A new paper by Amanda St Onge, Dr. Héctor Cárcamo, and Dr. Evenden has been accepted and published in the journal Environmental Entomology. The paper explores the use of synthetic aggregation pheromone and host plant volatiles to monitor PLW, examining differences in capture between sexes and across seasons at different lures. The paper can be found here.
Author: sjolie1 (Page 6 of 6)
As classes finished and exams just on the horizon, the Department of Biological Sciences held their Celebration of Excellence to highlight the achievements of all the amazing graduate students in the department. Ronald Batallas received a DBS Teaching Award for excelling as a TA during the fall 2016 semester teaching BIOL 208. Amanda Jorgensen received recognition as one of four finalists from the department who competed in the 3 Minute Thesis Challenge. And finally Kelsey Jones was given the Julia O Hrapko Graduate Scholarship in Plant Ecology scholarship for her proposed Master’s thesis work with mountain pine beetle. Congratulations to all three of you for your amazing work!
On April 24 2017, Amanda St. Onge successfully defended her thesis entitled “Optimization of semiochemical monitoring for pea leaf weevil, Sitona lineatus (Coleoptera: Curculionidae) in the Prairie Provinces” and completed her Master’s program. Congratulations Amanda!
Congratulations to Kelsey Jones who was awarded a NSERC – Canadian Graduate Scholarship Master’s (CGSM) for her proposed research on the effect of tree volatiles on mountain pine beetle flight.
On January 30-31, Evenden Lab members Sarah McPike, Amanda Jorgensen, and Kelsey Jones participated in the Richard E. Peter Biology Conference held at the University of Alberta. Sarah presented her talk entitled “Plant chemical lures for the attraction of parasitoid Apanteles polychrosidis to increase parasitism of Caloptilia fraxinella on green ash in Edmonton” for which she was awarded “Best MSc Talk”. Amanda, on top of giving a presentation as well, did the “3 Minute Thesis Challenge” where she placed 2nd. Kelsey presented her thesis proposal as a poster over the 2-day conference.
Multiple members of the Evenden lab drove down to Calgary, AB to attend the 2016 Entomological Society of Alberta Annual meeting from Oct 27 – 29. Dylan Sjolie gave a presentation during the Forest Health session on “The sublethal effect of microsporidian infection on flight of the forest tent caterpillar, Malacosma disstria (Lepidoptera: Lasiocampidae). Nicholas Grocock was apart of the Pollinators & Canola talk session and discussed his presentation “Bumblebee (Bombus spp.) bycatch in moth pheromone traps positioned in canola and wheat crops of central Alberta, Canada”. Sarah McPike gave her presentation entitled “Effects of nutritional provisions and volatile plant chemical lures on parasitism of Caloptilia fraxinella by Apantales polychrosidis on green ash in Edmonton” in the Food, Smells, and Life (History) portion of the meeting. During the same session, Amanda Jorgensen presented her first field reason data “Sex pheromone monitoring of wheat midge: efficacy of commercially available lures and traps”, which she also received a travel grant for her presentation.
A new paper has been accepted and published by Dr. Tyler Wist and Dr. Evenden in the journal Entomologia Experimentalis et Applicata on the host preference and larval performance of the ash leaf cone roller (Caloptilia fraxinella) on two different Fraxinus species. The paper can be viewed here.
Dr. Evenden, Ronald Batallas, Asha Wijerathna, and Chaminda Weerddana traveled to sunny Orlando, FL, USA to attend the International Congress of Entomology (ICE) from September 25 – 30. Ronald gave a presentation during the Integrated Pest Management and Sustainable Agriculture: Behavioral Pest Management contributed papers session on “Food-based semiochemicals as a potential tool to assess cutworm moth (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae) diversity in prairie agro-ecosystems”. Dr. Evenden presented her poster on “The sublethal effect of microsporidian infection on flight capacity of the forest tent caterpillar, Malacosoma disstria (Lepidoptera: Lasiocampidae)” during the Agriculture and Forest Entomology poster session. Chaminda’s poster on the “Effect of canola infection with clubroot disease on oviposition by the bertha armyworm” won first place in the student poster competition under the category “Insect Chemical Ecology”. Asha’s poster on the “Energy use by the mountain pine beetle (Coleoptera: Curculionidae: Scolytinae) for dispersal by flight” won second place in the student poster competition under the category “Agricultural and Forest Entomology”.