Myron P. Zalucki

Last updated

Myron Philip Zalucki
Born (1954-05-26) May 26, 1954 (age 69)
Alma mater Australian National University, Griffith University
Scientific career
Fields Entomology
Institutions University of Queensland
Website biological-sciences.uq.edu.au/profile/489/myron-zalucki

Myron P. Zalucki (pronounced Meron; born 26 May 1954) is an Australian professor emeritus of entomology at the University of Queensland (UQ). [1] Zalucki is a Fellow of the Entomological Society of America, [2] [3] a member and secretary of the Council of the International Congresses of Entomology, [4] and a co-editor of the Annual Review of Entomology . [5]

Contents

Early life and education

Myron Philip Zalucki [6] was born on 26 May 1954 in Canberra, Australia. [2]

Zalucki attended Australian National University (ANU) in Canberra, Australia, receiving his B.Sc. (first class honours) in zoology in 1976. He then attended Griffith University in Brisbane, Australia, earning his Ph.D. in ecology in 1982. [6]

Career

Zalucki joined the Department of Entomology at the University of Queensland (UQ) with a temporary position in 1981. He reached the rank of full professor in the School of Biological Sciences at the University of Queensland in 2001. [2]

Research

Zalucki is internationally recognized for his work on insect-plant interactions, primarily in members of the order Lepidoptera including monarch butterflies (Danaus plexippus) and pests such as Helicoverpa armigera in the family Noctuidae , and Diamondback moth (Plutella xylostella). [2] He has also studied fruit flies. [7] His laboratory carries out field research and laboratory experiments to better understand the ecology of insects. [2]

As an insect ecologist he uses ecosystem models [8] such as ecological niche modelling [9] to understand and predict the behavior of insect populations as an ecological system, and the underlying processes that influence them. [8] He often uses Monarch butterflies and milkweed as a model study system. [6]

Zalucki explores issues such as the spatial characteristics of milkweed planting and their impact on monarch butterfly movement and egg-laying; the influence of weather patterns on migration; and the impact of spatial-temporal climatic variability. He is known for incorporating movement patterns and behavior into agent-based models. [8] Zalucki has also studied oviposition behaviour and the interactions of oviposition, landscape characteristics, climate, and learning, with caterpillar survival, insect abundance and species distribution. [6]

Awards

Related Research Articles

<i>Asclepias tuberosa</i> Species of flowering plant

Asclepias tuberosa, commonly known as butterfly weed, is a species of milkweed native to eastern and southwestern North America. It is commonly known as butterfly weed because of the butterflies that are attracted to the plant by its color and its copious production of nectar.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Monarch butterfly</span> Milkweed butterfly in the family Nymphalidae

The monarch butterfly or simply monarch is a milkweed butterfly in the family Nymphalidae. Other common names, depending on region, include milkweed, common tiger, wanderer, and black-veined brown. It is amongst the most familiar of North American butterflies and an iconic pollinator, although it is not an especially effective pollinator of milkweeds. Its wings feature an easily recognizable black, orange, and white pattern, with a wingspan of 8.9–10.2 cm (3.5–4.0 in). A Müllerian mimic, the viceroy butterfly, is similar in color and pattern, but is markedly smaller and has an extra black stripe across each hindwing.

<i>Asclepias</i> Genus of flowering plants

Asclepias is a genus of herbaceous, perennial, flowering plants known as milkweeds, named for their latex, a milky substance containing cardiac glycosides termed cardenolides, exuded where cells are damaged. Most species are toxic to humans and many other species, primarily due to the presence of cardenolides. However, as with many such plants, some species feed upon them or from them. The most notable of them is the monarch butterfly, which uses and requires certain milkweeds as host plants for their larvae.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fauna of New Zealand</span> Animal species of New Zealand

The animals of New Zealand, part of its biota, have an unusual history because, before the arrival of humans, less than 900 years ago, the country was mostly free of mammals, except those that could swim there or fly there (bats), though as recently as the Miocene, it was home to the terrestrial Saint Bathans mammal, implying that mammals had been present since the island had broken away from other landmasses. The absence of mammals meant that all of the ecological niches occupied by mammals elsewhere were occupied instead by either insects or birds, leading to an unusually large number of flightless birds, including the kiwi, the weka, the moa, the takahē, and the kakapo.

