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Recent News

• The start of 2021 brings a growth spurt to the Lamp Lab!
  January, 2021, saw a number of new people in the Lamp Lab. Dr. Alina Avanesyan was rehired as Assistant Research Scientist. Helen Craig will become Lab Manager after graduation in May, but has started part-time until then. Anthony Righter is a new freshman lab tech, and two students, Arthur Young and Avery Rice, started volunteering in the lab. Welcome to everyone! (Posted March 16, 2022)

• Former Ph.D. student publishes an educational study from Freshwater Biology.
  Becca Eckert collected data on learning while teaching the lab in Freshwater Biology. She used a mouthpart dissection exercise to connect morphology to functional feeding group classification. Using surveys pre- and post-dissection, she found the activity enhanced students' understanding. See the article published in Journal of Biological Education here. (Posted March 16, 2022)

• Alina publishes our first paper for 2022!
  Alina produced a manuscript based on earlier research in our lab on the tolerance of Miscanthus cultivars to grasshopper herbivory, She demonstrated that cultivars of this potentially invasive grass in protected areas vary in their response to herbivores. Her dissertation work on biotic resistance showed that grasshoppers may serve agents for biotic resistance of imported grasses through their selective feeding on exotic species over native species. This work shows that exotic grass cultivars which vary in morphology and color also vary in their resistance and tolerance to herbivory. See the article here. (Posted January 19, 2022)

• Best Fishing Creek blogs from Freshwater Biology, 2021, now posted!
  The Fishing Creek blog has become a tradition in our BSCI 467, Freshwater Biology, course each fall. After our last field trip to a beautiful and biologically-diverse stream in the Catoctin Mountains north of Frederick, each student submits a blog of their observations after learning about the ecology of streams. Then, the students are given copies of the top 10% (or so) of the blogs to select their favorite. We had two winners this year that stood out above the rest. First place went to Arthur Young, who wrote about his encounter with a crayfish from the CRAYFISH perspective ("The Cold, Dark Well)". Spoiler alert: the crayfish wins the encounter! Second place went to Shea Buczkowski for her excellent description of the role of dissolved oxygen to support life in the stream ("We All Need to Breathe"), and includes a dynamic photo of the turbulence of Fishing Creek. Check out both blogs here. (Posted January 7, 2022)

• Congratulations to Leela Johnson who has been selected for a Cory Scholarship!
  We are pleased that Leela was selected to receive the $1,000 Ernest N. Cory Scholarship for the Spring, 2022 semester. She received the award for her excellent academic achievements and her accomplishments in the Department of Entomology. Leela has been an active member of the Lamp Lab over the last year, volunteering her time to various lab projects and developing her own research examining of the diet of dragonfly nymphs. She will graduate next spring as a General Biology student. We are very proud of her accomplishments, and are happy she will continue in the lab next semester. Congratulations, Leela! (Posted November 29, 2021)

• See description of our new RESILIENCE CAP grant, broadly centered on sustainable agriculture.
  We have added a new description of the 5-year grant and "diverse, perennial, circular systems" under the "Research" tab. To learn more click here. (Posted November 23, 2021)

• Former student Becca Wilson-Ounekeo publishes second chapter!
  We are pleased to report that Becca's chapter on the distribution of adult nuisance black flies was recently published in Environmental Entomology. The article, entitled "Environmental and spatial predictors of the distribution patterns of the host-seeking black fly, Simulium jenningsi (Diptera: Simuliidae)" describes how the black flies avoid impervious surfaces but tend to be near flowing waters. Centered on the mountainous area of western Maryland around Harpers Ferry and Hagerstown, black flies tended to exist in areas with low light intensity, higher elevations, and higher temperatures. Numbers were highest in forest and riparian habitats, and lowest in residential areas. The article may be found here. (Posted November 14, 2021)

• Lab members participate in Skype a Scientist virtual outreach!
  Anya and Maggie went virtual to teach entomology to 5th graders at Osceola Magnet Elementary School in the Indian River County School District of Florida. Mrs. Bruckner and her students listened intently and asked lots of great bug questions. Skype a Scientist is a non profit that promotes online learning through connections with scientists across disciplines. To learn more click here. (Posted November 14, 2021)

