While traveling to a conference in Salt Lake City, UT from Nebraska, Jody realizes that she doesn't know much about her colleague, Kait Chapman. To her surprise and glee, they get into talking about Kait's MS/PhD research which is all about the fabulous insect-plant interactions involved in the relationship between aphids and their host plants. Take a listen to a discussion about animal-loving beginnings, telescoping generations, aphids on tiny bungee cords, host plant responses, and the love-hate relationship between a grad student and her subject insect. In this closeup of a mama aphid, you can see her offspring inside of her. Those small dots are the eyes of the aphid she will birth.  A side by side look at aphid tolerant (L) and aphid susceptible (R) varieties of soybeans Aphids can create symptomatic damage like curled leaves, wilting, and copious amounts of honeydew. This cabbage aphid is coated in a white wax material. You can also see it is exuding an alarm pheromone (the yellow colored droplet) Aphids are also quite small, though they add up when in big groups! This aphid is wired and ready for EPG Questions? Comments?  Follow the show on Twitter @Arthro_PodshowFollow the hosts on Twitter @bugmanjon, @JodyBugsmeUNL, and @MSkvarla36 Get the show through Apple Podcast, Stitcher, Spotify, or your favorite podcatching app!If you can spare a moment, we appreciate when you subscribe to the show on those apps or when you take time to leave a review! Subscribe to our feed on Feedburner!   This episode is freely available on archive.org and is licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ Beginning/ending theme: "There It Is" by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0