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Seira Ashley Adams

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Seira Ashley Adams

Graduate Student

Email | seira.adams@berkeley.edu
Web | https://nature.berkeley.edu/~seira.adams/
Office | 221 Hilgard Hall
Curriculum vitae | PDF
Research area | Chemical Ecology / Animal Behavior / Evolution / Speciation

 

 

Research Interests

I am broadly interested in the mechanisms of speciation but in particular how chemical cues and behavior plays a role in the speciation and evolution of organisms. My research focuses on the adaptive radiation of Tetragnatha spiders in Hawaii and their use of chemical cues in species-species interactions as well as in species-environment interactions. Chemical cues are one of the oldest and most ubiquitous modes of communication in the tree of life yet it is severely understudied compared to more tangible communication avenues such as visual and auditory cues. Using a combination of techniques in chemical ecology, behavioral ecology, morphology, and molecular ecology I aim to understand the role of chemicals in the adaptive radiation context and investigate how it has evolved across the lineage.

Prior to joining the Gillespie lab I worked with Dr. Douglass Morse at Brown University on the mating behavior of the parasitoid wasp, Alabagrus texanus. Using field manipulation techniques we investigated the mechanisms of mate choice in freshly emerged virgin female parasitoid wasps. When females emerge, males are attracted from a distance presumably by chemical cues and swarms the female, tackling and mounting her to be the one to mate. Females only mate once in her lifetime, however not all freshly emerged virgin females choose to mate with a male. This work was published in Animal Behaviour and can be read here -> PDF

To learn more about me and the projects I am working on, please visit my website!

Current Projects:

– Evolution of chemical species recognition cues in Tetragnatha spiders
– Use of chemical cues in substrate choice
– Role of venom in jaw locking during mating
– Evolution of web loss or reduction in Tetragnatha spiders
– The Tetragnatha spiders of the Ogasawara Islands
– Impacts of invasive ginger on the native arthropod community of Hawaii

 

Publications

Adams, SA & Morse, DH 2014. Condition-dependent mate choice of a parasitoid wasp in the field. Animal Behaviour 88:221-232. PDF