Opportunity Details

Details about the opportunity you selected and the mentor are shown below. It is your responsibility to contact the mentor to discuss collaborating with them this summer. If your mentor invites you to submit an application, you can access that from the front page of this site. Upon completion of the application, it will be sent to the mentor for approval before being passed on to the Summer Scholar Selection Committee, which will make the decisions.

Faculty Information

Francie Chew

fchew@tufts.edu

Professor of Biology

P: (617) 627-3189

F: (617) 627-3805

Address:

Dept. of Biology
Tufts University

Medford, MA 02155

Affiliated Institutions:

Arts and Sciences

Associated Departments:

Biology

American Studies

Web Sites:

http://ase.tufts.edu/biology/faculty/chew/

Opportunity:

Ecology: Nutrition & Sexual Selection

Summary:

Latent effects of nutrition on sexual selection in cabbage butterflies Latent effects are experiences that occur early in an individual's life that may later affect fitness outcomes. As herbivores, cabbage butterflies assimilate as caterpillars all the nitrogen they will use as adults. For females this includes the provision of protein for egg yolks; for males this includes not only a protein-rich spermatophore given as a "nuptial gift" by the male to the female at mating, but also nitrogen for white wing pigments that are believed to contribute to a male's sexual attractiveness. This project will examine effects of limited larval nitrogen on mating behavior and follow-up on earlier experiments showing that males reared on nitrogen-deficient diets have nitrogen-poor spermatophores compared to males reared with normal levels of nitrogen in the diet. some field work in Boston and western MA, some weekend work.

Contact Via:

E-mail

What is the timeframe for this research opportunity?

summer 2009

Prerequisities for students?

Biology 14 or equivalent and interest in working with butterflies, caterpillars (insects)

Responsibilities for students?

Assist design of experiment and its implementation; assist fieldwork to obtain butterflies.

Area(s) of Research:

nutritional ecology

nitrogen allocation

ecology

sexual selection

life history phenomena