Team

Postdoctoral fellows

Dr. Ornella Barreto Barriga obtained her Ph.D. at the Instituto de Investigaciones en Ecosistemas y Sustentabilidad (iiES) of the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM), Mexico. Her research expertise relies on the study of biology and the ecology of herbivores and parasitoids. She has been awarded by CONACyT with a postdoctoral fellow to study the population divergence of a maize herbivore with our research group and collaborating with Dr. Andrea Joyce of the University of California at Merced, USA.

Dr. Dania Andrea Di Filippo-Herrera obtained her PhD at the Centro Interdisciplinario de Ciencias Marinas (CICIMAR) of the Instituto Politécnico Nacional (IPN), Mexico. Her research expertise relies with the study of chemical composition and potential uses of seaweed. She is currently a posdoctoral fellow of the group UDG-839, integrated by Dr. Mireya Hernández-Herrera, Dr. Carla Sánchez-Hernández and Dr. Ricardo Ramirez-Romero. She joined the group to assess the influence of seaweed extracts on defense responses in tomato and on multi-trophic interactions (plant-herbivore-natural enemies).
ORCID id: orcid.org/0000-0002-0185-0264

PhD Students

Luis Enrique Chavarín Gómez

Lab PhD Candidate
Supervisor: Dr. Ricardo Ramirez-Romero

Kyke obtained his undergraduate degree in Biology in our lab, with the financial support of a CONACyT scholarship. Subsequently, in september 2016 he was accepted in the MSc program (BIMARENA-UdG) and got his degree in the summer 2018. After this, he Immediately applied for a position in the Doctoral program BEMARENA-UdG and got a place. He will continue his MSc project studying the decisions that a parasitoid wasp takes when confronted to patches bearing different properties.

Verónica Trujillo Pahua

External-Lab PhD Candidate
Supervisor: Dr. Carla Sánchez-Hernández (CUCBA-UdG)
Adviser: Dr. Ricardo Ramirez-Romero

Vero is an Agronomist Engineer by the Instituto Tecnológico del Valle de Morelia. She got a M.C. in Genetics by the Colegio de Posgraduados, Mexico. She is currently performing her PhD at the Doctoral program BEMARENA-UdG under the supervision of Dr. Carla Sánchez-Hernandez. Her research focuses on the study of metabolic profiles of Physalis spp associated with the response to herbivory. Altogether with her supervisor, they collaborate with our group regarding the effects induced by whiteflies.

Gabriel Reinoso Franchino

External-Lab PhD Candidate
Supervisor: Dr. Pablo Schliserman (CITCA, Argentina)
Adviser: Dr. Ricardo Ramirez-Romero

Gabriel is studying the interactions between herbivores of Prosopis and their parasitoids under a conservative biological control perspective.

Undergraduate Students

Pedro Torres Enciso

Pit is interested in studying predators. He joined our group as a volunteer student. He already achieved experimental work to study behavior of G. punctipes' males. After this, he participated in one of the experiments of Quique's Master degree. He is currently in the writing stage of his undergraduate report and participating in another research project.

Yeirha Patricia Vega Guerrero

Yeirha is a student of the Bachelor of Biology at CUCBA-UdG, Jalisco, Mexico. She is participating in a project that aims to automate the behavioral observations of a parasitoid wasp. Under the supervision of Dr. Ricardo Ramirez-Romero and with the collaboration of Dr. Fernando Wario, Dr. Michel Dávalos Biotes and Dr. Felipe Sención Echauri.

Hilda Esperanza Casillas Ochoa

Hilda is a volunteer undergraduate student that regularly participates with our group, she is interested in insect ecology, natural enemies and pest control.

Betsabé Montserrat Hernández González

Betsa joined our group to study courtship behavior of Dalbulus elimatus. She has already performed her observations, analyzed her data and is currently writing her report.

Karina Vite Eusebio

Karina is preparing her Bachelor degree of Ecology at ENES-UNAM, Morelia, Mexico. She is interested to assess whether some fungi species are pathogenic to the coccinellid Cycloneda sanguinea. Her project is with the supervision of Dr. Ricardo Ramirez-Romero and the collaboration of Dr. Jorge Contreras Garduño and Dr. Ek del Val de Gortari.

Former students

Paulina Camorlinga Cortés

Pau started her undergraduate research expertise in our group. She tested other factors influencing predator's decisions for choosing a prey. She obtained her undergraduate degree on February 2019. A manuscript reporting her results has been accepted for publication in Entomologia Generalis (IF=3.027 & Q1).

Ma. Concepción Velasco-Hernández

Conchita got her master degree in our group (with honors), by studying the behavior of parasitoids under the risk of predation. With results obtained, two papers were published in international journals (PLoS One [IF=2.776 & Q2] and Pest Management Science [FI=3.255 & Q1]). In addition, during her master, she performed a short research stay (3 months) in France, in the laboratory of Dr. Nicolas Desneux (INRA, Sophia Antipolis).
After her master degree, in the summer of 2013, Conchita started her PhD in our group to test two paradigms on behavior of parasitoids. In 2015, she performed a one-year research stay in the Lab of Dr. Desneux (INRA, Sophia Antipolis, France). In 2016, she coauthored a Review manuscript published in the Journal of Pest Science (IF=5.133 & Q1). A first manuscript reporting part of the PhD results was published in 2017 in Entomologia Generalis (IF=3.027 & Q1). She got her PhD degree in October 2017. A second PhD paper is under revision.

Walter Ernesto Printzen

Walter had a CONACyT scholarship to develop his undergraduate research in our group. He investigated how a generalist predator chooses its prey. He obtained his undergraduate degree on February 2017.

Ester Kornig

Ester, an student from the Université d'Avignon, performed a short stay in our lab (2016), she studied the influence that some seaweed extracts (reported as inductors of resistance genes in plants) have on the oviposition preference of whiteflies.

Lourdes Bao-Fundora

Lulu got her MSc degree in our group with honors. She studied how intra-guild predation modifies pest control under natural conditions. With results obtained, a manuscript has been already published in Pest Management Science (IF=3.255 & Q1) and a second paper is under revision.

Delia Garibay Benítez

Delia obtained her master degree in our group. During her stay within our group, she collaborated on a project that led to an international publication (Journal of Insect Behavior [IF=0.933 & Q3]). In addition, during her master, she performed a short research stay (3 months) in the USA, in the laboratory of Dr. Andrea Joyce (University of California, Merced). Results obtained were published in the journal Insect Science (IF=2.71 & Q1).

Daniela Teresa Pérez Ascencio

Dany obtained her undergraduate degree in our group and with the results obtained, one paper was published in the Journal of Insect Behavior. After her undergraduate degree, Dany obtained her MSc degree in our group. Altogether with Kyke's results, a publication is under preparation for an international journal.