Theses defended
Congratulations to the following graduate students who successfully defended their theses:
Lucy Patterson (M.Sc., September 8) - Correlates of male reproductive success in Eastern Chipmunks (Tamias striatus) (Supervised by Dr. A. Schulte-Hostedd)
Mackensey Bacon (M.Sc., September 11) - A functional analysis of the putative apoptosis modulator, RNA binding motif 10 (RBM10) in the T-Lymphoblastic leukemia cell line JKM1 (supervised by Dr. L. Sutherland)
Sophie Gervais (M.Sc., September 25) - Effect of metal contamination on the genetic diversity of Deschampsia cespitosa populations from Northern Ontario: An application of ISSR and microsatellite markers (Supervised by Dr. K. Nkongolo)
Shaimaa Hussein (M.Sc., September 30) - Characterization of sepsis-induced modulation in cardiac myocyte gene expression and fibroblast signaling (Supervised by Dr. A. Kumar)
Seminars presented
September 18 - Darryl Edwards (Ph.D. candidate, Laurentian University) - Arctic Fieldwork: from the frigid north to the ‘balmy’ south (invited by Dr. A. Schulte-Hostedde)
October 16 - Shelley Arnott (Queen's University, Adjunct Professor at Laurentian University) - Does dispersal shape community structure? A regional perspective on lake communities (Invited by Dr. C. Ramcharan)
October 23 - Amanda Moehring (University of Western Ontario) - Sex, flies and video tape: The genetics of species isolation in Drosophila (Invited by Dr. T. Merritt, co-hosted by the Departments of Biology and Chemistry/Biochemistry)
Annual Conference of the Entomological Society of Ontario
Fourth-year Honours Biology student Brandy Smallwood attended the 146th Annual Conference of the Entomological Society of Ontario at the Frost Centre Institute in Dorset, Ontario October 2-4, 2009. Brandy presented the first paper in her career as part of the President’s Prize competition. Eleven M.Sc. and Ph.D. students made presentations and two awards were provided for the best papers. Brandy was presented with an additional award, an Honourable Mention, for her presentation entitled ‘Feeding behaviour of larvae of Eurytoma sp. (Eurytomidae, Hymenoptera), a common parasitoid in the leaf galls of Diplolepis polita (Cynipidae, Hymenoptera).’ This was the first time in the history of the conference that an undergraduate student received an award for a competition usually reserved for graduate students.
In the photo below, Brandy Smallwood (left) is being presented with her award by Entomological Society of Ontario President Dr. Cynthia Scott-Dupree (right) of the University of Guelph.
Dr. Joe Shorthouse also attended the 146th Annual Conference of the Entomological Society of Ontario in Dorset and presented a paper entitled ‘Clues to the evolution and speciation of the Diplolepis (Hymenoptera: Cynipidae) complex provided by the world’s most structurally complex gall on rose hips in eastern Turkey’. He was also co-author on a paper entitled ‘C01-ing: What happens when names run out? Using DNA barcodes to identify species of Diplolepis (Hymenoptera: Cynipidae)’ with Ph.D. candidate Joao Lima of the University of Guelph, and co-author with Brandy Smallwood on the paper she presented (see above).
Dr. Joe Shorthouse attended the Annual Conference of the Entomological Society of Canada in Winnipeg, Manitoba October 18-21, 2009 and presented a paper entitled ‘Factors influencing the distribution of gall-inducing cynipids on wild roses across Canada.’
Events
Biology students Jennifer Fenske and Cindy Crocker (see photo below) attended the Lug-a-Mug to the Library" event in the foyer of the J.N. Desmarais Library on October 20. The event was held to promote the library's new Food and Drink Policy and to acknowledge the social and economic impact of coffee worldwide.
Publications
Bowman, J., and A.I. Schulte-Hostedde. 2009. The mink is not a reliable sentinel species. Environmental Research 109: 937-939.
Wilson, P.J., S.K. Grewal, F.F. Mallory and B.N. White. 2009. Genetic characterization of hybrid wolves across Ontario. J. Heredity 100: 80-89.
Michat, M.C. and Alarie , Y. 2009. Phylogenetic relationships of Notaticus Zimmermann (Coleoptera: Dytiscidae) based on larval morphology. Annals of the Entomological Society of America 102(5): 797-808.
Miller, K.B., Gibson, J.R. and Alarie, Y. 2009. North American stygobiontic diving beetles (Coleoptera: Dytiscidae: Hydroporinae) with description of Ereboporus naturaconservatus Miller, Gibson and Alarie, new genus and species from Texas, USA. The Coleopterists Bulletin 63(2): 191-202.
Alarie, Y. Megna, Y.S.and A. Deler-Hernández. 2009. First West Indies records of Thermonectus succinctus (Aubé, 1838), with notes on other Cuban species (Coleoptera: Dytiscidae). Koleopterologische Rundschau 79: 5-16.
Alarie, Y. 2009. Hydradephaga of the Magdalen Island Archipelago. Koleopterologische Rundschau 79: 17-25.
Greaves, W.F. and J.D. Litzgus. 2009. Variation in life history characteristics among North American populations of wood turtles: A view from the north. Journal of Zoology 279: 298-309.
Hughes, G., W.F. Greaves and J.D. Litzgus. 2009. Nest site selection by wood turtles (Glyptemys insculpta) in a thermally limited environment. Northeastern Naturalist 16(3): 321-338.