Flavia Montano was recently awarded a Field Museum Visiting Scholarship to travel to the Field Museum in Chicago and work with Dr. John Bates. She will likely make this journey in Fall 2015 to examine and measure museum specimens of Bolivian birds as part of her dissertation research examining community assemblage and variation in functional traits along elevational gradients in the Andes.
Farah Carrasco Rueda is co-author on a recently published paper: Eberhard, W., J. Pacheco-Esquivel, F. Carrasco-Ruedaet al. 2014. Zombie bugs? The fungus Purpureocillium cf. lilacinum may manipulate the behavior of its host bug Edessa rufomarginata. Mycologia 106:1065-1072 DOI: 10.3852/13-264
Farah’s paper is the product of an OTS course project in Costa Rica led by UCR professor Bill Eberhard. Check the article out – great pics of the “zombie bugs” and an interesting story of how fungus can change behavior of its host to facilitate reproduction.
