Gard Otis

Education

BS Duke
PhD Kansas

Research

Honey bee behaviour, ecology, and evolution; Asian honey bees; parasitic mites of bees; tropical biology; hornet biology.

Featured Publications

• Otis, G.W., M.-J. Huang, N. Kitnya, U. A.A. Sheikh, A. H. Faiz, C.H. Phung, N. Warrit, Y.-Q. Peng, X. Zhou, H.M. Oo, N. Archarya, K. Devkota (2024). The distribution of Apis laboriosa revisited: range extensions, biogeographic affinities, and species distribution modeling. Frontiers in Bee Science 2: 1374852. doi: 10.3389/frbee.2024.1374852
• Otis, G. W., B. A. Taylor, and H. R. Mattila (2023). Invasion potential of hornets (Hymenoptera: Vespidae: Vespa spp.). Frontiers in Insect Science 3: 1145158.  doi: 10.3389/finsc.2023.1145158
• Kitnya, N., G. W. Otis, J. Chakravorty, D. R. Smith, and A. Brockmann (2022). Apis laboriosa confirmed by morphometric and genetic analyses of giant honey bees (Hymenoptera, Apidae) from sites of sympatry in Arunachal Pradesh, North East India. Apidologie 53, Article number 47. doi: 10.1007/s13592-022-00956-z
• Mattila, H. R., H. G. Kernen, G. W. Otis, L. T. P. Nguyen, H. D. Pham, O. M. Knight, and N. T. Phan (2021). Giant hornet (Vespa soror) attacks trigger frenetic antipredator signalling in honey bee (Apis cerana) colonies. Royal Society Open Science 8: 211215. doi: 10.1098/rsos.211215
• Mattila, H. R., G. W. Otis, L. T. P. Nguyen, H. D. Pham, O. M. Knight, and N. T. Phan (2020). Honey bees (Apis cerana) use animal feces as a tool to defend colonies against group attack by giant hornets (Vespa soror). PLoS-ONE 15 (12): e0242668 doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0242668
• Marshall, S.A., A. Borkent, A. A. Agnarsson, G.W. Otis, L. Fraser, and D. d’Entremont (2015). New observations on a Neotropical termite-hunting theridiid spider: opportunistic nest raiding, prey storage, and ceratopogonid kleptoparasites. Journal of Arachnology 43: 419-421.
• Gradish, A. E., N. Keyghobadi, and G. W. Otis (2015). Population genetic structure and genetic diversity of the threatened White Mountain arctic butterfly (Oeneis melissa semidea). Conservation Genetics 16: 1253-1264.                                       
• Yap, N., J. Devlin, G. Otis, T. V. Dang, and H. T. Nguyen (2015).  Beekeeping, wellbeing, transformative change: development benefits according to small farmers in Vietnam. Journal of Rural and Community Development 10: 19-31.
• Mattila, H. R. and G. W. Otis (2007). Dwindling pollen resources trigger the transition to broodless populations of long-lived honey bees each autumn. Ecological Entomology 32: 496-505.

For a full list of publications, refer to Gard Otis' Google Scholar Profile.

Research Area

speciation, asian honey bees, beekeeping development, butterfly ecology and behaviour, bee behaviour, insect conservation, Vespa hornets