Melanie O'Day
| Program: | Ph.D. |
| Major Professor: | Bradley Mullens |
| E-Mail: | |
| Location: | 268 Ent |
| Phone (office): | (951) 827-4336 |
| Web Site: |  |
Education
- B.S. Biology & minor in Chemistry Indiana University 2006
Research Focus
The commonality of my research projects is applying fundamental ecological concepts to parasites. My undergraduate work looked at intraspecific competition among nematode offspring within an insect host cadaver. I found that as resources were strained within the dead host, more offspring were produced, but they were smaller. I found that the shorter offspring had reduced fitness, being less likely to locate and successfully infect a new insect host. My current work in the Mullens lab is a study to observe the interspecific interactions between lice and mites, ectoparasites of birds. A previous Master's student, Brian Chen, found that the lice negatively impacted mite populations on a host. My goal is to find the interactions between the ectoparasites that cause this mite population crash.