Over the last two semesters, Betsy has analyzed spider communities in the Hawaiian Islands in Dr. Gruner’s lab. Her goal is to gain a better understanding of which ecosystem factors influence the assemblage of a predator community. Because Hawaii is made up of several volcanic islands of differing ages, it is a good system for studying differences in communities at different stages of primary community assembly. She says, “So far, I have found that age is not a good predictor for abundance of most spider families; instead, their abundance may be based on other environmental factors, like canopy structure or available plant types. Recently, I have also joined a project studying parasitoids of the Emerald Ash Borer, an invasive pest in the United States.”