Rainforest Research

Marty Condon leads a pioneering international effort to uncover patterns of tropical diversity which involves teams of Cornell students working with others from the U.S. and abroad.

"There's not another study of tropical insect/plant interactions like this," Condon says.

The larger research question is one of evolution: how can the Earth contain such a huge diversity of life? This question led Condon to study a strange type of rainforest cucumber that switches from male to female as it grows, and that study led to ongoing studies of fruit flies for which the plant is an exclusive food source.

Condon discovered that the cucumbers play host to not one, but many species of fruit flies -- very similar in appearance, but with distinct genetics and behavior. She and her students have identified 40 previously unknown fly species over the years and across many tropical locales.

"What keeps these species separate?" they keep asking. Or put more simply: "How do the flies tell each other apart?" She and her students study both plants and flies in the field and in the lab.

They watch how several species often coexist in the same proximity: some feeding on male flowers, some on female, some on both. They also pay close attention to differences in courtship rituals and other mating behavior. They also perform DNA analysis, examine wing patterns, and use electron microscopy to expose minute details and variations.

"This is actual science, and we're doing research that has never been done before," says John Gammons who has worked on the project for four years as a Cornell student. "There have been so many people involved: past students, the USDA, Ithaca College, and it's now a multinational effort."