People

Katherine Odanaka

Postdoc

I am a melittologist specializing in brood parasitic bees, particularly those in the diverse genus Nomada. I have been working with bees since 2012 and have researched bee communities in a variety of ecosystems (shortgrass prairie, commercial blueberry, silvopasture stands). My research interests lie at the intersection of evolution, ecology, behavior, and chemistry and draws from each to answer questions pertaining to how brood parasitism became so common and successful within bees. Currently, my research explores how the host-parasite bond dictates brood parasite behavior when directly interacting with hosts and whether hosts or parasites can detect and respond to each other using chemical signals. Additionally, using a mix of next generation sequencing and trait analyses my colleague (Nathalia Florez) and I are exploring why the tribes Protepeolini, Epeoloidini, and Isepeolini employ an open cell parasitism strategy while their closest relatives only attack closed host cells.  

I earned my MS at the University of New Hampshire examining the impacts of agriculture and silvopasture practices on the phylogenetic diversity of bee communities. I continued my phylogenetic work during my Ph.D in Biology at York University in Toronto, Canada where I focussed on the evolution and global biogeography of Nomada and the population genetics of the North American endemic species Nomada articulata.