Events

Event Information:

• Tue

  19

  Nov

  2019

  Oxford Science Cafe

  6:00 pmUptown Coffee, 265 North Lamar Blvd, Oxford, Mississippi

  Dr. Susan Balenger
  Department of Biology,
  University of Mississippi

  The Silence of the Crickets: Rapid, Repeated Loss of Sexual Signals in Hawaii

  Charles Darwin was convinced that biological evolution only occurred over long geologic timespans. More recently, though, researchers have been watching and documenting evolutionary changes happening over human timescales. Dr. Susan Balenger studies one particularly dramatic example of rapid evolution amongst wild populations of field crickets on the islands of Hawaii: following the introduction of a parasitic fly, local male crickets lost their ability to chirp. Unfortunately for these males, chirping is how they attract mates. And all of this happened in less than 5 years - the blink of an eye in evolutionary terms. Dr. Balenger will discuss how and why interactions between these species could produce silent crickets, the ways that cricket mating behaviors have subsequently changed, and what it is like to watch evolution in action.

   

  See this page for details.