<i>Asclepias syriaca</i> Species of flowering plant

Asclepias syriaca, commonly called common milkweed, butterfly flower, silkweed, silky swallow-wort, and Virginia silkweed, is a species of flowering plant. It is native to southern Canada and much of the United States east of the Rocky Mountains, excluding the drier parts of the prairies. It is in the genus Asclepias, the milkweeds. It grows in sandy soils as well as other kinds of soils in sunny areas.

<i>Asclepias incarnata</i> Species of flowering plant

Asclepias incarnata, the swamp milkweed, rose milkweed, rose milkflower, swamp silkweed, or white Indian hemp, is a herbaceous perennial plant species native to North America. It grows in damp through wet soils and also is cultivated as a garden plant for its flowers, which attract butterflies and other pollinators with nectar. Like most other milkweeds, it has latex containing toxic chemicals, a characteristic that repels insects and other herbivorous animals.

Herbivores are dependent on plants for food, and have coevolved mechanisms to obtain this food despite the evolution of a diverse arsenal of plant defenses against herbivory. Herbivore adaptations to plant defense have been likened to "offensive traits" and consist of those traits that allow for increased feeding and use of a host. Plants, on the other hand, protect their resources for use in growth and reproduction, by limiting the ability of herbivores to eat them. Relationships between herbivores and their host plants often results in reciprocal evolutionary change. When a herbivore eats a plant it selects for plants that can mount a defensive response, whether the response is incorporated biochemically or physically, or induced as a counterattack. In cases where this relationship demonstrates "specificity", and "reciprocity", the species are thought to have coevolved. The escape and radiation mechanisms for coevolution, presents the idea that adaptations in herbivores and their host plants, has been the driving force behind speciation. The coevolution that occurs between plants and herbivores that ultimately results in the speciation of both can be further explained by the Red Queen hypothesis. This hypothesis states that competitive success and failure evolve back and forth through organizational learning. The act of an organism facing competition with another organism ultimately leads to an increase in the organism's performance due to selection. This increase in competitive success then forces the competing organism to increase its performance through selection as well, thus creating an "arms race" between the two species. Herbivores evolve due to plant defenses because plants must increase their competitive performance first due to herbivore competitive success.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Butterfly gardening</span> Gardening to benefit butterflies

Butterfly gardening is a way to create, improve, and maintain habitat for lepidopterans including butterflies, skippers, and moths. Butterflies have four distinct life stages—egg, larva, chrysalis, and adult. In order to support and sustain butterfly populations, an ideal butterfly garden contains habitat for each life stage.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Insect migration</span> Seasonal movement of insects

Insect migration is the seasonal movement of insects, particularly those by species of dragonflies, beetles, butterflies and moths. The distance can vary with species and in most cases, these movements involve large numbers of individuals. In some cases, the individuals that migrate in one direction may not return and the next generation may instead migrate in the opposite direction. This is a significant difference from bird migration.

<i>Asclepias curassavica</i> Species of flowering plant

Asclepias curassavica, commonly known as tropical milkweed, is a flowering plant species of the milkweed genus, Asclepias. It is native to the American tropics and has a pantropical distribution as an introduced species. Other common names include bloodflower or blood flower, cotton bush, hierba de la cucaracha, Mexican butterfly weed, redhead, scarlet milkweed, and wild ipecacuanha.

<i>Annual Review of Entomology</i> Academic journal

The Annual Review of Entomology is a peer-reviewed academic journal that publishes review articles about entomology, the study of insects. First published in 1956 from a collaboration between the Entomological Society of America and Annual Reviews, its longest-serving editors are Thomas E. Mittler (1967–1997) and May Berenbaum (1998–2018). As of 2023, Annual Review of Entomology is being published as open access, under the Subscribe to Open model. As of 2023, Journal Citation Reports gives the journal a 2022 impact factor of 23.8, ranking it first of 100 journals in the category "Entomology".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lepidoptera migration</span>

Many populations of Lepidoptera migrate, sometimes long distances, to and from areas which are only suitable for part of the year. Lepidopterans migrate on all continents except Antarctica, including from or within subtropical and tropical areas. By migrating, these species can avoid unfavorable circumstances, including weather, food shortage, or over-population. In some lepidopteran species, all individuals migrate; in others, only some migrate.

