E10: Floria Mora-Kepfer Uy on Insect Colonies, Flexible Societies, and Diversity in STEM

Episode Summary:
 
In this episode, Amy speaks with Floria Mora-Kepfer Uy (@AvispaTica), a Research Assistant Professor and Assistant Professor of Instruction in the Department of Biology at the University of Rochester.

They discuss the selection pressures that favor the evolution of sociality, how brain architecture varies among individuals with different social roles, and brood parasitism in a social insect. Then, after the break they talk about tropical fieldwork, mentoring, and diversity in STEM. They close by discussing the exciting future of animal behavior research.

This week's Two-Minute Takeaway comes from Bishwarup Paul (@digantabiz), a Research Associate at the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research in Kolkata. To learn more about his work on opportunistic brood theft in ants, check out his recent paper in Scientific Reports, Opportunistic brood theft in the context of colony relocation in an Indian queenless ant.

The Bonus Material at the end of this episode comes from Elana Geary, an undergraduate in Biology at Towson University. 

Select papers relevant to today's show:

1. Context-dependent acceptance of non-nestmates in a primitively eusocial insect
2. Dynamic neurogenomic responses to social interactions and dominance outcomes in female paper wasps 
3. Differential investment in visual and olfactory brain regions is linked to the sensory needs of a wasp social parasite and its host

Credits:

 The Animal Behavior Podcast is created by Matthew Zipple (@MatthewZipple) and Amy Strauss (@avstrauss). If you like what you heard, please subscribe wherever you’re listening now, leave us a rating or review, and share us with your friends and colleagues.

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