Nathan Havill

Cornell ash trees aim to beat back borer insects | Cornell Chronicle Cornell Botanic Gardens is collaborating with conservation partners to propagate trees resistant to emerald ash borers.

news.cornell.edu/stories/2025... #foresthealth #forestfriday

Very cool!

GBE | The Genome Sequence of the Hemlock Woolly Adelgid, Adelges tsugae Annand 1924

@bryanbrunet.bsky.social @nphavill.bsky.social et al. present the genome of the hemlock woolly adelgid, one of eastern North America's most destructive and invasive forest pests. The 216 Mbp genome is highly complete (97.7% BUSCO).

🔗 doi.org/10.1093/gbe/evaf170

#genome #evolution

Our hemlock woolly adelgid (Adelges tsugae) genome note is out! @bryanbrunet.bsky.social

academic.oup.com/gbe/article/...

How the yellow fever mosquito conquered the world Aedes aegypti further adapted to life around humans when it arrived in the Americas, study of hundreds of mosquito genomes reveals

The invasive form of Ae. #aegypti mosquito evolved within the Americas, after arriving from Africa ~320 ya. Our most recent paper is out @science.org. Years of work with collaborators all around led by J. Crawford! Great resource for the Vector Research community!.
www.science.org/content/arti...

Interested in joining our lab (dunnlab.org) as a postdoc to work on siphonophores, processes that structure diversity in the open ocean, or natural history? If so, please reach out to discuss a nomination for the Donnelley Postdoctoral Fellowship - yibs.yale.edu/donnelley-fe...

Join us! The Division of Invertebrate Zoology at the American Museum of Natural History is hiring a curatorial associate! For more information : careers.amnh.org/postings/4529

More creative and fun. Yay, drift!

I hope to take a PhD student in 2026 to study siphonophores. Please reach out if you are interested in applying this fall. For examples of recent lab projects see www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... and academic.oup.com/gbe/article/...

Unusual Galls Trigger National Survey of Adelgids and Their Predators in Bhutan Forests When aphid-like insects appeared in Bhutan forests, local researchers collaborated with USDA Forest Service experts to identify species, including four new to science.

Thank you, Entomology Today @entsocamerica.bsky.social, for covering our work on adelgids of Bhutan. If we want to prevent #bioinvasions, we need to know what’s out there. Also, adelgids are super cool insects 😁

entomologytoday.org/2025/08/13/u...

Unusual Galls Trigger National Survey of Adelgids and Their Predators in Bhutan Forests When aphid-like insects appeared in Bhutan forests, local researchers collaborated with USDA Forest Service experts to identify species, including four new to science.

entomologytoday.org/2025/08/13/u...

Chromosomal Inversions and Their Potential Impact on the Evolution of Arboviral Vector Aedes aegypti Abstract. Chromosomal inversions play a crucial role in evolution and have been found to regulate epidemiologically significant traits in malaria mosquitoe

Detecting chromosome inversions in @aegypti is a real art! I am honored to be part of this project. academic.oup.com/gbe/article/...

From macro to micro: De novo genomes of Aedes mosquitoes enable comparative genomics among close and distant relatives Abstract. The yellow fever mosquito (Aedes aegypti) is an organism of high medical importance because it is the primary vector for diseases such as yellow

First chromosome-level reference assembly of field @aegypti formosus and sister species @aedes mascarensis is out. Work led by @genmorinaga.bsky.social if @jsoghigian.bsky.social group in collaboration with us at #CT_CAES, @yale.edu, @ird-fr.bsky.social, @pasteur.fr academic.oup.com/gbe/advance-...

#threeMosquitoes. “The biology of deadly insects.” A book by my colleague and friend Jeff Powell is out! He just brought in my very own signed copy! Get yours @hopkinspress.bsky.social www.press.jhu.edu/books/title/...

Our article got the cover (!) with this cool photo of the inside of an adelgid gall, taken by Dr. Kaka Tshering.

Lots of new information about adelgids (including on hemlock), their predators, and associated fungi in Bhutan

academic.oup.com/jinsectscien...

@entsocamerica.bsky.social

Well, that’s promising!

Leucotaraxis piniperda from WA, released in CT for biological control of hemlock woolly #adelgid. Some papers about the science behind the effort:

research.fs.usda.gov/treesearch/6...

research.fs.usda.gov/treesearch/6...

research.fs.usda.gov/treesearch/6...

link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Dense hemlocks woolly adelgid colony on a hemlock twig.

Hemlock woolly adelgid. Still killing trees in Connecticut.

Tall saguaro cactus

I have created a feed "plant insect ecology" for posts on the biology, ecology, evolution, & natural history of plants & insects... to post, simply include #plant-insect. Please post images, opportunities, academic articles w/ links, etc.

DM w/ suggestions, it will take some days to optimize

We put together a fact sheet for #Aedes #aegypti. You can access the corrected proof from the link below.

kwnsfk27.r.eu-west-1.awstrack.me/L0/https:%2F...

Wow!

Thank you Anurag. It has been a really rewarding collaboration with a great group of people.

The Ups and Downs of Browntail Moths | Spring 2025 | Knots and Bolts | Knots and Bolts A non-native invasive moth has been lurking in the Northeast for more than 120 years and has recently become a pest again – of trees and… This content is available in the magazine only. Please Subscr...

A non-native invasive moth has been lurking in the Northeast for more than 120 years and has recently become a pest again – of trees and people – in parts of Maine. Learn more in my latest article.

#foresthealth #browntailmoth #forestpests #invasives

northernwoodlands.org/knots_and_bo...

It’s going to be a while before it’s ready, but it’s highest on my list of priorities!

😁 The 2016 paper that Chris cites above is by me and colleagues. Working on an update with new info and updated methods.

Fun article written with Ohio State University Buckeye Yard and Garden Online about hemlock woolly adelgid life cycle.

bygl.osu.edu/node/2454

BTW - what an amazing group of US federal, university, and industry scientists working together to help protect our forests! @hufbauer.bsky.social @sandyliebhold.bsky.social

This all shows how important herbivore host recognition and plant defenses, shaped by their evolutionary history, determine whether herbivores will cause high impact after invasion….

Try it yourself here, in the iTree Pest Predictor…

pestpredictor.itreetools.org

Now, using a composite model that objectively partitions conifer specialists, hardwood specialists, and generalists, we can predict whether ANY insect will be high impact on trees if introduced to North America…