Donald R. Longman Associate Professor of Natural Science { Email Professor Garvin } Specialties: Ecology of arthropod-borne diseases, vector ecology, effect of parasites on avian demography. I conduct field and laboratory studies to describe and investigate arthropod-borne diseases of birds. I'm specifically interested in the interaction between birds and the arthropods that transmit (vector) their protozoan and viral pathogens. My students and I study many aspects of these relationships, including the role of songbirds and mosquitoes as overwintering mechanisms of eastern equine encephalitis virus and West Nile virus and the abundance and spatial distribution of mosquito, mite, and tick vectors of disease. I teach Invertebrate Biology; Community Ecology; Introduction to Genetics, Evolution, and Ecology (with Roger Laushman and Jane Bennett, Biology); Health Careers Practicum and Field-based Writing: Ecology of the Vermilion River Watershed (with Jan Cooper, Rhetoric and Composition). I also sponsor student research projects in avian parasitology and vector ecology. Outside of my teaching and research, I enjoy gardening, cooking, photography, ceramics, knitting, and swimming. Publications Photo Essay Current Funding B.A. (Biology), Hiram College, 1986 M.S. (Zoology), Louisiana State University, 1989 Ph.D. (Infectious Diseases), University of Florida, 1996 Postdoc, University of Notre Dame Culiseta melanura, an epizootic vector of eastern equine encephalitis virus, has very specific breeding habitats including tamarack bogs and red maple swamps. The aquatic larvae of C. melanura were found in great abundance in this cavity in a southwest Michigan tamarack bog. The distribution of Ixodes ticks in the United States is clearly changing. Accompanying this expansion is the increased risk of Lyme disease. During their seasonal movements in the spring and fall, migratory songbirds infested by immature ticks may serve as mechanisms for establishment of new tick populations. Here, ticks feed around the eye of the blue jay, an area difficult to preen.