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William Conner

photo William Conner

William Conner, AAAS Fellow and Professor of Biology (Emeritus)

Professor of Biology (Emeritus)
AAAS Fellow

Teacher-Scholar Legacies: William Conner

B.A. University of Notre Dame
M.S. Cornell University
Ph.D. Cornell University

Winston Hall 003
(336) 758-5315
conner@wfu.edu

Areas of Interest

Animal Communication, Chemical Ecology, Insect Physiology and Behavior, Bioacoustics

Research

My laboratory studies animal communication. We are interested in how communicative signals are produced, travel through the environment, how they are detected, how the receiver responds to them, and ultimately how they have evolved. The colorful tiger moths on which we concentrate provide a diversity of interaction and allow a comparative approach to many evolutionary questions. My students and I combine high-speed infrared videography, 3D-video reconstruction of behavior, classic behavioral observation, analytical chemical methods, electrophysiological techniques, and cladistic analyses to explore communication systems that are often beyond our own sensory capabilities.

We are currently studying the Bat-Tiger Moth arms race: When a tiger moth hears the echolocation sounds of an insectivorous bat they answer with a series of ultrasonic clicks. These ant-bat clicks serve several functions depending on the context. They can warn bats of a distasteful prey, deceive bats into thinking the prey is toxic, and even jam bat sonar. The more we learn the more surprises we find.

Selected Publications

Jones, T. K. and W. E. Conner. 2019. The jamming avoidance response in echolocating bats. Communicative and Integrative Biology 12(1):10-13 doi: 10.1080/19420889.2019.1568818.

Dowdy, N. J. and W. E. Conner. 2019. Characteristics of tiger moth (Erebidae: Arctiinae) anti-bat soundscan be predicted from tymbal morphology. Frontiers in Zoology16:45 doi.org/1186/s 12983-019-0345-6.

Dowdy, N. J. and W. E. Conner. 2019. Nonchalant flight in tiger moths (Erebidae: Arctiinae) is correlated with unpalatability. Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution. doi: 10.3389/fevo.2019.00480

W. E. Conner. 2020. Biomimicry: Biologically Inspired Innovation and Entrepreneurship. Library Partners Press. 118 pp.

Dowdy, N. J. and W. E. Conner. 2016. Acoustic aposematism and evasive action in select chemically defended Arctiine (Lepidoptera: Erebidae) species: Nonchalant or Not? PlosOne 10.1371/journal.pone.0152981

Conner, W. E. and V. K. Iyengar. 2016. Male pheromones in moths: Reproductive isolation, sexy sons, and good genes. In Pheromone Communication in Moths. Ring Carde and Jeremy Allison (eds.) University of California Press.

Iyengar, K. and W. E. Conner. 2016. Utetheisa ornatrix (Erebidae, Arctiinae): A case study of sexual selection. In Pheromone Communication in Moths. Ring Carde and Jeremy Allison (eds.) University of California Press.

Corcoran, A. J. and W. E. Conner. 2016. How moths escape bats: Predicting outcomes of predator-prey interactions. Journal of Experimental Biology doi:10.1242/jeb 137638.

Conner, W. E. 2014. An acoustic arms race. American Scientist 101:202-209.

Corcoran, A. J. and W. E. Conner. 2014. Bats jamming bats: Food competition through sonar interference. Science 346:745-747.

Corcoran, A. J., R. D. Wagner, and W. E. Conner. 2013. Optimal predator risk assessment by the sonar-jamming arctiine moth Bertholdia trigona. PlosOne 10.1371/journal.pone. 0063609.

Conner, W. E. 2013. Adaptive sounds and silences. In. Insect Hearing and Acoustic Communication. Berthold Hedwig (ed.) Sinauer.

AJ Corcoran and WE Conner. 2012. Sonar jamming in the field: Effectiveness and behavior of a unique prey defense. Journal of Experimental Biology 215:4278-4287.

WE Conner and AJ Corcoran. 2012. The 65-million-year-old battle between bats and insects. Annual Review of Entomology 57:21-39.

AJ Corcoran, JR Barber, NI Hristov, and WE Conner. 2011. How do tiger moths jam bat sonar? Journal of Experimental Biology 214:2416-2425.

AJ Corcoran, JR Barber and WE Conner. 2010. Anti-bat tiger moth sounds: Form and function. Current Zoology 56:358-369.

AJ Corcoran, JR Barber, and WE Conner. 2009. Tiger moth jams bat sonar. Science 325:325-327.

SE Garrett, WE Conner, L Roque-Albelo. 2009. Alkaloidal protection of Utetheisa galapagensis (Lepidoptera: Arctiidae) against an invertebrate and a vertebrate predator in the Galápagos Islands. Galápagos Research 65:2-6.

AT Jordan and WE Conner. 2007. Dietary basis for developmental plasticity of an androconial structure in the salt marsh moth Estigmene acrea. Journal of the Lepidopterists’ Society 61:32-37.

AT Jordan and WE Conner. 2007. Morphogenetic effects of alkaloidal metabolites on the development of the coremata in the salt marsh moth, Estigmene acrea (Lepidoptera: Arctiidae). Archives of Insect Physiology and Pharmacology 66:183-189.

JR Barber and WE Conner. 2007. Acoustic mimicry in a predator-prey interaction. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 104:9331-9334.

WE Conner, A Kerry, J Barry, and A Harper. 2007. Has vertebrate chemesthesis been a selective factor in the evolution of arthropod chemical defenses? Biological Bulletin 213:267-273.

 

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