ProQuest Dissertations - The University of Arizona Campus Repository

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This dissertation is the result of not just hours of study and focus, but also of
hours of insightful conversations, discovery and being with a great deal of wonderful
people. It is to those wonderful and important people that I owe a great deal to. I would
Hrst like to thank my advisor Dan Papaj. Dan is a phenomenal scientist and mentor
who has always impressed me by his ability to get to the center of any argument and to
design simple yet elegant experiments. I especially appreciate his wisdom, the many
hours he invested, his company in the field, his great dinners and his friendship. His
wisdom and training will give me great confidence in the years to come.
I also would like to thank Henar Alonso-Pimentel. I was very fortunate to have
overlapped with her while she was in the Papaj lab and I benefited greatly from this
opportunity. Henar was a great mentor who spent a great deal of time picking me up
and placing me on the right track. Henar was patient, always insightful and introduced
me to the importance of mechanisms and the physiology of behavior. I hope to also
carry with me a bit of her wisdom and will think of her when I help others.
I would also like to thank my conmiittee, which was composed of Judie
Bronstein Reg Chapman, Molly Hunter and Bob Smith. I learned a great deal from
their insights and novel perspectives. I am also thankful for their advice and the time
they invested. I would also like to thank the Interdisciplinary Program (IDP) in Insect
Sciences and the Department of Entomology for beings so supportive and always
placing the students first. In particular, I would like to thank Diana Wheeler for going
out of her way to make the IDP Insect Sciences a successful program, one that I will
always be proud to have been a apart of. Sharon Richards, our IDP secretary, was a
phenomenal person that made life so easy for all of us graduate students. Food was put
on the table, papers made it through barriers, numbers where changed in remote
computers and lost things were found because of Sharon.
Special thanks must go to the Entomology, IDP Insect Sciences and Ecology
graduate students. I felt very fortunate to have interacted and learned from such a great
cohort of people. In particular, 1 would like to thank Laurie Henneman, Apama Telang,
Jessa Netting, Karen Ober, Albert Owen and Matt Johnston for hours of entertainment,
support and encouragement. And a special thanks to Susto and Weevil, the two cats that
made me remember that I am not the most important person in the world.
The most important person in this process, however, has been my wife Dena
Smith. She is one of the most driven, talented, intelligent and inspiring persons that I
know and I am very fortunate to have found her. I love her dearly and know that much
of what I have accomplished would not have been possible without her. With her by my
side, I look forward to the future and believe that great things await us.
Financial support for this dissertation was provided by a National Science
Foundation predoctoral fellowship, the University of Arizona's Research Training
Grant for the Analysis of Biological Diversification, the Department of Entomology,
Sigma Xi, Center for Insect Sciences and the Graduate College of the University of
Arizona. Dan Papaj also provided funding and Sheridan Stone provided logistical
support at Garden Canyon, in Fort Huachuca, where this research was conducted.
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