For the past three months and for the next three months, the Forbes’ Lab is hosting two researchers from CNRS Montpellier France. Dr. Karen McCoy is a molecular ecologist and evolutionary biologist who specializes in local host adaptation of seabird ticks and its influence on Lymes bacteria transmission. Dr. Thierry Boulinier is interested in maternal transfer of antibodies to seabird chicks and is also studying disease outbreaks in colonies of polar seabirds, most notably albatrosses. The Forbes’ lab also hosted a seminar in late January by Dr. Alex Cordoba-Aguilar, Departamento de Ecologĺa Evolutiva, Instituto de Ecología, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México. His talk was entitled “On the functional ecology of wing pigmentation: a case study in insects”.