Research by
 Dr. Livdahl

Common inhabitants of a treehole in the northeastern U.S.:

1. Aedes triseriatus pupa
2. Anopheles barberi larva
3. Aedes triseriatus adult
4. Orthopodomyia alba larva
5. Aedes triseriatus larvae
6. Helodid beetle larva
7. Rat-tailed maggot (Syrphid fly larva)

©1989, Edward Rooks

 Research by
 Dr. Robertson

Sea stars commonly have five arms but some can be found with less or more. Asterias forbesi , shown on the left, is a sea star common to New England. The bright orange spot is the madreporite - the sieve-plate opening to the water vascular system. This photograph was taken during a field trip to Nahant, MA, a site visited by students in Marine Biology and Ecology of Atlantic Shores.

 Research by
 Dr. Thackeray

This image shows a section through a Drosophila eye (Drosophila is the common fruitfly), stained with toluidine blue to show photoreceptor cells.

This fly carries a mutant form of a protein found in all animals called phospholipase C-gamma, one of many proteins that regulate cell growth and differentiation. The black arrowhead points to a photoreceptor called R7 in a normal unit eye; the red arrows point to an abnormal adjacent unit eye that has two R7 cells

The Thackeray laboratory is using a combination of genetics, molecular biology and biochemistry to study the fly PLC-gamma so that we can better understand how this protein works in all animals, including humans.

 Research by
 Dr. Thackeray

1. Drosophila eye close-up. A colorized scanning electron micrograph of a wild-type Drosophila head (top) is shown, together with a close-up image of an eye from a small wing mutant (bottom). These mutants lack PLC-gamma activity, producing a mildly disorganized arrangement of the ~800 unit eyes (ommatidia) that make up the adult compound eye of this insect. Also visible are occasional duplicated interommatidial bristles.