- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
His seminar, open to all interested persons, is from 12:10 to 1 p.m. Host is Marshall McMunn, graduate student in the Louie Yang lab, Department of Entomology and Nematology.
"My research interests are at the interface of evolution, ecology and behavior," Cole says. "One of the major problems in evolutionary biology concerns the evolution of social groups. My research is in several areas involving the evolution of social behavior including the behavioral and genetic prerequisites for group living and the functional consequences of living in groups. The organisms that I use for studies of social behavior are the social insects, particularly the ants. Ants provide thousands of social species, many of which can be kept under controlled laboratory conditions, and manipulated to answer questions about social behavior."
An abstract of his talk:"Although many aspects of the biology of ants have received considerable study, one basic aspect of ant biology that we know very little about has to do with variation among individual colonies. These might be differences in behavior, differences in colony genetic structure, differences in demography. These differences among colonies are the source of fitness differences among colonies. In this seminar I shall examine the extent of fitness variation among colonies and begin to look at the sources of variation in fitness using data from our long-term study on the harvester ant, Pogonomyrmex occidentalis."
Cole received his undergraduate degree from the University of Kansas and his doctorate from Princeton University. He did postdoctoral research at Harvard, University of Utah and UB Berkeley. Cole served on the faculty of the University of Virginia and the University of Arizona before joining the University of Houston 20 years ago. "I am interested in problems that combine ecology, evolution and behavior of ants," he said. "I strive to combine field and lab work with a bit of theory."
Cole and his colleague, Diane Wiernasz are studying the population biology of a desert harvester ant, Pogonomyrmex occidentalis. "We are combining a long-term ecological study of this population with detailed analysis of the ecology, genetics, and reproductive biology," he writes on his website. "Our long-term goal is to provide one of the most complete pictures of the population biology of an ant species."
"Our studies of harvester ants fall into several broad areas involved with measuring the components of fitness and quantifying selection in this natural population. For example the problem of reproductive allocation is influenced by the effects of body size on fitness, sex ratios and the relative values of growth and survival in colonies. In one current project we are studying how the genetic makeup of colonies generates a link between the timing of activity and foraging success, colony growth and ultimately colony fitness."
"We combine field experiments with longitudinal field studies, laboratory behavioral observations and genetic analyses to gain a complete picture of this species."
His seminar will be recorded for later viewing on UCTV.
The remaining seminars, all from 12:10 to 1 p.m. in !22 Briggs, include:
Wednesday, Oct. 29
Clifford Ohmart
Entomologist and vice president of professional services
SureHarvest, sustainable agriculture
Title: "Sustainable Agriculture: What Is Happening Out on the Farm?"
Host: Michael Parrella, professor and chair of the Department of Entomology and Nematology
Wednesday, Nov. 5
Chuck Fox
Professor, University of Kentucky, specializing in ecology and evolution of life histories; insect-plant interactions; insect behavioral ecology
Title: "Inbreeding-Environment Interactions: Experimental Studies and a Meta Analysis"
Host: Jay Rosenheim, professor, Department of Entomology and Nematology
Wednesday, Nov. 12
Louie Yang
Assistant professor, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology, specializing in ecology
Title: "Pulses, Phenology and Ontogeny: Towards a More Temporally Explicit Framework for Understanding Species Interactions?"
Wednesday, Nov. 19
Ray Hong
Associate professor of biology, California State University, Northridge, specializing in nematology
Title: “A Fatal Attraction: Regulation of Development and Behavior in the Nematode Pristionchus pacificus by a Beetle Pheromone”
Host: Valerie Williamson, professor of nematology, Department of Entomology and Nematology
Wednesday, Nov. 26
Doris Bachtrog, lab
Associate professor of integrative biology, UC Berkeley, specializing in evolutionary and functional genomics
Title: "Numerous Transitions of Sex Chromosomes in Diptera"
Host: Michael Parrella, professor and chair, Department of Entomology and Nematology
Wednesday, Dec. 3
No seminar
Wednesday, Dec. 10
Sawyer Fuller
Postdoctoral researcher, Harvard University
Title: "RoboBee: Using the Engineering Toolbox to Understand the Flight Apparatus of Flying Insects"
Host: James Carey, distinguished professor of entomology
This seminar is being remote broadcast to UC Davis via internet