Ashley C. Kennedy

• Doctor of Philosophy, Entomology and Wildlife Ecology
• Tick Biologist at Delaware DNREC

Avian predation of dragonflies and damselflies (Odonata) is fairly well-documented, but most observations are restricted to non-passerine birds eating adult odonates. As nymphal odonates are aquatic, most passerine birds would not encounter them while foraging but instead are more likely to catch teneral adults on their maiden flights. Photographs...

Caenodelphax Fennah was reviewed with reference to putatively allied species in the polyphyletic genus Delphacodes Fieber. Phylogenetic analyses using maximum parsimony of 34 morphological features for 15 ingroup and 3 outgroup taxa found that Caenodelphax sensu stricto did not group with putatively allied Delphacodes. Caenodelphax is here redefine...

An annotated checklist of the 128 delphacid planthopper species of Florida, including host data, is presented based on combined specimen and literature records. The list includes 39 genera with 7 new combinations, 6 new synonymies, 3 new species and 16 new state records. The new genus Meristopsis (Delphacini) is here described with 2 new species, M...

We present an annotated checklist of fleas (Siphonaptera) known to occur in the state of Delaware based on an examination of Siphonaptera collections at the University of Delaware and the Carnegie Museum of Natural History, as well as new specimens of fleas we collected from wildlife, other hosts, and tick flags. We review published records and com...

Eight adult specimens of Ixodes brunneus (Acari: Ixodidae) were collected in Delaware via a combination of methods. The first was an engorged female recovered from a deceased Northern Mockingbird (Mimus polyglottos), a window strike victim, in Kent County. The other seven were four males and three females, all apparently unfed, collected by flaggin...

Supplemental feeding can increase the overall health of animals but also can have variable effects on how animals defend themselves against parasites. However, the spatiotemporal effects of food supplementation on host–parasite interactions remain poorly understood, likely because large‐scale, coordinated efforts to investigate them are difficult....

A total of 2,504 ticks of 5 species (Ixodes scapularis, Dermacentor variabilis, Amblyomma americanum, Haemaphysalis leporispalustris, and H. longicornis) were collected over 2 yr (2014–2015) in New York City parks. Specimens were collected via tick-dragging, identified to species, and tested for pathogens of human diseases. The causative agents of...

Three Asian longhorned ticks (Haemaphysalis longicornis) were collected on Staten Island, Richmond County, New York, in 2014–2015 as part of a tick-borne disease surveillance program conducted by the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene and the Defense Centers of Public Health – Aberdeen Tick-Borne Disease Laboratory. These records...

Characterizing the diversity of genes associated with virulence and transmission of a pathogen across the pathogen's distribution can inform our understanding of host infection risk. Borrelia burgdorferi is a vector-borne bacterium that causes Lyme disease in humans and is common in the United States. The outer surface protein C (ospC) gene of B. b...

Supplemental feeding can increase the overall health of animals but also can have variable effects on how animals defend themselves against parasites. However, the spatiotemporal effects of food supplementation on host-parasite interactions remain poorly understood, likely because large-scale, coordinated efforts are difficult. Here, we introduce t...

Background Ticks are hematophagous arthropods that transmit various bacterial, viral, and protozoan pathogens of public health significance. The lone star tick (Amblyomma americanum) is an aggressive human-biting tick that transmits bacterial and viral pathogens, and its bites are suspected of eliciting the alpha-gal syndrome, a newly emerged delay...

The holotype of Delphacodes guianensis Muir, a delphacid planthopper (Hemiptera: Fulgoroidea: Delphacidae) currently nominally in the polyphyletic genus Delphacodes Fieber, was examined and found to bear lateral teeth on the hind basitarsus, a synapomorphy of the genus Nilaparvata Distant. We determined that Delphacodes guianensis is a senior synon...

During September–December 2018, 25 live ticks were collected on-post at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, in a home with a history of bat occupancy. Nine ticks were sent to the Army Public Health Center Tick-Borne Disease Laboratory and were identified as Carios kelleyi (Cooley and Kohls, 1941), a species that seldom bites humans but that may search for ot...

Public health messaging in the eastern United States has historically underemphasized the risks posed by lone star ticks (Amblyomma americanum), focusing instead on blacklegged ticks (Ixodes scapularis). This gap persists despite mounting evidence that lone star ticks also play an important role in disease ecology as confirmed vectors for a wide va...

Grassroots advocacy is accessible for all scientists and can be an important component to shape local, state, and even federal science policy. Those best positioned to advocate for science are scientists themselves, especially if they have training on how to effectively shape science-informed policy. Entomologists that take an active role in policy...

The New World species attributed to the genus Malaxa Melichar (Hemiptera: Fulgoroidea: Delphacidae) are reviewed with special reference to the type species Malaxa acutipennis from the Philippines. We provide an amended diagnosis for Malaxa acutipennis contrasted with the genus delineation presented for Chinese Malaxa, most recently by Hou et al. (2...

Caenodelphax teapae (Fowler) is a common, widespread Neotropical species. This species is potentially pestiferous as it has been reported on carrots, sugar cane, kidney beans and other crops, and is a vector of Urochloa hoja blanca tenuivirus in plantain signalgrass ( Urochloa plantaginea (Link) R. Webster) (Lapierra and Signoret 2004, Wilson 2005,...

Insects serve as a vital food source for the vast majority of terrestrial bird species, particularly while breeding. Although this heavy reliance on insects in avian diets has long been acknowledged, many of the basic details about birds’ insect prey preferences remain unknown. Most ornithological references provide only generalized summaries of wh...

Delphacid planthoppers (Hemiptera: Fulgoroidea: Delphacidae) are of worldwide economic interest due to their propensity to attack crop plants. Despite their importance as crop pests, much of their evolutionary history remains poorly understood; certain genera within Delphacidae are in need of taxonomic revision. The western Palearctic genus Delphac...

The delphacid planthopper genus Caenodelphax Fennah, 1965, although small, has a complicated taxonomic history. It currently consists of 4 species: C. teapae, C. nigriscutellata, C. atridorsum, and C. philyra, all previously assigned to Delphacodes Fieber, 1866. Hamilton (2002) redefined Caenodelphax in a broader sense than prior authors, and noted...