Emma Despland, PhD

Professor, Biology

Biography    Teaching activities    Research activities    Publications    Artistic performances   

Education

Research interests

My research examines plant-insect interactions at the level of the individual organism, focusing on behaviour, nutrition and chemical ecology.

I investigate questions about the roles of social relationships with conspecifics and of trophic relationships with food plants and natural enemies. My focus is on outbreaking pest insects, both in Canada (Forest Tent Caterpillar and Spruce Budworm) and internationally (desert locust), and in conservation in the Montreal urban landscape and in the neotropics.

Invertebrate Diversity BIOL 337
Techniques in Ecology BIOL 450

Despland, E., Gervais, D. and Morcos, L. (2017) Double allomimesis of advancing and retreating individuals maintains cohesion in exploring groups of nomadic caterpillars. Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology, 71(3).0.

Despland, E. (2014) Butterflies of the high-altitude Atacama desert: Habitat use and conservation. Frontiers in Genetics, 5

Despland, E. (2013) Plasticity of collective behavior in a nomadic early spring folivore. Frontiers in Physiology, 4(54):1-11.

Colasurdo, N., Gélinas, Y. and Despland, E. (2009) Larval nutrition affects life history traits in a capital breeding moth. Journal of Experimental Biology, 212(12):1794-1800.

Buhl, J., Sumpter, D.J.T., Couzin, I.D., Hale, J.J., Despland, E., Miller, E.R. and Simpson, S.J. (2006) From disorder to order in marching locusts. Science, 312(5778):1402-1406.

Despland, E. and Simpson, S.J. (2006) Resource distribution mediates synchronization of physiological rhythms in locust groups. Proceedings of the Royal Society B-Biological Sciences, 273:1517-1522.