People


Kayla I. Perry, Ph.D. – Lab Director

Dr. Kayla I. Perry is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Entomology at the Ohio State University and is based at the Wooster campus. Her research program aims to understand how disturbances influence the structure and function of insect communities in natural and urban forests. The Perry Lab investigates natural disturbances such as native insects and windstorms which are integral components of forest ecosystems, as well as human-induced disturbances such as exotic species, habitat degradation, and climate change that impact forest health and management. She is a State Extension Specialist in Forest Entomology and works with a variety of stakeholder groups interested in forest insect ecology and management. Kayla’s taxonomic expertise includes ground‐ and soil‐dwelling arthropod communities, particularly ground beetles (Coleoptera: Carabidae). Her teaching responsibilities include insect ecology, entomological techniques and data analysis, and the nature and practice of science. Kayla also occasionally hosts a ground beetle identification and ecology workshop. Kayla received her Ph.D. in Entomology from the Ohio State University in December 2016.


Diane M. Hartzler, B.S.

Senior Research Technician

After 27 years of OARDC lab experience and 5 years of retirement, Diane has returned to set up the new Forest Entomology Lab under the direction of Kayla Perry, PhD.   As a previous lab manager and years of field data collection in SE Michigan on the OSU Emerald Ash Borer Project, she has managed the travel logistics, coordinated projects, and provided assistance to graduate students, visiting scholars, USFS, USDA, ODNR, lab personnel and out of state colleagues.  She has worked on EAB and invasive pest chemical trials remotely and on the Wooster campus.

 


Suranga Basnagala,

M.Phil. in Insect Taxonomy

Researcher 1

My background is Insect Taxonomy. I had the opportunity to study a family of insect group, Miridae, commonly known as ‘Plant bugs’ in a funded NSF project in Sri Lanka. There, I completed my Masters’s degree studying one of the subfamilies of Mirids. In terms of species, the Miridae is the largest family of Heteroptera with more than 10,000 known species in 1,300+ genera worldwide. During the four years of the project, I traveled to all the ecological regions in Sri Lanka to collect Mirids, ID them, and made illustrations for a pictorial guide. Horton Plains National Park’s (6.8022, 80.8064) collection was the best. I spent 7 days at a high altitude to collect Mirids.

Currently, while working in other labs within the entomology department, I am working on Carabidae (Ground beetles) identification in Perry Lab since September 2022. It’s amazing how versatile the Carabids are with more than 40,000+ described species in 2162 genera worldwide. Well…I am enjoying ID work every minute, one ‘specimen’ at a time 😊.


Aaron Tayal

MSc. Student

I graduated from The Ohio State University in 2021 with a mathematics major and evolution and ecology minor.  My undergraduate research focused on the invasive plant lesser celandine (Ficaria verna).  My interest in entomology was motivated by internships working at vegetable farms in Ohio and Indiana.  In Perry Lab I am studying the long term impacts of forest disturbances.