Standing genetic variation in laboratory populations of insecticide-susceptible and (Diptera: Psychodidae: Phlebotominae) for the evolution of resistance.

Insecticides can exert strong selection on insect pest species, including those that vector diseases, and have led to rapid evolution of resistance. Despite such rapid evolution, relatively little is known about standing genetic variation for resistance in insecticide-susceptible populations of many species. To help fill this knowledge gap, we generated genotyping-by-sequencing data from insecticide-susceptible and sand flies that survived or died from a sub-diagnostic exposure to either permethrin or malathion using a modified version of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention bottle bioassay.

Climate effects on nesting phenology in Nebraska turtles.

A frequent response of organisms to climate change is altering the timing of reproduction, and advancement of reproductive timing has been a common reaction to warming temperatures in temperate regions. We tested whether this pattern applied to two common North American turtle species over the past three decades in Nebraska, USA. The timing of nesting (either first date or average date) of the Common Snapping Turtle () was negatively correlated with mean December maximum temperatures of the preceding year and mean May minimum and maximum temperatures in the nesting year and positively correlated with precipitation in July of the previous year.

Measuring the effect of environmental stress on inbreeding depression alone obscures the relative importance of inbreeding-stress interactions on overall fitness in .

Environmental stress can have a profound effect on inbreeding depression. Quantifying this effect is of particular importance in threatened populations, which are often simultaneously subject to both inbreeding and environmental stress. But while the prevalence of inbreeding-stress interactions is well known, the importance and broader applicability of such interactions in conservation are not clearly understood.

Caterpillars on a phytochemical landscape: The case of alfalfa and the Melissa blue butterfly.

Modern metabolomic approaches that generate more comprehensive phytochemical profiles than were previously available are providing new opportunities for understanding plant-animal interactions. Specifically, we can characterize the phytochemical landscape by asking how a larger number of individual compounds affect herbivores and how compounds covary among plants. Here we use the recent colonization of alfalfa () by the Melissa blue butterfly () to investigate the effects of indivdiual compounds and suites of covarying phytochemicals on caterpillar performance.

Evolutionary constraint on low elevation range expansion: Defense-abiotic stress-tolerance trade-off in crosses of the ecological model .

Most transplant experiments across species geographic range boundaries indicate that adaptation to stressful environments outside the range is often constrained. However, the mechanisms of these constraints remain poorly understood. We used extended generation crosses from diverged high and low elevation populations.

What, if anything, are hybrids: enduring truths and challenges associated with population structure and gene flow.

Hybridization is a potent evolutionary process that can affect the origin, maintenance, and loss of biodiversity. Because of its ecological and evolutionary consequences, an understanding of hybridization is important for basic and applied sciences, including conservation biology and agriculture. Herein, we review and discuss ideas that are relevant to the recognition of hybrids and hybridization.