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RESEARCH INTERESTS
Insect behavior, ecology and evolution
Evolutionary ecology and behavior of host-parasitoid interactions
Ecology of indirect effects in ant communities
Division of labor and functional ecology of ant castes
Tropical ecology and insect biodiversity
PUBLICATIONS
Poster
Why so many cryptic species of ant-decapitating flies?
I study the behavior, ecology and evolution of ants and the
insects that interact with them. Ants comprise a diverse and
ecologically successful group that supports an even more
diverse assemblage of insects and other arthropods. I seek
to understand the behavioral and ecological characteristics
that have allowed ants to obtain ecological dominance in
many communities and how ant associates are able to exploit
these ecological dominants.
Individual behavioral specialization, or division of labor, is
central to the ecological and evolutionary success of social
specialization that presumably increases the efficiency with
which tasks are performed. However, the precise relationship
between form, function and performance has rarely been
investigated. I am interested in two questions concerning
the structural diversity of sterile castes in ants. First, how do
the allometric relationships among caste members affect
behavioral division of labor and task performance within
colonies? Second, what evolutionary processes give rise to
various patterns of interspecific allometry in caste structure
and how do they predetermine the relationship between
structure and function? I use the techniques of comparative
behavioral analysis, bioenergetic analysis and functional
morphology to answer these questions.
A second focus of my research is the evolutionary ecology of
host-parasitoid interactions involving ants and parasitoids in
the fly family Phoridae. The Phoridae includes the only group
of parasitoids that have radiated extensively on social
insects, ants in particular. Present research centers on
patterns of host specificity and associated structural and
behavioral modifications in the parasitoids, and the nature of
defense mechanisms used by ant hosts and their
consequences to hosts. Questions motivating this research
include: Why do some host lineages (leaf-cutting ants, army
ants) support more diverse assemblages of parasitic flies
than other host lineages of similar species richness? At what
points are the phylogenies of host and parasite lineages
congruent and at what points are they not? What ecological
or other processes cause particular instances of congruence?
How do hosts resolve conflicts between defending against
parasitoids and other colony level tasks such as resource
collection and resource defense against competing ant
species? How do these ant-parasitoid interactions modify
the structure of natural and human-mediated ant
communities in both temperate and tropical habitats? What
is the relationship between competitive dominance and
vulnerability to parasitoid attack? What roles have
parasitoids played in mediating the success (or failure) of
invasive ants such as fire ants and the Argentine ant?
Answers to these questions require a combination of
systematic, ecological and behavioral analyses and field
research in a variety of locations, including the southwestern
and southeastern United States, Brazil, Argentina, Costa Rica,
Panama and Peru.
A third focus of my research is the assessment and
conservation of insect biodiversity in tropical rain forests.
These forests are the repository for most of the Worldıs
biodiversity, and this is especially true for insects. Yet, we
know very little about how this biodiversity is distributed in
rain forests. How much diversity is found in the canopy layer
and how much is found at ground level? Is insect biodiversity
related to the structural complexity of the vegetation or
more to the taxonomic diversity of the vegetation? How do
seasonal changes in rainfall, including seasonal inundation,
affect insect biodiversity? I am studying these and related
questions in the pristine rain forests of the Tambopata-
Candamo Reserve in southeastern Peru. Using a suite of
intensive collecting techniques (e.g., Malaise traps, Winkler
funnels, intensive hand collecting), I am developing a
comprehensive catalogue of focal insect taxa in
monodominant bamboo forest and the more typical mixed
canopy forest. This will be the first comprehensive
assessment of insect biodiversity in these forests and will
help lay the foundation for more detail studies of species
interactions in the future.
SELECTED RECENT PUBLICATIONS
Brown, B. V. & D. H. Feener Jr (1995) Efficiency of insect
mass sampling for tropical biodiversity surveys.
Contributions in Science, Natural History Museum of Los
Angeles County 459:1-10.
Feener, D. H. Jr., L. F. Jacobs & J. O. Schmidt (1996)
Specialized parasitoid attracted to an alarm pheromone of
ants. Animal Behaviour 51:61-66.
Morehead, S. A. & D. H. Feener Jr. (1998) Foraging behavior
and morphology: seed selection in the harvester ant genus,
Pogonomyrmex. Oecologia 114:548-555.
Feener, D. H. Jr. & E. W. Schupp. (1998) Effect of treefall
gaps on the patchiness and species diversity of Neotropical
ant assemblages. Oecologia 116:191-201.
Brown, B. V. & D. H. Feener Jr. (1998) Parasitic phorid flies
(Diptera: Phoridae) associated with army ants (Hymenoptera:
Formicidae: Ecitoninae, Dorylinae) and their conservation
biology. Biotropica 30:482-487.
Feener, D. H. Jr. (2000) Is the assembly of ant communities
mediated by parasitoids? Oikos 90:79-88.
Morehead, S. A. & D. H. Feener Jr. (2000) An experimental
test of potential host range in the ant parasitoid Apocephalus
paraponerae (Diptera: Phoridae). Ecological Entomology
25:332-340.
Gross, N. D., S. D. Torti, D. H. Feener Jr. & P. D. Coley.
(2000) Monodominance in an African rainforest: is reduced
herbivory important? Biotropica 32:430-439.
Morehead, S. A., J. Seger, D. H. Feener Jr. & B. V. Brown
(2001) Behavioral and genetic evidence that the ant
parasitoid Apocephalus paraponerae (Diptera: Phoridae) is a
cryptic species complex. Evolutionary Ecology 3:273-284.
Morehead, S. A. & D. H. Feener Jr. (2001) Visual and
chemical cues used in host location and acceptance by a
dipteran parasitoid. Journal of Insect Behavior.
Apple, J. L. & D. H. Feener Jr. (2001) Ant attendance at
extrafloral nectaries of Passiflora: the effects of nectary
attributes and ant behavior on patterns of facultative ant-
plant mutualisms. Oecologia.
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