Keywords

  • chemical ecology
  • coevolution
  • insect behavior
  • insect ecology
  • insect-plant interactions
  • plant defense theory
  • swallowtail butterflies

Feeny, Paul Patrick

Professor
Since the early 1960`s I have been interested in chemical interactions between organisms in nature and, in particular, in the roles played by plant chemistry in the evolution and ecology of interactions between plants and herbivorous animals.

research

research and scholarship focus

Using the swallowtail butterflies (family Papilionidae) as a model system, my research has sought to elucidate the roles of plant chemistry in shaping the evolution of host-plant relationships among herbivorous insects. In collaboration with students and colleagues, the work includes phylogenetics, comparative ecology and chemical ecology (both behavioral and physiological). |I also have strong interests in the ecology and evolution of plant defenses against herbivores and pathogens, especially in the relationships between traits for defense/counterdefense and those for escape/recognition.

research areas

  • entomology | collaborative research area (CALS)
  • evolution | collaborative research area (CALS)

affiliations

faculty appointment in

member of graduate field

teaching

teaching focus

My primary teaching responsibility at Cornell for 20 years was the introductory General Ecology course, co-taught annually with a faculty colleague. In 1968, I initiated, with several colleagues, an undergraduate course in Chemical Ecology, taught in alternate years until the late 70`s. This was replaced by a graduate seminar on Insect/Plant Interactions, and then by an advanced undergraduate course on Herbivores and Plants, last taught in 2005. I continue to teach Current Topics in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, the introductory "core course" for new graduate students.

service

outreach focus

I have considerable interests in popularizing the scientific importance of the emerging field of chemical ecology, especially as regards insect/plant interactions. This led me to co-chair the first Gordon Research Conference on this subject (in 1980) and, more recently, to join a committee to advise the Max Planck Society in Germany on plans to found a new Institute devoted to research on this subject. I have been a member of the Scientific Advisory Board for the Max-Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology (Jena) since its foundation and served a four-year term as its first Chair.
Keywords: chemical ecology, coevolution, insect behavior, insect ecology, insect-plant interactions, plant defense theory, swallowtail butterflies