Date: 10/2/25 7:02 am From: Ragupathy Kannan <0000013b0ad14faf-dmarc-request...> Subject: Re: ASCA October Presentation - Thursday Oct 9th 7 PM
Alix was funded 4 times by the Arkansas Audubon Society Trust. She is one of our many success stories. I am having my ecology students attend this talk. Please attend and see how the Audubon grants are making a difference!
See her papers on this subject:
Matthews, Alix; Larkin, Jeffery; Raybuck, Douglas; Slevin, Morgan; Stoleson, Scott; and Boves, ThanFeather mite abundance varies but symbiotic nature of mite-host relationship does not differ between two ecologically dissimilar warblers
Matthews, Alix; Larking, Jeffery; Raybuck, Douglas; and Hager, StephanCophylogenetic assessment of New World warblers (Parulidae) and their symbiotic feather mites (Proctophyllodidae)
KannanChair, AAST
On Wednesday 1 October, 2025 at 09:35:35 pm GMT-5, Kevin Krajcir <kjkrajcir...> wrote:
Good evening!
Please join the Audubon Society of Central Arkansas on Thursday October 9th at 7 PM to hear from Dr. Alix Matthews about the mysterious world of avian feather mites.
If it’s bigger than a mite, it probably has mites – and birds are no exception. For over a decade, Arkansas native Alix Matthews has studied the tiny creatures that make their homes on bird feathers. Despite being incredibly common, feather mites are still one of the most mysterious groups of avian symbionts. In this talk, you’ll meet the mites that travel with some of our most colorful migrants, discover how these (and other) tiny hitchhikers can reveal surprising stories about their hosts, and learn more than you’ve ever wanted to know about the hidden life of feathers.
Alix is proudly from North Little Rock, Arkansas. She received her undergraduate degree in Environmental Sciences from Rhodes College, and then her master’s and PhD from Arkansas State University (Biological Sciences and Molecular Biosciences, respectively). She has spent her career studying the relationships between animals and the organisms that live with them, mostly birds and their “endos and ectos,” but also ants and their farmed fungi. Now a postdoctoral researcher at the University at Buffalo in New York, she is investigating how gut microbes influence feather coloration and what role mites may play in birds’ broader ecosystems.
