Insect Individuality: Why Viewing Insects as Individuals Matters for Tomorrow's Insect Science

Organizer(s)

• 

  Amy Toth

  Professor
  Ecology, Evolution, and Organismal Biology
  Iowa State University
  Ames, Iowa
• ET

  Elizabeth Tibbetts, Ph.D.

  Professor
  University of Michigan
  Ann Arbor, Michigan
• JJ

  Jennifer Jandt

  University of Otago
  Dunedin, Otago, New Zealand

This symposium highlights the many realms of entomology that stand to benefit from considering insects as individuals. Talks from a diversity of insect systems, using different approaches, will address basic evolutionary/ecological questions, as well as applications to insects as food, insect conservation, and population management.

Presentations:

• 1:30 PM – 1:40 PM MST

  Individual insects as windows into biological complexity, ecological adaptability, and invertebrate health
  

  Presenting Author: Amy Toth – Iowa State University
• 1:40 PM – 1:55 PM MST

  Economic foraging in a floral marketplace: Decision making in bumblebees
  

  Presenting Author: Claire Hemingway – University of Tennessee

  Co-Author: Jennie DeVore – University of Texas

  Co-Author: Felicity Muth – University of Texas
• 1:55 PM – 2:10 PM MST

  Individuality in the hive: How variation in worker stress susceptibility can bolster social insect colony health
  

  Presenting Author: Alexander Walton – University of Alberta

  Co-Author: Jacob Hermann – University of Alberta

  Co-Author: Olav Rueppell – University of Alberta
• 2:10 PM – 2:25 PM MST

  Individuality influences social success in Polistes paper wasps
  

  Presenting Author: Elizabeth Tibbetts, Ph.D. – University of Michigan
• 2:25 PM – 2:40 PM MST

  Bumble bee (Bombus terrestris) foraging patterns and cognition in semi-natural simple or diverse floral environments
  

  Presenting Author: Jennifer Jandt – University of Otago

  Co-Author: Connal McLean – University of Otago

  Co-Author: Lisa Evans – The New Zealand Institute for Plant and Food Research Limited
• 2:40 PM – 2:55 PM MST

  Multi-level selection in Temnothorax ants may result in decoupled life-history trade-offs
  

  Presenting Author: Sarah Bengston – City University of New York
• 2:55 PM – 3:10 PM MST

  Unveiling critical habitat: Behavioural insights into overwintering and nesting requirements of bumblebee queens using radio telemetry
  

  Presenting Author: Nigel Raine (he/him/his) – University of Guelph

  Co-author: Amanda Liczner – University of Guelph

  Co-author: Elizabeth Franklin – University of Guelph
• 3:10 PM – 3:15 PM MST

  Break
• 3:15 PM – 3:30 PM MST

  Individual differences in decision making in foraging bumble bees: Implications for optimality?
  

  Presenting Author: Aimee Dunlap – University of Missouri

  Co-Author: Becky Hansis-O’Neill – University of Missouri

  Co-Author: Rachel Brant – University of Missouri

  Co-Author: Isabel Rojas-Ferrer – University of Missouri
• 3:30 PM – 3:45 PM MST

  Puzzle-solving bumblebees show a capacity for complex learning that is shaped by observer and demonstrator characteristics
  

  Presenting Author: Alice Bridges (she/her/hers) – University of Sheffield
• 3:45 PM – 4:00 PM MST

  Adult insect diet has a pronounced effect on cuticle thickness and injury resistance in Narnia femorata (Hemiptera: Coreidae)
  

  Presenting Author: Christine W. Miller (she/her/hers) – University of Cambridge

  Co-Author: Ginny Greenway – University of East Anglia

  Co-Author: Tamsin Woodman – University of Edinburgh

  Co-Author: Zachary Emberts – Oklahoma State University

  Co-Author: Simon Chen – University of Cambridge

  Co-Author: Walter Federle – University of Cambridge
• 4:00 PM – 4:15 PM MST

  The ethical entomologist: If insects are individuals, what might we owe them?
  

  Presenting Author: Meghan Barrett (she/her/hers) – Indiana University Indianapolis
• 4:15 PM – 4:30 PM MST

  Better beetle battles: How individuals respond to prior social experience and shape competition in the forked fungus beetle
  

  Presenting Author: Clara Stahlmann Roeder – University of Virginia

  Co-Author: Vincent Formica – Swarthmore College

  Co-Author: Edmund Brodie III – University of Virginia
• 4:30 PM – 4:45 PM MST

  Intraindividual behavioral drift as an evolutionary strategy
  

  Presenting Author: Benjamin de Bivort – Harvard University

  Co-Author: Ryan Maloney – Harvard University

  Co-Author: Athena Ye – Harvard University

  Co-Author: Sam-Keny Saint-Pre – Harvard University

  Co-Author: Tom Alisch – Harvard University

  Co-Author: David Zimmerman – Harvard University

  Co-Author: Nicole Pittoors – Harvard University
• 4:45 PM – 5:00 PM MST

  Plasticity and evolutionary transitions in individuality
  

  Presenting Author: Dinah R. Davison (she/her/hers) – Kansas State University

  Co-Author: Richard Michod – University of Ariziona
• 5:00 PM – 5:30 PM MST

  Panel discussion