<i>Asclepias viridis</i> Species of plant

Asclepias viridis is a species of milkweed, a plant in the dogbane family known by the common names green milkweed, green antelopehorn and spider milkweed. The Latin word viridis means green. The plant is native to the midwestern, south central and southeastern United States, as well as to the southeastern portion of the western United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anurag Agrawal (ecologist)</span> American ecologist and biologist (born 1972)

Anurag Agrawal is an American professor of ecology, evolutionary biology, and entomology who has written over a 150 peer-reviewed articles, which earned him an h-index of 92. He is the author of a popular science book, Monarchs and Milkweeds from Princeton University Press, and is currently the James Alfred Perkins Professor of Environmental Studies at Cornell University.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Monarch butterfly migration</span> Migrations, mainly across North America

Monarch butterfly migration is the phenomenon, mainly across North America, where the subspecies Danaus plexippus plexippus migrates each summer and autumn to and from overwintering sites on the West Coast of California or mountainous sites in Central Mexico. Other subspecies perform minor migrations or none at all. This massive movement of butterflies has been called "one of the most spectacular natural phenomena in the world".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Karen Oberhauser</span> Research entomologist

Karen Suzanne Oberhauser is an American conservation biologist who specializies in monarch butterflies.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Elizabeth Nesta Marks</span> Australian entomologist

Elizabeth Nesta "Pat" Marks was an Australian entomologist who described 38 new mosquito species, as well as new species of fruit flies, bugs, cockroaches and ticks. She had a PhD in insect physiology from the University of Cambridge and was a member of the Royal Entomological Society of London.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lincoln Brower</span> American entomologist (1931–2018)

Lincoln Pierson Brower was an American entomologist and ecologist, known for his work on monarch butterflies through six decades, including on their automimicry, chemical ecology and conservation. G. Pasteur called this Browerian mimicry, after Lincoln and his first wife Jane Van Zandt Brower.

John Norton Thompson is an American evolutionary biologist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kleptopharmacophagy</span> Act of stealing chemical compounds for consumption

Kleptopharmacophagy is a term used for describing the ecological relationship between two different organisms, where the first is stealing the second's chemical compounds and consuming them. This scientific term was proposed by Australian, Singaporean, and American biologists in September 2021 in an article that was published in the journal Ecology by the Ecological Society of America. The phenomenon was first noticed in milkweed butterflies that were attacking caterpillars and drinking their internal liquid, proposedly to obtain toxic alkaloids used for defense, as well as for mating purposes.

References

  1. "Emeritus Professor Myron Zalucki". University of Queensland. 1 February 2022. Retrieved 31 January 2022.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Myron P. Zalucki, ESA Fellow (2014)". Entomological Society of America. Retrieved 31 January 2022.
  3. 1 2 3 Fletcher, Murray J.; Monteith, Geoff B. (2016). "History of the Australian entomological society". Austral Entomology. 55 (2): 121–131. doi: 10.1111/aen.12196 . ISSN   2052-1758. S2CID   87556193 . Retrieved 31 January 2022.
  4. 1 2 "ICE Council – ICE2020 Helsinki". International Congresses of Entomology. Retrieved 31 January 2022.
  5. "Co-editors of the Annual Review of Entomology". Annual Reviews. Retrieved 25 January 2022.
  6. 1 2 3 4 "Myron Philip Zalucki". Entomological Society of America. Retrieved 31 January 2022.
  7. "Obituary: Gordon Harry Sydney Hooper" (PDF). Fruit Fly News. No. 49. April 2020. p. 1. Retrieved 31 January 2022.
  8. 1 2 3 Grant, Tyler J.; Bradbury, Steven P. (2019). "The Role of Modeling in Monarch Butterfly Research and Conservation". Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution. 7. doi: 10.3389/fevo.2019.00197 . ISSN   2296-701X.
  9. Batalden, Rebecca V.; Oberhauser, Karen; Peterson, A. Townsend (1 December 2007). "Ecological Niches in Sequential Generations of Eastern North American Monarch Butterflies (Lepidoptera: Danaidae): The Ecology of Migration and Likely Climate Change Implications". Environmental Entomology. 36 (6): 1365–1373. doi: 10.1603/0046-225X(2007)36[1365:ENISGO]2.0.CO;2 . ISSN   0046-225X. PMID   18284764. S2CID   5842016 . Retrieved 31 January 2022.
  10. Garvey, Kathy Keatley (30 July 2014). "Three of the 10 New ESA Fellows Received Their Doctorates in Entomology from UC Davis". Entomology and Nematology News. Retrieved 31 January 2022.