Ep.28 – Flies and Termites with Hannah Davis

Planet B612

In this episode, I speak with Hannah Davis, a PhD student in Biology. We talk about her research with fruit flies, her previous research with termites, and we talk a bit about wasps, hover flies, and what it’s like to be expecting a child for the first time!

• Introduction (0:00:30)
• Why fruit flies are a model organism in science (0:01:33)
• Choosing to study insects out of curiosity (0:02:50)
• What is a “chill coma”? (0:04:01)
• Fruit fly cold tolerance traits (0:06:12)
• The hardiness of one specific fruit fly species (0:08:40)
• Research during COVID (0:09:58)
• Differences between ants and termites (0:10:35)
• Body structure between ants and termites (0:12:55)
• Termites are social cockroaches! (0:14:09)
• The caste system in termite colonies (0:15:28)
• Termites have a king! (0:16:30)
• Lab colonies are different from the wild (0:17:45)
• Watching termites is fun! (0:18:48)
• The termite soldier class (0:19:27)
• What did they feed termites in the lab? (0:22:20)
• Hannah’s research with termites (0:23:42)
• Diseases that affect termites (0:25:20)
• Pest insects are great to study! (0:26:37)
• The smell in labs! (0:28:30)
• Studying science in Germany (0:31:20)
• University differences between Canada and Germany (0:34:39)
• Differences in creatures and fauna (0:37:50)
• Talking about hornets! (0:39:45)
• A hornet’s stinger is a modified lady part! (0:40:56)
• Hannah’s love of hover flies (0:43:20)
• Mimicry in nature (0:46:25)
• The love of spiders (0:48:07)
• Hannah is expecting a baby! (0:49:12)
• Plans for the next year (0:55:34)

Hannah Davis on ResearchGate: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Hannah_Davis3

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