PUBLICATIONS
Billy has studied the ecological and evolutionary interactions between plants and insects since his sophomore year at Brown University. He completed his PhD at UC Davis in 2015 and briefly worked as a post-doctoral scholar at the University of Arizona before running Miridae full-time.
Additionally, Billy served on the board of directors of the California Native Grasslands Association from 2016-2023. His roles included chair of outreach, organizing workshops about native landscaping, and curating and writing for a native landscaping column in CNGA’s quarterly publication Grasslands. Check out cnga.org for more information on the beauty and importance of native grasslands in California.
Summer 2017 Newsletter: p.17: Native Landscaping Snapshots
Fall 2017 Newsletter: p.14: Sticky Plants in Your Garden
Winter 2018 Newsletter: p.14: Creating Structured Native Meadows for Landscapes
Ongoing scientific research on the native plants we use and the interactions they have with native insects as well as new research projects aimed at shifting decisions made by industry professionals and regulators into ones with more sustainable outcomes. Billy remains an active researcher, publishing multiple peer-reviewed articles each year and building collaborations between ecologists and landscape architects.
Pearse IS, LoPresti E, Baldwin BG, and Krimmel BA (in press). The evolution of glandularity as a defense against herbivores in the tarweed clade. American Journal of Botany.
VanWyke J, Krimmel BA, Crova L and Pearse IS (2019). Plants trap pollen to feed predatory arthropods as an indirect defense against herbivory. Ecology 100(11):e08627.
Krimmel BA and Morse, DH (2019). Host-size decisions of female parasitoid wasps seeking hosts. Ecological Entomology 44(4):552-559
Krimmel BA (2018) Native Landscaping and Metapopulations: Thinking beyond the individual garden. Grasslands 28(4):3-5
LoPresti EF, Krimmel BA and Pearse IS (2018) Entrapped carrion increases indirect plant resistance and intra‐guild predation on a sticky tarweed. Oikos 127(7):1033-1044. PDF
Krimmel BA & Kiers H (2018) Creating Structured Native Meadows for Landscapes. Grasslands 28(1): 14-17
LoPresti EF, Robinson MR, Krimmel BA & Charles GK (2018) The sticky fruit of manzanita; potential functions beyond epizoochory. Ecology 99: 2128-2130. PDF
Krimmel BA (2017) Sticky Plants in your Garden. Grasslands 27(4): 14-16
Krimmel BA (2017) Announcing a new Grasslands Series: Native Landscaping Snapshots. Grasslands 27(3): 17-20
Krimmel BA & Pearse IS (2016) Tolerance and phenological avoidance of herbivory in tarweed species. Ecology 97(5):1357-1363
Wheeler AG & Krimmel BA (2015) Mirid (Heteroptera) specialists of sticky plants: Adaptations, Interactions, and Ecological Implications. Annual Review of Entomology 60:393-414. PDF
Krimmel BA & Wheeler AG (2014) Host plant stickiness disrupts novel ant-mealybug association. Arthropod-Plant Interactions 9(2):187-195. PDF
Krimmel BA & Pearse IS (2014) Generalist and sticky plant specialist predators effectively suppress herbivores on a sticky plant. Arthropod-Plant Interactions 8(5):403-410. PDF
Krimmel BA (2014) Why plant trichomes might be better than we think for predatory insects. Pest Management Science 70(11):1666-1667. PDF
Wheeler AG & Krimmel BA (2014) Kleidocerys obovatus Van Duzee (Hemiptera: Lygaeidae: Ischnorhynchinae): New Distribution Records and Habits of an Apparent Seed Specialist on Cypress, Hesperocyparis spp. (Cupressaceae) Proceedings of the Entomological Society of Washington 116 (2), 203-207. PDF
Krimmel BA, Pearse IS (2013) Sticky plant traps insects to enhance indirect defense. Ecology Letters (2) 219- 224. Highlighted in Nature 492:314-315; summarized in Kew Magazine, Pacific Horticulture, Big Science Little Summaries, F1000 Recommended Reading. PDF
Wheeler AG Jr., Krimmel BA (2012) Banasa sordida (Uhler) (Hemiptera: Pentatomidae): Monterey cypress and Gowen cypress (Cupressus macrocarpa, C. goveniana; Cupressaceae) as host plants in coastal California. Proc. Entomol. Soc. Wash. 114: 263–68. PDF
Krimmel BA (2011) Omnivorous insects: evolution and ecology in natural and agricultural systems. Nature Education Knowledge 4(9):4.
Rosenheim JA, Parsa S, Forbes AA, Krimmel WA, Law YH, Segoli M, Segoli M, Sivakoff FS, Zaviezo T, Gross K (2011) Ecoinformatics for integrated pest management: expanding the applied insect ecologist’s tool-kit. J. Econ. Entomol. 104: 331–42. PDF
Forbes AA & Krimmel BA (2010) Evolution is change in the inherited traits of a population through successive generations. Nature Education Knowledge 1(10): 6.
LECTURES
Billy has given numerous presentations on his research and regularly guest-lectures at American River College and UC Davis. You can see him speaking at CSU Chico here.
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
Insects, the foundation of animal food webs, are declining rapidly throughout the world. Help us create habitat for them and work toward a world where humans and nature coexist.
California Native Grasslands Association
Bringing Nature Home
Help A Bee
Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation - Pollinator Conservation Gardens
Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation - Picking Plants for Pollinators
Washington Post - Hyper-Alarming Study Shows Massive Insect Loss
New York Times - The Insect Apocalypse
New York Times - Opinion: Nature Lawns Environment
KQED - California has-Farmers Growing Weeds Why to Capture Carbon
In Defense of Plants - Saving One of North America’s Rarest Shrubs
Miridae is a proud supporter of the Xerces Society and the California Native Grasslands Association.