Examining North American Hover Fly (Diptera: Syrphidae) Migration Using Stable Deuterium Isotopes (δ2H) by Scott Clem
Examining North American hover fly (Diptera: Syrphidae) migration using stable deuterium isotopes (δ2H) webinar by Scott Clem which was hosted on Thursday, March 4, 2021.
Understanding the seasonal behaviors of North American hover flies (Diptera: Syrphidae) is a severely understudied yet enormously significant area of research. The adult stages of most hover fly species are important pollinators for a variety of crops while many larvae are crucial biological control agents of soft-bodied pests like aphids. Multiple hover fly species around the globe are known to exhibit continental-scale migratory behaviors, but this strategy among North American species is largely unstudied. The subject of my dissertation at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign has been to investigate the migratory strategies of North American hover flies and attempt to assign natal origins using stable deuterium isotopes (δ2H) found in wing and leg tissues. Using multiple years of isotope data, I present strong evidence of partial migration in North American aphidophagous hover flies, most notably the species Eupeodes americanus. Further, utilizing calibrated hover fly-tissue isoscapes I show that multiple individuals captured in the southeastern United States likely originated in interior Canada. Implications of this behavior in pollination, biological control, and other ecological phenomena will be briefly discussed.
Scott Clem is a 5th year, final stage doctoral candidate and USDA NIFA Predoctoral Fellow in the lab of Dr. Alex Harmon-Threatt in the Department of Entomology at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. He holds a bachelor's degree in Zoology: Conservation and Biodiversity and a master's degree in Entomology, both from Auburn University. While his dissertation is focused on the migratory ecology of Syrphidae, he has a wide variety of other research interests including insect ecology and conservation, pollination, biological control, IPM, taxonomy, collections curation, and toxicology. He is currently looking for job and post-doc opportunities.
