Research Introduction

Now that I've been here a few days, it is probably a good time to explain some of the basics of the research Dr. Dyer and his graduate students are conducting before I bring you out to join me at the Pearl River Wildlife Management Area. First to give you an idea of the geography, we are close to Slidell, Louisiana, a little north of Lake Pontchartrain, about an hour East of New Orleans. One of the places we are looking for caterpillars is called Honey Island Swamp. The habitat here is bottomland hardwood swamp. Oak, sweet gum, sycamore, maple, cypress, elm and tupelo are some of the trees found here.

Now for the specifics of the study.....
The five primary goals are to:

• Document the Diversity of caterpillars (Lepidoptera) and parasitiods. Can you tell me the difference between parasites and parasitoids?
• Understand how different caterpillar defenses function against different types of natural enemies
• Examine chemical defenses in caterpillars and their host plants
• Construct models that predict the success of biological controls based on caterpillar defenses
  
• Examine the effects of climate on caterpillar-parasitoid interactions. Some believe that climate change will impact caterpillar populations. Will rare species of butterflies and moths will become extinct? Or will parasitism go down allowing caterpillar populations to increase exponentially, approaching or even surpassing their carrying capacities?

Check out the paper titled Climatic unpredictability and parasitism of caterpillars: Implications of global warming.