Marty Condon to talk about flies from the Amazon to Iowa

Marty Condon, professor of biology, will talk about  “Flies and More Flies: Diversity From the Tropics to our Own Backyards”  at the Science Interest Group lecture at 11:10 a.m. on March 22 in West Science.

Condon will address why there are so many species of insects. Insects that feed on plants are model systems for studies of diversity and diversification. Although diversity is highest in the tropics, the rate of diversification may be at least as high in the temperate zone. This talk will present evidence from the Amazon to Mount Vernon, Iowa.

Condon, whose research has long focused on tropical flies, has had her work published in Science magazine and in 2010 she got a grant from the National Science Foundation to study the diversity of flies.

A monograph on the subject was published in 2010, as well.

Condon has discovered dozens of species of flies, and some of them now bear familiar names. She’s named three species after students who helped her discover them and another after Cornell itself, because she credits the college’s One Course At A Time calendar with enabling her to do research.