TOPTracie Ivy
Department of Biological Sciences
Normal, IL 61790-4120
Personal Information
Home Address: 1336 N. Linden St.,
Bloomington, IL 61701
Born: October 6, 1972 in Bloomington, Illinois
e-mail: tmivy@ilstu.edu
Telephone
Office: (309) 438-5438
Home: (309) 829-9850
Education
M. S. Biology, Illinois State University, May 1998
B. S. Ecology, Ethology, and Evolution, University of Illinois, May 1994
Research Interests
I have a broad interest in framing behavioral questions in an evolutionary context. My current research concerns the operation of sexual selection, specifically the evolution of courtship food gifts in insects. Speciation, mate choice, and phylogenetic systematics are future research interests.
Research Experience
Undergraduate Research, University of Illinois Independent Study
During the spring semester of 1994, I participated in the University of Illinois Undergraduate Independent Study Program. I worked with Dr. Lowell L. Getz, a mammalian ecologist who is conducting a 25-year population and behavior study of prairie and meadow voles (Microtus orchrogaster and M. pennsylvanicus, respectively). This field research took place in tallgrass prairie, bluegrass, and alfalfa fields in Central Illinois.
Graduate Research
My M.S. research explores the adaptive significance of courtship food gifts in the decorated cricket, Gryllodes sigillatus. I am currently conducting trials involving the F7 progeny that are ancestors of adult decorated crickets collected in Tucson, AZ in late September 1995.
During the summers of 1996 and 1997, I was involved in field studies examining sexual cannibalism and mechanisms of female choice in the sagebrush cricket, Cyphoderris strepitans in Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming. One project investigated the possibility of cryptic female choice while the another field study examined pre-copulatory female choice. These experiments involved collecting animals, establishing mating trials, recording data from video recordings, mark and recapture data, surgical manipulation of insects, and doing live observations of mating pairs.
I also completed a study with two fellow graduate students examining the role of post-copulatory mate guarding in the field cricket, Gryllus veletis. We tested two hypotheses for the adaptive significance of post-copulatory mate guarding, the ampulla-retention hypothesis and the rival male exclusion hypothesis.
Memberships Held in Professional Societies
Animal Behavior Society
Society for the Study of Evolution
Phi Sigma Biologial Honor Society
International Society for Behavioral Ecology
Grants and Awards
Illinois State University Graduate Student Association, 1995; Role of Spermatophylax in Decorated Crickets, $125.00
Sigma Xi, 1996; Courtship Food Gifts in Decorated Crickets: the spermatophylax as a source of water, $350.00
Phi Sigma Biological Honor Society, 1996; Courtship Food Gifts in Decorated Crickets: the spermatophylax as a source of water, $315.00
Phi Sigma Biological Honor Society, 1997; Courtship Food Gifts in Decorated Crickets: the spermatophylax as a source of water, $365.00
Illinois State University, Summer 1997; Graduate Fellowship, $2100.00
Robert R. Applegren Award for Outstanding Presentation, 1998
Papers Presented at Conferences
1997. Midwest Animal Behavior Conference, Ohio State University, Columbus, OH. Courtship feeding in decorated crickets: water as a nuptial gift?
Courses Taught
Human Anatomy and Physiology, Fall 1996 and Spring 1997
Publications
Johnson, J.C., T.M. Ivy, A-K Eggert, S.K. Sakaluk. 1997. Post copulatory female choice in the sagebrush cricket (Cyphoderris strepitans). University of Wyoming/National Park Service Research Center Annual Report. in press.
Johnson, J.C., T.M. Ivy, and J.B. Calos. in prep. Postcopulatory mate guarding in the field cricket, Gryllus veletis.
Ivy, T.M., Johnson, J.C., and S.K. Sakaluk. Submitted. Courtship feeding in decorated crickets provided hydration benefits to females. Animal Behaviour.
