Kdr Mutation Conferring Insecticide Resistance In Culex Tarsalis, Eileen Xue, Darren Zhan, Lena Tang

Pacific Undergraduate Research and Creativity Conference (PURCC)

No abstract provided.

Prevalence Of Dog Heartworm (Dirofilaria Immitis) Infection In Invasive Aedes Aegypti And Aedes Albopictus Mosquitoes In Southern California, Irene Hui Ying Lee, Donghwi Kim, Romina Lee

Pacific Undergraduate Research and Creativity Conference (PURCC)

No abstract provided.

Development Of Host-Selective, Pcr-Inhibiting Oligos As A Tool To Investigate The Eukaryotic Symbionts Of Insect Hosts, Christian L. Weinrich

2023 Midwest Ecology & Evolution Conference

Insects are hosts to diverse communities of other organisms. These communities can include microbes such as bacteria, yeast, and protists, as well as multicellular organisms such as nematodes and mites. The prokaryotic associates of many insects have been well-studied and are often investigated by amplifying and sequencing the gene for the 16S ribosomal subunit using universal primers.

However, the eukaryotic associates of many insects remain poorly characterized, and this is in part due to the difficulty in utilizing 18S (the eukaryotic analog for 16S) for eukaryote detection. Because the insect host is also a eukaryote and makes up the bulk …

Everything But The Lab Sink: Using 1,000 Phylogenomically Informative Markers To Resolve Historically Messy Species Groups In Anastrepha Fruit Flies (Diptera: Tephritidae), Kristie J. Schmidt

2023 Midwest Ecology & Evolution Conference

The genus Anastrepha (Diptera: Tephritidae) is long overdue for a major taxonomic revision. Of the 22 recognized species groups within Anastrepha, only ~5 are well supported clades. Molecular methods, such as traditionally used mitochondrial DNA markers, have been unsuccessful at elucidating relationships amongst Anastrepha species; therefore, a more robust phylogenomic tool is likely necessary. To accomplish this, we used Highly Multiplexed Amplicon-based Phylogenomics (HiMAP) to identify 1,000 phylogenomically informative nuclear markers. Post sequencing, we obtained data for 500+ amplicons for 90 Anastrepha spp. belonging to 18 Anastrepha species groups. Our findings agree with some aspects of the most recently …

Effect Of Trap Type And Lure Presence On Diversity Of Jewel Beetles (Coleoptera: Buprestidae) Captured, Maddie Bidinger

2023 Midwest Ecology & Evolution Conference

Woodboring beetles in the family Buprestidae pose a major threat to forest ecosystems. The larvae directly damage host trees by feeding, and may also weaken hosts, making them susceptible to pathogens or physical damage. Moreover, individuals of this taxa are readily transported through international commerce, creating a high risk of establishment outside of their native geographical ranges. For this reason, survey programs use traps to monitor for these and other woodboring beetles. Several different trap designs are typically deployed during surveys because a single trap design hasn’t been demonstrated as equally effective for all taxa. Thus, there is strong interest …

Biting The Hand That Feeds: Food Density, Wing-Length And Fecundity In Aedes Atropalpus, Ellie Armstrong

2023 Midwest Ecology & Evolution Conference

Wing length has been shown to correlate to fecundity in mosquitoes. By measuring wing length and counting eggs, one can create a linear equation that can be used to calculate fecundity using wing length. A 2008 equation by Armistead that looked at wing length fecundity relationship in Ae. atropalpus only had samples over 2.4 mm. Because of this, any wing length under 2.4 that is put in the equation will have a fecundity less than zero. This study was created to replicate the Armistead study with smaller mosquitoes to create an equation that calculates the fecundity of smaller mosquitoes. To …

Does The Genome Of A Putatively Specialist Moth (Schinia Gracilenta) Contain A Signal Of The Indigenous Cultivation Of Its Host Plant (Iva Annua), Wren Renquist

2023 Midwest Ecology & Evolution Conference

When one species depends on one another for survival, they may have shared demographic histories. Further, when symbionts have shorter life spans, their rate of evolution may be quicker than that of their hosts. For this reason, detecting a recent demographic signal in a symbiont’s genome may often be easier than directly studying the host.

Here I study the slender flower moth (Schinia gracilenta) and its host plant, sumpweed (Iva annua). Sumpweed is thought to have been cultivated in North American ca. 5000 BC - AD 1700 and its range may have been expanded during this time. I collected S. …

Pollinators And Flowering Resources In Louisville Urban Green Spaces, Sarah Hobbs

2023 Midwest Ecology & Evolution Conference

Urban Greenspaces can appear in many different forms such as parks, urban orchards, and community gardens. These spaces provide important ecosystem services such as enhanced biodiversity, improved soil health, and increased carbon sequestration. Greenspaces such as parks and community gardens have been relatively well studied in the last few decades compared to urban orchards, despite the multitude of ecosystem services that can be provided or enhanced by these orchards. We hypothesize that urban orchards will provide the optimal conditions for pollinator communities because urban orchards normally have the greatest variety of vegetation and flowering resources, which is positively correlated with …

Leaf Litter Arthropod Communities Not Responsive To Nutrient Pulse Subsidies, Andrew R. Seiler, Stephen P. Yanoviak

2023 Midwest Ecology & Evolution Conference

Spatial subsidies are the asymmetric movement of resources from a donor habitat to a distinct recipient habitat. Arthropod rain, i.e., the fall of arthropods from tree crowns to the forest understory, is a potentially important subsidy link between canopy food webs and detritus-based litter food webs. We added homogenized fragments of Blaptica dubia cockroaches in high (12g m-2) and low (2g m-2) concentrations to replicated quadrats of leaf litter as a pulse subsidy in a temperate forest. Controls were: 1) zero subsidy and 2) addition of foam pellets in place of cockroach fragments. Litter in each quadrat was subsampled 2, …

Qtl Analysis Of Body Size And Development Time In Dendroctonus Ponderosae, Camille M. Pushman

2023 Midwest Ecology & Evolution Conference

The mountain pine beetle (MPB, Dendroctonus ponderosae) is a pest species found in western Norh America that attacks and kills Pinus host trees. Previous studies have identified genetic divergence between populations and variation in life-history traits (body size and development time) that are likely important in local adaptation. To understand the underlying genetic architecture of MPB adaptation and divergence, we performed an F₁ intercross between two distinct populations (Utah & Arizona) and performed a QTL analysis. We analyzed double digest RAD sequencing data from 181 F2 individuals. Our final dataset consists of 986 SNPs and we were able to …