Erika Iyengar

Associate Professor
New Science Building 320
484-664-3731
iyengar@muhlenberg.edu

http://www.muhlenberg.edu/depts/biology/faculty/iyengar/index.html

Education
B.S. with honors, Stanford University
Ph.D. Zoology, Cornell University

Courses Taught
Concepts of Biology: Animal Behavior (BIO 116)
Principles of Biology I (BIO 150)
Zoology (BIO 204)
Ecology (BIO 270)
Aquatic Ecology (BIO 281)
Field Marine Biology (BIO 282)
Evolution (BIO 470)

Research Interests
I study the evolutionary behavioral ecology of invertebrates, with a particular focus on marine invertebrates. Mainly I focus on feeding and defense, studying present-day ecology to shed light on evolutionary questions. I have investigated chemical defenses in eggs/larvae, the specificity of inducible defenses, the abiotic factors limiting the distribution of organisms in the intertidal, and the largest prong of my research has focused on the feeding ecology of a marine snail that can steal food from other animals (kleptoparasitism) or suspension feed, which is rare in snails. Current projects in my lab also involve defense in stream insects and snails.

Publications
Iyengar, E.V. 2004. Host-specific performance and host use in the kleptoparasitic marine snail Trichotropis cancellata. Oecologia. 138: 628-639.

Iyengar, E.V. 2002. Sneaky snails and wasted worms: kleptoparasitism by Trichotropis cancellata (Mollusca, Gastropoda) on Serpula columbiana (Annelida, Polychaeta). Marine Ecology Progress Series. 244: 153-162.

Iyengar, E.V. and C.D. Harvell. 2002. Specificity of cues triggering inducible spines in the bryozoan Membranipora membranacea. Marine Ecology Progress Series. 225: 205-218.