Biological Sciences Colloquium: Dr. Ignacio Escalante

Dr. Ignacio Escalante, Assistant Professor of Biological Sciences at University of Illinois-Chicago, will be presenting a talk about his work entitled “Bouncing together: behavioral and biomechanical defenses in Neotropical arachnids.”

The abstract is as follows:

Animals have evolved various defenses against predation. My research focuses on animals that use multiple lines of defense—how they evolve, what their costs are, and whether they are effective in multiple contexts. I will present three case studies of an understudied arachnid group, Opiliones (“daddy long-legs”): (1) They often lose legs voluntarily to escape from predators. I found that leg loss brings consequences for locomotor performance, from which they can recover. (2) They perform a quick upand-down movement (bobbing). I found that bobbing can serve as an anti-predator strategy. (3) I explore their multispecies aggregation behavior. These aggregations are highly variable in terms of species composition and the individuals present. My work shows that they use shared and unique signals to coordinate this defensive strategy. Overall, these studies illustrate the diversity of defensive strategies that animals may evolve to counter predation.

The presentation will begin at 3:00 PM in Lapham Hall N101, preceded by an informal reception from 2:45 – 3:00PM.