I am an ecologist, specialized in entomology, ecophysiology, thermal biology, behavioral ecology and crop protection.

Current research projects: 

The role of lipid accumulation plasticity in overwintering ecology of parasitoids

Resource acquisition for offspring can be largely determined by behavioral decisions of a mother, e.g., which plant or host her offspring can feed on. To counterbalance food deprivation during winter, insects accumulate fat reserves. In parasitoids (insects that feed and develop on another insect host) fat accumulation in adults does not occur in the majority of species. The fat reserves of a parasitoid thus depend directly on the fat reserves carried over from the host during development. In the parasitoid L. heterotoma, fat synthesis shows extreme plasticity[ : when development takes place on a fat host, L. heterotoma will not synthetize and accumulate fat, but when development occurs on lean hosts, L. heterotoma needs to synthesize and accumulate fat itself. My current project is the first to investigate the effect of a mother’s behavioral choices (for hosts) in relation to temperature on plasticity of fat synthesis. I am using insects collected from the forest and orchards in Wallonia in experiments under control conditions in the lab to investigate the adaptive value of behavioral decisions and plastic fat synthesis.

Plant Growth Promoting Rhizobacteria’ – PGPR

I am currently working on a project aiming to investigates the effects of Plant Growth-Promoting Rhizobacteria (PGPR) on biological parameters of insect pests. PGPRs are known to induce systemic defense responses to pathogenic infections. However, their effects on insect bioaggressors are poorly known. Using a multitrophic system involving PGPRs – plants – insect pests – auxiliary insects, our experiment targets PGPR effects on life history traits of several pests (two Spodoptera species, and the aphid Macrosiphum euphorbidae), plant defense reponses, and attraction of predatory insects (hoverfly - Episyrphus balteatus).