Aryanna James

Generally, I am interested in how insects interact with their environment. In 2021, I joined the Virginia Tech Forest Entomology and Biological Control lab under the direction of Dr. Scott Salom. I am expanding my research in forested systems and supervising the mass rearing of biocontrol agents for the invasive Hemlock Woolly Adelgid (HWA) in an effort to conserve eastern and Carolina hemlock trees. In addition to continuing two decades of work with Laricobius spp., current efforts are to rear, release, and establish silver flies on hemlock trees infested with HWA. Our insectary serves state, federal, and university cooperators along the eastern U.S. As a part of monitoring and recovery efforts for beneficial predators, I also manage molecular processing of cooperator samples to identify predator species. My past projects include my graduate work in which I focused on aquatic macroinvertebrate community responses to mining-induced salinization in headwaters of the central Appalachian region, USA. I employed quantitative sampling of both larval and emergent, adult life stages of aquatic insects.