Donald Hobern: Cataloguing the Planet’s DNA

I spoke with GBIF’s executive secretary and amateur lepidopterist Donald Hobern about how DNA barcoding fits into modern conservation and ecology (Image Credit: Donald Hobern, CC BY-2.0, Image Cropped)
I spoke with GBIF’s executive secretary and amateur lepidopterist Donald Hobern about how DNA barcoding fits into modern conservation and ecology (Image Credit: Donald Hobern, CC BY-2.0, Image Cropped)
This parasitic fungus takes over the brain and then ejects its spores out of the ant’s head (Image Credit: Erich G. Vallery, USDA Forest Service – SRS-4552, Bugwood.org, CC BY 3.0 US)
Mind Control: How Parasites Manipulate Cognitive Functions in Their Insect Hosts (2018) Libersat et al., Frontiers in Psychology, https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.00572
The field of neuro-parasitology is a relatively new field in biology and deals with the study of parasites that manipulate the nervous system of their hosts for their own gain (usually at the expense of the host). The authors of this review focused on host-parasite interactions between insect hosts and their myriad of parasites, due not only to most studies in this field being done with insects, but also the fact that most animals on the planet are in fact insects.