The National Science Foundation (NSF) awarded a $639,125 Project Grant under the Biological Sciences program (CFDA 47.074) to The University of Iowa. The grant, effective August 1, 2024 through July 31, 2028, supports collaborative research to understand how gall-forming insects escape diverse populations of parasitic wasps and how parasitic wasps adapt to new hosts over time. The research involves studying hundreds of insect species that specialize on oak trees, documenting the parasitic wasps that attack each insect host, and inferring the evolutionary histories and ecological factors that influence galler-parasite interactions. The project will produce new scientific discoveries, add data to a public-facing website, integrate findings into a Detroit-based urban ecology museum, and incorporate the research into undergraduate courses. The grant will also train a postdoctoral scholar, three graduate students, and several undergraduates.
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