Insect Science: Graduate Interdisciplinary Program

Aaron Beyerlein

Research Interests:

My primary interest is in exploring the behavioral neurobiology of insects. Specifically, I am interested in how the structure and function of the insect nervous system influence behaviors important to the insect’s ecology. Insects as varied as non-feeding moths seeking a mate and hematophagous mosquitoes seeking us each perform consistent, accurate, and successful searches for their targets, be they plant or animal. Often, they rely upon chemosensory cues detected by specialized receptors on the periphery of their nervous system in accomplishing these tasks. I hope to focus my work on this meeting of the insect and its world. Questions of interest include both the proximate—How are multiple chemosensory cues integrated in the insect CNS?—and ultimate—Are sensory receptor responses sufficient to explain observed specialist behavior in host-finding?

To further these ends, I have begun a first research rotation in the Hildebrand lab, joining an ongoing project studying the function of floral CO2 as a possible olfactory signal of floral quality which may actively influence the foraging behavior of hawkmoth pollinators in the night-blooming desert flower Datura wrightii. I hope to combine behavioral investigations of nectar foraging with physiological studies of olfactory sensory reception in hawkmoths in order to elucidate the sensory abilities which may (or may not) optimize nectar foraging for the hawkmoth, and thus pollination for the flower.

Aaron Beyerlein

Research Interests:

The Graduate Interdisciplinary Program in Insect Science