Aaron Wikle, Jay Gallagher, Robin Tinghitella, and I began this project many years ago when Aaron and I were at St Ambrose. We observed that male crickets were creating percussive sounds during courtship, and vibrational communication had not been documented in this species. Five years later, we think we have answered some of the first questions about the behavior such as, how do they make the sound?, who makes the sound?, when do they do it?, and why do they do it? Check out our new paper!
Congratulations Dr. Jay Gallagher! Jay’s dissertation defense was incredible, wow! Jay and I became instant friends during our first field season together in Hawaii in 2019. Many field seasons, zoom meetings, and publications later, Jay has become one of my closest friends. He is an incredible scientist, and it has been such a joy collaborating with him. He’s heading to UC Davis for a postdoc, but I know we’ll be lifelong collaborators.
I’m so proud of Aaron Wikle for defending his impressive masters last week. Aaron began working with me as an undergraduate at St Ambrose, and, after receiving an NSF GRFP to fund his graduate work, went to DU to continue the research with Robin Tinghitella. With help Norman Lee from St Olaf, Aaron examined the receiver psychology of the eavesdropping predator in our system, the fly that kills our crickets in HI. The work was ambitious, and the results are really cool! He’ll be submitting it for publication soon so I don’t want to give anything away yet…stay tuned! Aaron is such an impressive scientist and has become an amazing friend. Congratulations Master Wikle!
Broder Lab 