Biotremology: Physiology, Ecology, and Evolution

Author Biography

Peggy S. M. Hill studied at the University of Tulsa, Oklahoma, USA, where she was broadly trained in organismic and environmental biology and specifically trained in community and evolutionary ecology. She taught secondary science for 10 years before returning to the University as an Instructor. She earned her PhD from the University of Oklahoma, specializing in behavioral and physiological ecology, but most importantly began exploring vibrational behavior in molecrickets. Her 2008 book, Vibrational Communication in Animals, helped introduce her to others with interests in what would become the discipline of biotremology and she has supported the biotremology community since then as editor and author. She retired as a Professor of Biological Science in 2018, and continues to write and study as a Professor Emerita of the University of Tulsa. Valerio Mazzoni is responsible for the Plant Protection research unit in the Research and InnovationCentre of Fondazione Edmund Mach in Trentino, Italy. His research activity involves several aspects of behavioral entomology, with emphasis on insect communication and in particular, biotremology. The characteristics of the communication signals, their transmission through plant tissues and the related insect behavior are investigated in the context of agroecosystems. The goal is to invent and develop innovative methods of pest control through behavioral manipulation, such as the vibrational mating disruption to control leafhoppers. In 2016 and 2018 he was convener of the first two editions of the World Symposium of Biotremology, both organized in Trentino region. Nataša Stritih-Peljhan received her BS, MS and PhD degrees at the University of Ljubljana, after being broadly trained in most sub-disciplines of biology at the undergraduate level. During her MS and PhD studies, she specialised in neurophysiology, neuroanatomy and sensory evolution, in a tight collaboration with Georg-August University in Göttingen. She works at the National Institute of Biology in Ljubljana, focusing her research on various aspects of vibrational behaviour and sensory detection of vibration stimuli, using non-hearing cave crickets as a model. She also has experience in chemical ecology, having contributed to research of pheromone communication in various insect groups. Meta Virant-Doberlet received her PhD from the University of Ljubljana. Having initially trained as an insect neurobiologist at the Max Planck Institute for Behavioural Physiology in Seewiesen, she is now focusing her research on various aspects of arthropod vibrational communication. She has been a Marie Curie fellow at Cardiff University and is now Head of the Department of Organisms and Ecosystems Research at the National Institute of Biology in Ljubljana, where she uses leafhoppers as a model for studying interactions shaping the evolution of thevibrational communication channel. Andreas Wessel was trained in evolutionary and behavioral biology at the University of Vienna and Humboldt University Berlin. He currently works in Berlin, Germany, as an independent researcher and is affiliated with the Museum of Natural History as a guest researcher. His research focus is on cave planthoppers as models for vibrational communication as well as adaptation to extreme environments and rapid speciation. Furthermore, he publishes frequently on the history and philosophy of biology, and writes for various newspapers and magazines.