Dr. William Conner and his co-researcher Dr. Nicholas Dowdy have found that certain members of the Tiger moth family do not duck and dive from predatory bats with the same vigor as their counterparts. Strikingly, we observed that moths with weak or no chemical defences often dive away to escape bat attacks. However, moths with…
The BBC recently featured Ph.D. candidate Nick Dowdy‘s work on moths in Central America. He has some very interesting scientific findings on the unique defensive behavior of a particular Ecuadorian moth. When threatened, it “uses an explosion of a sticky, wool-like material to defend itself.” This has never been seen before in a moth species. You can…
Bee impressed at ACC Meeting of the Minds Wake Forest to showcase innovative student research from across the ACC — By WILL FERGUSON Office of Communications and External Relations You can’t teach an old dog new tricks, but this might not be the case for a honeybee. Just ask David Hale (’15), a sophomore biology major….
Dr. Eric Johnson’s research on Drosophila provides insight into human diabetes treatment. His laboratory’s findings were recently featured by the WFU News Service and the scientific journal Genetics. Complexity doesn’t stem from having different genes or special nerve cells. The basic biophysical, biochemical makeup is the same. The difference in complexity is in the number…
Aaron Corcoran’s research on sonar jamming moths is featured in the new National Geographic Special “Untamed Americas”. The footage is featured in the episode on Deserts. It is airing Saturday, June 16, 9pm EST. Link to the show page: http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/channel/untamed-americas/ Mexican Free-tailed bats (Tadarida brasiliensis) migrate up to 1,000 miles (1609 kilometers) from their winter home…
Congratulations to William E. Conner, professor of Biology, whose proposal entitled “Acoustic Aposematism, Mimicry, and Sonar Jamming in the Bat-Moth Arms Race” has been funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF).
Windows on Wake Forest published an article about PhD. candidate Aaron Corcoran and Professor William Conner entitled, “Nature’s Trick or Treat” In the ongoing evolutionary battle between bats and moths, a species of tiger moth plays a trick with sound to avoid becoming a bat’s tasty treat, according to new research by professor William Conner…
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