Joan Herbers Laboratory - Research Statement: Joan Herbers

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My laboratory studies insect ecology, behavior, and genetics. Students have worked on foraging behavior, sex ratio evolution, sociogenetics, and coevolution. The major projects currently underway focus on the behavioral ecology and coevolution of slave-making ants. We are studying several species of these highly-specialized insects that parasitize the social organization of other species. In eastern North America, the slavemaking ant Protomognathus americanus enslaves three host species of Temnothorax (formerly Leptothorax) ants. Comparative studies of the interactions in three geographic locations show clearly that the impact of the social parasite on its hosts varies tremendously in time and space. Frequency of raiding, destructiveness of slave raids, and aggression by hosts varies strongly, leading to different coevolutionary dynamics in different sites. We are just starting parallel studies on how the slavemaker Temnothorax duloticus affects its host T. curvispinosus.

A second project focuses on how two different slavemakers in western North American interact with a common host. Both Polyergus breviceps and Formica sanguinea are ants that parasitize the same ant host, Formica argentea. The Polyergus slavemakers are distantly related to their hosts and have evolved to become prudent parasites relative to the Formica slavemaker that is closely related to its host. By studying behavioral interactions and genetic consequences of raiding activity, we can estimate the strength of selection exerted by the slavemakers on their hosts, as well as the reverse. Thus these systems are excellent models for examining how interactions between parasites and hosts co-evolve.