Dr J Kathirithamby

Senior Research Fellow and Oxford University Research Lecturer in the Department of Zoology.
Adjunct Professor of Biology, Sam Houston State University, Houston.

Email:
jeyaraney.kathirithamby@st-hughs.ox.ac.uk
jeyaraney.kathirithamby@zoo.ox.ac.uk

Jeyaraney Kathirithamby is a Senior Research Fellow and University Research Lecturer in the Department of Zoology. She is an Evolutionary Insect Taxonomist with special interest in insect parasites, especially in the entomophagous parasite Strepsiptera which are used as model organisms in the study of evolutionary relationships between strepsipterans and their hosts. It is a tractable invertebrate system that has raised questions on systematics, coevolution, cophylogenetics, sex determination, evolutionary development, biodiversity and immunogenetics. In collaboration with laboratories and museums throughout the world, she studies to understand the complex interactions that characterize this complex host-parasite relationship. She travels widely to collect samples for taxonomic, behavioural and molecular studies. 
 

Websites:

http://users.ox.ac.uk/%7Ejkath/
http://working.tolweb.org/tree?group=Strepsiptera
http://tolweb.org/tree?group=Stylopidia&contgroup=Strepsiptera
http://tolweb.org/tree/eukaryotes/animals/arthropoda/hexapoda/strepsiptera/stylohosts.html

Some recent references:

2003. J Kathirithamby, L D Ross & S J Johnston. Masquerading as self? Endoparasitic
Strepsiptera enclose themselves in host-derived epidermal “bag”. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 100(13): 7655-7659. www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.1131999100

2004. J Kathirithamby & J S Johnston. The discovery after 94 years of the elusive female of a myrmecolacid (Strepsiptera), and the cryptic species of Caenocholax fenyesi Pierce sensu lato.
Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, B (Suppl 3) 271: S5-S8. DOI

2004. J S Johnston, L D Ross, L Beani, D P Hughes & J Kathirithamby. Tiny genomes and
endoreduplication in Strepsiptera. Insect Molecular Biology 13: 581-585.

2005. D Grimaldi, J Kathirithamby & V Schawaroch. Strepsiptera and triungula in Cretaceous amber. Insect Systematics and Evolution Group 1, 36: 1-20.

2005. J Kathirithamby. Further homage to Santa Rosalia: discovery at last of the elusive females of a species of Myrmecolacidae (Strepsiptera: Insecta). In, Narrow Roads of Gene Land. Collected papers by W D Hamilton, Vol III, Ed M Ridley pp 117-134. Oxford University Press.

2005. J Gillespie, C McKenna, R Gutell, J Johnston, J Kathirithamby, & A Cognato. Assessing the odd secondary structural properties of nuclear small subunit ribosomal RNA sequences (18S) of the twisted-wing parasites (Insecta: Strepsiptera). Insect Molecular Biology 14: 625-643.

2005. J Kathirithamby. How Wallace and Dampier faced Tsunamis at sea. Correspondence to Editor. Nature 438: 282. http://info.nature.com/cgi-bin24/DM/y/eVr70BgZEc0Ch0pe20E6

2006. F Bonneton, F Brunet, J Kathirithamby & V Laudet. Rapid divergence of the ecdysone receptor is a synapomorphy for Mecopteroid that clarifies the Strepsiptera problem. Insect
Molecular Biology (in press).

2007. J Kathirithamby. Strepsiptera (In) Biology Catalogue. http://insects.tamu.edu/research/collection/hallan

2007. J Kathirithamby, J. J. Gillespie, E. Jimenez-Guri, A. I. Cognato & J. S. Johnston. High nucleotide divergence in a dimorphic parasite with disparate hosts. Zootaxa 639: 59-68.

2008. J Kathirithamby. Strepsiptera. In, Encyclopaedia of Insects. Springer 2008.

2009. J Kathirithamby.Host-parasitoid associations in Strepsiptera. Annual Review of Entomology 54: 227-249