SEX, WAR AND DISEASE: THE EFFECTS OF INFECTION ON HORN SIZE AND INTRA-SEXUAL COMPETITION IN THE BROAD-HORNED FLOUR BEETLE, GNATHOCERUS CORNUTUS
by
AMRITA NAIDU
Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of The University of Texas at Arlington in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of
MASTER OF SCIENCE IN BIOLOGY
THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT ARLINGTON December 2009
Copyright by Amrita Naidu 2009 All Rights Reserved
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I am extremely grateful to Dr. Jeff Demuth for his advice and exceptional guidance throughout my project. I am thankful that I got an opportunity to learn under the supervision of such an awesome research scientist. I would like to convey my sincerest gratitude to Dr. Laura Mydlarz for her continued support and for allowing me to use her lab for my research work. I would like to thank Dr. Daniel Formanowicz for kindly serving on my committee. I am especially thankful to Donna Kirkland, Eldon Prince, Brian Fontenot, Eric Watson and other fellow graduate students and friends for their invaluable assistance. Thank you to Dr. Sherman Hendrix at Gettysburg College who provided the parasite eggs to infect my beetles with. I dedicate this work to my father, Raju Naidu, who wanted to see me enjoy a life of sensitivity, accomplishment, goodness and love but did not live to realize it. Had it not been for the continuous encouragement and unfailing support from my mother, Bela Naidu, I would never have made it to the US. Thank you mom for believing in my abilities and thank you to my sisters Archana Basnyat and Deepika Naidu for standing by me always. Words are not enough for me to thank my husband, Shankar Bhandari, for going above and beyond anyone's expectations to see to it that I completed my degree. I am very proud of you and I love you. November 20, 2009
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ABSTRACT
SEX, WAR AND DISEASE: THE EFFECTS OF INFECTION ON HORN SIZE AND INTRA-SEXUAL COMPETITION IN THE BROAD-HORNED FLOUR BEETLE, GNATHOCERUS CORNUTUS

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