Email Rufus at: rufus@ag.arizona.edu
Position: Research Associate
Affiliation(s): Department of Entomology
Current Project(s): My research focus is on the factors which promote migratory behaviors in the sweetpotato whitefly, Bemisia tabaci. I am using laboratory, greenhouse and field based studies to investigate the influence of host-plant quality on flight parameters, by providing the animals with host plants of different quality and then recording their subsequent flight behavior in a vertical flight chamber. The aerial distribution of these insects is also of interest, since this will have a major impact on their ability to disperse long distances in air currents. Summer field experiments at the Yuma Valley Agriculture Center in Yuma, Arizona will provide valuable data on the patterns of dispersal of these small, but damaging insects.
General Research Interests: Insect flight and migration, insect-plant interactions, chemical ecology, behavior, integrated pest management.
Recent Publications
Isaacs, R., Hardie, J., Hick, A.J., Smart, L.E. and Wadhams, L.J. (1992). Responses of the black bean aphid, Aphis fabae, to a non-host plant volatile in laboratory and field. In: Proc.8th Int. Symp. Insect-Plant Relationships, Eds: S.B.J. Menken, J.H. Visser, P. Harrewijn. pp. 112-114. Kluwer Academic, Dordrecht.
Isaacs, R., Hardie, J., Hick, A.J., Pye, B.J., Smart, L.E., Wadhams, L.J. and Woodcock, C.M. (1993). Behavioural responses of Aphis fabae to isothiocyanates in laboratory and field. Pesticide Science, 39, 349-355.
Hardie, J., Isaacs, R., Nazzi, F., Powell, W., Wadhams, L.J. & Woodcock, C.M. (1994). Electroantennogram and olfactometer responses of aphid parasitoids to nepetalactone, a component of aphid sex pheromones. In: Behavioural Ecology, Augmentation and Enhancement of Aphidophaga. Proc. 5th Int. Symp. Global IOBC Working Group: Ecology and Aphidophaga.
Hardie, J., Isaacs, R., Pickett, J.A., Wadhams, L.J. and Woodcock, C.M. (1994). Methyl salicylate and (-)-(1R,5S)-myrtenal are plant-derived repellents for black bean aphid, Aphis fabae Scop. (Homoptera, Aphididae). Journal of Chemical Ecology 20, 2847- 2855.
Isaacs, R. (1995). Studies on the chemical ecology of the black bean aphid, Aphis fabae. PhD Thesis, University of London. 218 pp.
Isaacs, R., Gillman, M., Johnston, M., Marsh, F. & Wood, B.C.
(in press). Size structure of a dominant neotropical forest tree
species and examination of factors affecting its regeneration. J.
Tropical Ecology.
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