As the world celebrates the bicentennial of the birth of Charles Darwin, Professor Jim Smith is using his research with fruit flies to further the understanding of the impact evolution has on Speciation Cascades.  Students know Professor Jim Smith's long research fascination with fruit flies.  Smith is a member of a group of researchers who have found that biodiversity feeds on itself - evolving animals open riches for other new species.  As Smith and his colleagues have reported, "A new species of fruit fly has evolved after changing its mating behavior to favor laying eggs on apples instead of its characteristic hawthorn tree fruit host.  As these flies became genetically different from the parent hawthorn fly, so did the parasitic wasps that prey on the flies' larvae."

 

The research team led by principal investigator Jeff Feder is published as a part of the cover story in the Feb. 6 issue of Science magazine, a top industry publication published by the American Association for the Advancement of Science.  The study has received national attention and publication.

 

Read the Science Magazine Article >>