William Conner

Professor of Biology

AAAS Fellow

B.A. University of Notre Dame
M.S. Cornell University
Ph.D. Cornell University

30 Winston Hall
(336) 758-5315
conner@wfu.edu

Go to my lab website [link]

Areas of Interest

Animal Communication, Chemical Ecology, Insect Physiology and Behavior, Bioacoustics

Research

My laboratory studies animal communication. We are interested in how communicative signals are produced, travel through the environment, how they are detected, how the receiver responds to them, and ultimately how they have evolved. The colorful tiger moths on which we concentrate provide a diversity of interaction and allow a comparative approach to many evolutionary questions. My students and I combine high-speed infrared videography, 3D-video reconstruction of behavior, classic behavioral observation, analytical chemical methods, electrophysiological techniques, and cladistic analyses to explore communication systems that are often beyond our own sensory capabilities.

We are currently studying the Bat-Tiger Moth arms race: When a tiger moth hears the echolocation sounds of an insectivorous bat they answer with a series of ultrasonic clicks. These ant-bat clicks serve several functions depending on the context. They can warn bats of a distasteful prey, deceive bats into thinking the prey is toxic, and even jam bat sonar. The more we learn the more surprises we find.

Selected Publications

Dowdy, N. J. and W. E. Conner. 2016. Acoustic aposematism and evasive action in select chemically defended Arctiine (Lepidoptera: Erebidae) species: Nonchalant or Not? PlosOne 10.1371/journal.pone.0152981

Conner, W. E. and V. K. Iyengar. 2016. Male pheromones in moths: Reproductive isolation, sexy sons, and good genes. In Pheromone Communication in Moths. Ring Carde and Jeremy Allison (eds.) University of California Press.

Iyengar, K. and W. E. Conner. 2016. Utetheisa ornatrix (Erebidae, Arctiinae): A case study of sexual selection. In Pheromone Communication in Moths. Ring Carde and Jeremy Allison (eds.) University of California Press.

Corcoran, A. J. and W. E. Conner. 2016. How moths escape bats: Predicting outcomes of predator-prey interactions. Journal of Experimental Biology doi:10.1242/jeb 137638.

Conner, W. E. 2014. An acoustic arms race. American Scientist 101:202-209.

Corcoran, A. J. and W. E. Conner. 2014. Bats jamming bats: Food competition through sonar interference. Science 346:745-747.

Corcoran, A. J., R. D. Wagner, and W. E. Conner. 2013. Optimal predator risk assessment by the sonar-jamming arctiine moth Bertholdia trigona. PlosOne 10.1371/journal.pone. 0063609.

Conner, W. E. 2013. Adaptive sounds and silences. In. Insect Hearing and Acoustic Communication. Berthold Hedwig (ed.) Sinauer.