Dr Ullasa Kodandaramaiah
Assistant Professor
Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Indian Institute of Science Education and Research Thiruvananthapuram
India
Biography
Having spent his childhood in Bangalore, Ullasa moved to Ponnampet (Coorg, Karnataka) to do his Bachelor's in Forestry. Living in the backyard of the nature in this rainforest clad region of the Western Ghats, he was able to nurture his budding interest in ecology and natural history. He then went on to do a PhD in Stockholm University, working on phylogenentics and biogeography of butterflies. During his stay in Stockholm, he developed a deeper interest in evolutionary biology, which is now the core area of his research. He did a first postdoc in Stockholm University and another at Cambridge University, both on aspects of the evolutionary ecology of butterflies. He joined IISER-TVM in January 2013.
Research Interest
Major research interests include Prey-predator interactions, Insect-plant interactions, Wolbachia in insects, Secondary sexual characters, Phylogenetic patterns and diversity of Indian butterflies.
Publications
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1. BUTTERFLY WING_PATTERN EVOLUTION Mukherjee R & Kodandaramaiah U. 2015. What makes eyespots intimidating - The importance of pairedness. BMC Evolutionary Biology. 15: 34. Kodandaramaiah U, Vallin A and Wiklund C. 2009. Fixed eyespot display in a butterfly thwarts attacking birds. Animal Behaviour 77: 1415-1419 2. PHYLOGENETICS & BIOGEOGRAPHY Kodandaramaiah U. 2010. Use of Dispersal-Vicariance Analysis in biogeography - a critique. Journal of Biogeography 37: 3-11 Kodandaramaiah U & Wahlberg N. 2007. Out-of-Africa origin and dispersal mediated diversification of the butterfly genus Junonia (Nymphalidae: Nymphalinae). Journal of Evolutionary Biology 20: 2181-2191 3. BUTTERFLY-HOSTPLANT INTERACTIONS Kodandaramaiah U, Weingartner E, Janz N, Dalen L & Nylin S. Population structure in relation to host-plant ecology and Wolbachia infestation in the comma butterfly. Journal of Evolutionary Biology 24: 2173-2185 Kodandaramaiah U, Weingartner E, Janz N, Leski M, Slove J, Warren A, Nylin S. 2012. Investigating concordance among genetic data, subspecies circumscriptions and hostplant use in the nymphalid butterfly Polygonia faunus. PLoS ONE 7(7): e41058 4. WOLBACHIA-BUTTERFLY INTERACTIONS Kodandaramaiah U, Weingartner E, Janz N, Dalen L & Nylin S. Population structure in relation to host-plant ecology and Wolbachia infestation in the comma butterfly. Journal of Evolutionary Biology 24: 2173-2185 Kodandaramaiah U. Effects of Wolbachia on butterfly life history and ecology. In Advances in Medicine and Biology. Volume 16, Nova Publishers
