GARY N. DODSON, Ph.D.        

Professor
Curator - BSU Insect Collection

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Educational Background
 

University of New Mexico, Ph.D. 1985
University of Florida, M.S. 1978 
University of Tennessee, B.S. 1976

General Research & Interest Areas
 

• Behavioral ecology and evolutionary biology, especially of insects and spiders, with primary interests in sexual selection and mating system theory. 
• Plant-insect interactions pertaining to the functional ecology of plant galls at three trophic levels. 

My research program has been shaped primarily by my interests in animal behavior and ecology. While couching my projects within the framework of behavioral ecology theory, I have concentrated on insects and spiders for my study organisms because of the many advantages they provide in hypothesis testing. Invertebrates and their environments are desirable as subjects because of their great ecological diversity and relative ease of manipulation. The diversity, even within closely related groups, along with the potential for rearing and observing under controlled conditions, allows for comparative approaches often not available with other animals. The rapid generation times of most insects and spiders provides a more reasonable time frame for addressing evolutionary questions. It also provides the opportunity to examine co-evolutionary processes between insects and other rapid propagators, like some plants.

Currently, I am studying antler flies in Australasian rainforests and crab spiders in Indiana.  A summary of this research can be viewed by clicking on the hypertext for either organism.

Graduate and undergraduate students working with me have studied insects, spiders, birds, and frogs. Persons interested in graduate research involving questions in behavioral ecology may contact me.

I also serve as Curator for the Ball State University Insect Collection.
Click here for a table providing a list of specimens found in our collection as of autumn 2002. Contact me if you have an interest in viewing specimens.

Courses Currently Teaching
 

• Principles of Biology 2 (BIO 112) 
• Honors Symposium in Biology: Biodiversity (HONRS 298)
• Entomology (ZOOL 441/541) 
• Evolution (BIO 440/540) 
• Field Biology of Distant Areas 
(BIO 420/520)
• Biology of the Gulf Coast
• Field Biology of Belize
• Student Project Web Sites

Recent Publications

Yeates, D. K. and G. Dodson. 1990. The mating system of a bee fly. 1. Nonresource-based hilltop territoriality and a resource-based alternative. J. Insect Behavior 3:603-617.

Dodson, G. and D. K. Yeates. 1990. The mating system of a bee fly. 2. Factors affecting individual male success. J. Insect Behavior 3:619-636.

Dodson, G. 1991. Control of gall morphology: tephritid gall-formers (Aciurina spp.) on rabbitbrush (Chrysothamnus). Ecol. Entomol. 16:177-181.

Sivinski, J. and G. Dodson. 1992. Sexual dimorphism in Anastrepha suspensa (Loew) and other tephritid fruit flies: possible roles of developmental rate, fecundity, and dispersal. J. Insect Behavior 5:491-506.

Dodson, G. and M. Beck. 1993. Precopulatory guarding of penultimate females by male crab spiders, Misumenoides formosipes. Animal Behaviour 46:951-959.

Hastings, J. M., G. N. Dodson, and J. L. Heckman. 1994. Male perch selection and the mating system of the robber fly Promachus albifacies Williston. J. Insect Behavior 7:829-841

Pollard, S. D., M. W. Beck, and G. N. Dodson. 1995. Why do male crab spiders drink nectar? Animal Behaviour 49:1443-1448.

Wilkinson, G. and G. N. Dodson. 1997. Function and evolution of antlers and eye stalks in flies. Pp 310-328. In: The Evolution of Mating Systems in Insects and Arachnids. Choe, J.C. and B.J. Crespi (eds.). Cambridge University Press.

Dodson, G. N. 1997. The resource defense mating system of antlered flies, Phytalmia spp. Annals of the Entomological Society of America. 90: 496-504.

McClintock, W. J. and G. N. Dodson. 1999. Notes on Cyclosa insulana (Araneae; Araneidae) of Papua   New Guinea. Journal of Arachnology 27: 685-688.

Sivinski, J., Aluja, M., Dodson, G., Freidberg, A., Headrick, D., Kaneshiro, K., and  Landolt, P. 2000. Topics in the Evolution of Sexual Behavior in the Tephritidae. Pp. 751-792.  In: Fruit flies (Tephritidae): Phylogeny and Evolution of Behavior. Aluja, M. and A. Norrbom (eds.). CRC Press.

Dodson, G. N. and A. T. Schwaab. 2001 Body size, leg autotomy, and prior experience as factors in the fighting success of male crab spiders, Misumenoides formosipes. Journal of Insect Biology 14:841-855.

Dodson, G. N. 2004   A test of fluctuating asymmetry as a bioindicator of stress in antlered flies  Pacific Conservation Biology  In press.