Michael Boots (Stirling University)
00/11/21, 13:30-
at Room No.3631 (6th floor of the 3rd building of the Faculty of Sciences)
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Insect pathogens have a number of ecological characteristics that require modifications of the general host-pathogen models if they are to be understood. Away from Kyushu, much of my theoretical work has been focussed on these systems as the majority of my empirical work has used insect pathogens. I will describe theoretical work on the importance of sub-lethal infection to the population dynamics of insect predatory parasites. Next I will describe current work on the population dynamical consequences and evolutionary significance of a recently discovered insect disease characteristic; covert infection. Finally I will show how the long distance dispersal of insects (and some other organisms) may affect the evolution of virulence. In this way I will give an overview of that part of my work focused towards insect disease and hopefully demonstrate how simplistic models can be applied to specific questions.
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