Gary Chang, Ph.D.

Research interests
Insect ecology and biological control

I will be continuing a project on wool-carder bees and their interactions with other species. Some male wool-carder bees are territorial, and can be observed fighting and chasing each other away from flowers on campus. They will also attack other species of bees, including honey bees and bumble bees. Wool-carder bees are relatively new to the area, and the details of their interactions are not well known. For example, are male wool-carder bees more likely to attack particular types of bees, and will other bees learn to avoid the territories of wool-carder bees? In addition to collecting data through field observations, I am developing a mathematical model to analyze more general hypotheses about how environmental risks and rewards affect the behaviors of bees and other pollinators. Most of the work will be on analyzing the data and model.