Infected Fire Pink (Silene virginica: photographs by J. Antonovics)

Using spatially explicit, network-based models to predict the spread of a common fungal pathogen in a native wildflower population, the authors were able to predict the number of new infections two seasons in advance with almost 75% accuracy. Understanding the consequences of host variation in disease spread may provide insights for improving the control of infectious disease outbreaks.

Featured in New York Times
"Tongue orchids' sexual guile: Utterly convincing" July 15, 2008
Orchid Sexual Deceit Provokes Ejaculation
A. C. Gaskett, C. G. Winnick, M. E. Herberstein
"The discovery that orchids can induce such an extreme response is more than just bizarre natural history, because biologists have always assumed that the sexual misrepresentations of orchids were harmless to the duped males, no more than a comical exercise in frustration.Yet the study, published last month in The American Naturalist, suggests a potentially huge cost to the wasps."

Featured in Reuters
"Sexy orchids do more than embarrass wasps?" May 8, 2008
Orchid Sexual Deceit Provokes Ejaculation
A. C. Gaskett, C. G. Winnick, and M. E. Herberstein
"Insects pollinating Australian tongue orchids (Cryptostylis species) frequently ejaculate and waste copious sperm," they wrote in a report in The American Naturalist.

Featured in Nature
"Those clever flowers" May 8, 2008
Orchid Sexual Deceit Provokes Ejaculation
A. C. Gaskett, C. G. Winnick, and M. E. Herberstein
Secondly, researchers have found just how effective orchids can be at mimicking female wasps, as a way to lure male wasps in to collect their pollen . Not only do they attract the boys (which was already known), but they also seem to excite them enough to cause an ejaculation (releasing “copious sperm” according to the report). Obviously this is a waste of time and energy for the wasps, but apparently it helps the orchids, somehow – I guess by increasing stickiness? “Orchid species provoking such extreme pollinator behavior have the highest pollination success," they report in The American Naturalist.

Featured in New York Times
"Even by Parasite Standards, These Worms Stand Out" April 8, 2008
Parasite-Induced Fruit Mimicry in a Tropical Canopy Ant
S. P. Yanoviak, M. Kaspari, R. Dudley, and G. Poinar Jr
Dissecting the ants, the researchers found that the gasters were full of hundreds of tiny eggs containing developing worms. Dr. Yanoviak and his colleagues were then able to determine the stages in the parasite-host cycle, which they describe in a paper in The American Naturalist.