L.E.G.S. - Laboratoire Évolution, Génomes et Spéciation

IRD-CNRS-INRA-Paris XI University team (DEEIT – Diversity, Ecology and Evolution of Tropical Insects)

The DEEIT team is an IRD Research Unit and at the same time part of the LEGS laboratory. The DEEIT team research program focuses on the response of tropical insects to global changes and on biodiversity and evolution of insects. The latter concerns research activities conducted by the Research Unit in the tropics from 2001 to 2009. The DEEIT team is part of the recently established Institute for Diversity and Evolution of Life (IDEV) that brings together scientists from IRD, the LEGS Laboratory in Gif-sur-Yvette, the Ecology, Systematics and Evolution (ESE) Research Unit in Orsay and the Plant Genetics Research Unit at the Moulon station.
Tropical insects, like those of other parts of the world, respond to global change which can be the result of direct anthropic effects on tropical ecosystems (wild habitat fragmentation and destruction) or of indirect consequences of human activities (global warming and increased atmospheric CO2 concentration). The research program aims at characterizing and quantifying these responses to allow for estimating their ecological consequences on entomological communities, habitats, landscapes and agro-ecosystems. Thus, the main activities of the DEEIT research program encompass: 1) the characterization of global changes in two main regions (Africa and South America) where drivers gradients have been established, 2) to study the effect of these factors on insects at the level of individuals, populations and communities, and 3) to integrate these results into predictive models. Each objective corresponds to a particular working group, which includes several researchers of the EDEEIT team.
Based on a cornucopia of data and knowledge gathered during several years biological models have been developed. They primarily deal with herbivorous insects of agronomic importance (Lepidoptera Noctuidae and Gelechiidae, Phytophagous Coleoptera), vectors of human diseases (Hemiptera Reduviidae), invasive species of economic importance (Hymenoptera Vespidae) or insect that are antagonists of the former insect groups (Hymenoptera parasitoids) in African and South American regions. The team’s fields of expertise, which include systematics and faunistics, community and landscape ecolology, ecophysiology, population genetics, phylogeography and phylogeny, molecular biology and ethology, are brought together in a concerted effort. Beyond the team, we rely on the skills and conceptual experience of other LEGS teams and IDEV researchers, as well as on French and foreign colleagues with complementary skills.

Keywords:Faunistic, taxonomy, molecular systematics, biogeography, phylogeography, population dynamics, community ecology, population genetics, coevolution, speciation mechanisms, disturbance, invasive species, mitochondrial DNA, microsatellites, GIS, tropical Africa, Cameroon, Kenya, America South Brazil, Ecuador, Guyana, Poaceae, Zea mays, Sorghum, Pennisetum, Setaria, Lepidoptera, Noctuidae, Busseola spp, Sesamia spp, Gelechiidae, Tecia solanivora, Phthorimaea opercullela, Symmetrischema tangolias, Hymenoptera, Braconidae, PolyDNAvirus, Cotesia sesamiae, Cotesia flavipes, Wolbachia, Reduviidae, Rhodnius spp.

Team Members :

LEGS (Gif-sur-Yvette, France)

Jean-François Silvain, Research Director IRD (HDR), Director of the Research Unit DEEIT and President of the Scientific Council of the Foundation for Research on Biodiversity (FRB).

Annie Amirault, Secretary-Manager of DEEIT Unit and Secretary of the President of the Scientific Council of the Foundation for Research on biodiversity (FRB).

Claire Capdevielle-Dulac, Research Officer IRD in biological techniques.

Yves Carton, CNRS Research Director Emeritus (State Thesis, 1968, University of Paris), interactions resistance - virulence systems, Drosophila, parasitoids, under the genetic aspects, molecular, biochemical and populational.

Stéphane Dupas, Senior Research Scientist IRD, population genetics of insects.

Myriam Harry, Professor, Paris-Sud XI University.

Laure Kaiser-Arnauld, Senior Research Scientist INRA (HDR).

Rémy Pasquet, Senior Research Scientist IRD.

Non-permanent staff:

Ferial Kaoula, Research Technician IRD (CDD).

Morgane Lavina, Research Technician IRD (CDD).

François Rebaudo, PhD, IRD (CDD).

PhD Students:

Axelle Marchant, PhD Student, Paris-Sud University 11.

Emile Faye, PhD Student, Pierre & Marie Curie University, Paris VI.

Sophie Cauvy, PhD Student, Pierre & Marie Curie University, Paris VI.

Floriane Chardonnet, PhD Student, Pierre & Marie Curie University, Paris VI.

Nicolas Glaser, PhD Student, ABIES, Paris.

Rafael Cárdenas, PhD Student, Pierre & Marie Curie University, Paris VI.

IRAD (Yaoundé, Cameroun)

Philippe Le Gall, Senior Research Scientist IRD, fauna, biogeography, ecology of Lepidoptera stem borers from grasses of Saharan Africa (Lepidoptera, Noctuidae) and comparative study of speciation events in this group.

ICIPE (Nairobi, Kenya)

Paul-André Calatayud, Senior Research Scientist IRD, study of relationships between grasses - Lepidoptera stem borers - parasitoids.

Bruno Le Rü, Research Director IRD (HDR), ecology, systematics and evolution of Lepidoptera stem borers of grasses.

PUCE (Quito, Equateur)

Olivier Dangles, Senior Research Scientist IRD (HDR), modeling the dynamics of invasive insect herbivore communities, mechanisms for selecting niche, biodiversity-ecosystem functioning relationships, predator-prey relationships in the Andean ecosystems.