• Maggie receives the 2021 SARE Northeast Graduate Student Research Grant!
  Master's student Maggie Hartman has received the 2021 SARE grant for her proposal entitled, "Dragonflies as potential biological control on farms: prey assessment using a DNA approach." Her two objectives are 1) to compare richness and abundance of assemblages of adult species of dragonflies and damselflies among farms and crops and 2) to compare prey composition using next generation sequencing of dragonfly feces between upland farm habitat and near water habitat. She plans to defend in 2022, at which point she will publicly present her results about the dragonflies and damselflies she loves so dearly. Check out her presentation in the spring for an update on her research. (Posted November 14, 2021)

• Ali and Maggie are recognized by the department for exceptional teaching!
  Graduate students Ali and Maggie received Outstanding Teaching Awards for the 2020/2021 academic year. Ali and Maggie teach lab sections of Bill's Freshwater Biology course as well as introductory biology courses. Keep up the good work! (Posted November 14, 2021)

• Lamp Lab is part of a $10M, 5-year USDA-Sustainability Grant!
  We are pleased to announce the participation of the Lamp Lab in what we call the "RESILIENCE CAP" grant from the USDA Sustainable Agricultural Systems program. The grant aims to foster resilience and ecosystem services in landscapes by integrating diverse perennial circular systems. Press releases on the grant can be found here: https://news.cals.wisc.edu/2021/10/06/usda-grant-diverse-perennial-forage-systems/ and https://www.usda.gov/media/press-releases/2021/10/06/usda-announces-more-146m-investment-sustainable-agricultural. The Lamp Lab will be leading the education efforts for the grant, and Bill is part of the coordinating committee. We will also be helping with comparisons of beneficial insects associated with farms across the country. We have a collaborator at Maryland, Dr. Amanda Grev, who will be doing extension work as part of the grant. She is an Extension Specialist, Forage and Pasture, in the AGNR Department of Extension and based at Western Maryland Research and Education Center. (Posted October 18, 2021)

• Veronica Yurchak publishes her thesis research on degradation of Bt in post-harvest corn tissue!
  We are pleased to have Veronica publish her research on the degradation of Bt proteins in corn residue as affected by post-harvest practices. She performed her research in the Hooks and Dively lab, with contributions by Bill. Our connection with Veronica goes back to her undergraduate years when she took Bill's Freshwater Biology course. Her research demonstrated that Bt proteins maintained biological activity for as long as 24 weeks after harvest when residue was left above the ground, such as found in no-till systems. The article may be found here. (Posted July 30, 2021)

• Alina Avanesyan publishes a review for PCR-based diet analysis of insect herbivores!
  Alina has now published five articles during her postdoctoral stay in our lab with a review to choose an effective PCR-based approach for diet analysis of insect herbivores. A typical process of detection of DNA of ingested plants involves the choice of a DNA extraction method, a genomic target region, and/or the best approach for an accurate plant species identification. This review provides important information on the availability of successfully used PCR-based approaches to identify ingested plant DNA in insect guts, and suggests potential directions for future studies on plant - insect trophic interactions. The article may be found here. (Posted July 30, 2021)

• Darsy Smith posts a blog about lady beetles!
  As part of Anahi Espindola's extension outreach to Spanish-speaking communities, Darsy has published a blog in Spanish on her dissertation subject: lady beetles! Darsy is a Ph.D. student in the Lamp Lab, and studies the population ecology of coccinellids in alfalfa and their movement into adjacent crops. You can find the blog here. (Posted July 30, 2021)

• Morgan Thompson publishes part of her thesis!
  We are pleased that Morgan's article entitled, "Herbivory enhances legume-rhizobia symbioses function, increasing aboveground allocation of biologically fixed nitrogen, but only in soils with additional nitrate," in Plant Soil. The research was done as part of her Master's thesis, investigating how soil nitrate supply and aboveground herbivory by potato leafhopper interact to influence nitrogen fixation. Using field and greenhouse experiments, she detected strong changes in legume above- and belowground allocation of fixed nitrogen in response to both herbivory and nitrate supply. Results demonstrate herbivory drives distinct plant allocation strategies across soil nitrate levels. Herbivory-induced changes in rhizobia-legume symbioses are likely widespread across both agricultural and natural ecosystems. Morgan is currently working towards a Ph.D. at Texas A&M. The article is posted here. (Posted June 8, 2021)

• News archive
  Access the Lamp lab's older news items here.