Our new paper, led by former lab technician Avigayil Lev and co-authored by lab alum Isabella Martinez, has been published today in Biology Letters. We used hemiclonal analysis to measure the fitness consequences of prolonged matings for males during matings with non-virgin/previously mated females. We found that longer matings resulted in higher competitive fertilization success for males with these previously mated females!

Our new paper, led by Isabella Martinez, has been published today in Animal Behaviour. We used hemiclonal analysis to sample naturally occurring variation in male mating duration and measure the fitness consequences of prolonged matings for both males and females. We found that longer matings resulted in a paternity advantage for males, but lowered the total number of offspring produced by females, indicating sexual conflict over this behavior. 
Read Barnard's coverage of this work here.

Our new paper is out today in Evolution! This work was led by our lab technician, Avigayil Lev, and co-authored by lab alum (and current biology staff member) Abigail Gutierrez and undergrad Aanya Srinivasan. Although male mate choice is typically thought to evolve because of the direct fitness benefits that males receive from being choosy (in the form of more offspring sired), we show that male mate choice can also confer ​indirect fitness benefits (in the form of more successful daughters) that reinforce these direct benefits. 
Check out Barnard's coverage of this work here.

Our new paper, coauthored by lab alums Grace Freed ('23), Isabella Martinez ('24), Avigayil Lev ('22 and current lab technician), and Ana-Maria Anthony Cuadrado ('20), has been published today in Ecology and Evolution! In this paper, we use hemiclonal analysis to document additive genetic variation in both pre-copulatory and post-copulatory components of male mate choice for large females! This project was a massive undertaking in which we measured male mate choice for over 1300 fruit flies in total! 
Check out Barnard's coverage of this work here.

Ali presented Isabella Martinez's senior thesis research today at the 3rd Joint Congress on Evolutionary Biology in Montreal, Canada. Izzie investigated the fitness consequences of variation in mating duration for both males and females, finding evidence for sexual conflict over mating duration. Click here to see a recording of the presentation!

Our new paper, authored by former lab technician Olivia Anastasio and lab alum Chelsea Sinclair ('21), has been published in Evolution. Males of many species, including fruit flies, invest more reproductive resources when they mate with high-quality females, a process known as "cryptic male mate choice". In this paper, we show that this increased male investment in high-quality females reduces their paternity success in their future matings! This cost can limits male reproductive potential over their lifetime. Also see Barnard's news piece on our paper!

Ali received the Barnard Presidential Research Award for 2022-2023! This grant provides funding for us to investigate the potential for evolutionary divergence in male mate choice!

Our new paper, authored by lab alums Chelsea Sinclair ('21) and Suriya Lisa ('19), has been published in Ecology and Evolution. In this paper, we show that sexually inexperienced males prefer to court larger females over smaller females, and that the strength of this preference was unaffected by previous experience mating with, or being rejected by, small or large females. Also check out Barnard's news piece on our paper!

Today is a big day for the lab! After 9 months of fly care in my garage lab, all of our flies are finally being cared for on campus where they belong! Thanks to our lab tech, Olivia, for making this happen. To mark the occasion, please enjoy this artwork provided by lab alum Karolina Szenkiel!

Well, here's another milestone in a year of strange milestones. Today is the 200th day that I've been maintaining the flies at home. The garage lab has come a long way in 200 days, and the flies (and I) are doing as well as can be expected. Hoping it won't be too much longer before the flies can move back to the lab!

Well, this past week has been another *interesting* one for our flies! We got hit hard by Tropical Storm Isaias last Tuesday and lost power for 6 full days. Bench work was done by headlamp, and microscope work was done by opening the garage door and using battery operated book lights. When the heat advisory hit this week, the temperature in our house got dangerous for the flies, so I had to evacuate them to a friend's apartment with air conditioning to keep them cool. Fortunately, the power came back on (eventually) and now the flies are happy and safe back in my house (very much looking forward to when they can be happy and safe back in the lab!)

I've now moved into the next "phase" of maintaining the flies at home to get ready for what will hopefully be a less disruptive Fall. The past month I've started cooking fly food in my garage, and this week I set up behavioral observations in my living room. Even baby steps are a win right now!

Today marks the 100th day that I've been maintaining our fruit fly populations at home. The garage lab has been upgraded with a new table, and I now cook fly food at home, so the flies and I are in a pretty good groove!