Dr. Bekka Brodie
The Environmental & Plant Biology Colloquium Series presents Dr. Bekka Brodia on “Harnessing sight and scent communication pathways for insect conservation and management” on Friday, March 2, at 11:50 a.m. in Porter 104.
Brodie is a Visiting Professor in the Biological Sciences Department at Ohio University.
Abstract: Insects use a variety of sensory cues to locate resources and find mates, and revealing the fundamentals of these mechanisms can aid in developing practical solutions for management and conservation. By melding chemical ecology, behavioral ecology, and physiology, my research seeks to advance our knowledge of basic insect ecology (foraging, reproduction), and contribute to pest management, insect conservation, and pollinator ecology. Specifically, I will focus this talk on: (1) using pheromones for monitoring threatened and endangered longicorn beetles, (2) capitalizing on intraspecific visual cues to develop non-toxic control systems for fly pests, and (3) identifying floral visual cues used by fly pollinators to locate food resources (using social media crowdsourcing). Developing novel insect management and conservation applications will continue to require transcending discipline boundaries, and a much broader understanding of intraspecific communication pathways and insect-resource interactions.
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