Meetings

May 25rd, 2022, Wednesday, 4 pm EDT

Virtual American Entomological Society Webinar

Speaker: Dr. Gerard X. Smith, Temple University

Impacts of shared pollinators and community composition on plant-pollinator interactions and their fitness consequences

This talk will explore some of the consequences of plants’ reliance on shared pollinators on the structure of plant-pollinator interaction networks, the foraging decisions of pollinators, and the fitness outcomes of plant species. Through several comprehensive field studies, Smith contributes to our understanding of mutualist interaction patterns at multiple levels of biological hierarchy: the community, species, and individuals.

 

 

PAST MEETINGS

April 27th, Wednesday 4 pm EDT

Virtual American Entomological Society Meeting

Speaker: Dr. Doug Tallamy, Professor, Department of Entomology and Wildlife Ecology, University of Delaware

The Nature of Oaks

Scary headlines about the decline of the natural world that serves as our life support have spurred homeowners across the country to take action by planting natives that will help reverse this trend. No plant will achieve this faster than one of our 91 species of oaks. Oaks support more species of animals, sequester more carbon, protect our watersheds, and nourish soil communities better than any other plant genus in North America. Tallamy will discuss these roles by following the many fascinating things that are happening on the oaks in his yard each month of the year. His hope is to supply the knowledge about oaks that will generate interest in them, and, with any luck, compassion for these magnificent trees.
  

March 23rd, 2022, Wednesday, 4 pm EDT

Virtual American Entomological Society Meeting
Julia Brokaw, Ph

JB_2018_Headshot
D Candidate, Department of Entomology,
University of Minnesota
Using emergence traps to study ground-nesting bees: insights from field experiments and advice for future research

The nesting biology of ground-nesting bees is woefully understudied compared to research on bee foraging preferences, despite that over 70 percent of all bee species are ground-nesting bees. This information is desperately needed to better inform conservation actions that address both food and nesting requirements for bees. However, most studies on ground-nesting bee nesting focus on bees that nest in open, bare soil or in large aggregations, thus biasing our subsequent recommendations regarding nesting habitat availability. Emergence trapping is a relatively new methodology to study ground-nesting bees, in which small tents with an open bottom and bottle at the top are secured to the ground to catch emerging insects. Emergence traps allow for the detection of bee nests that may otherwise go unnoticed in dense vegetation or underneath leaf litter.

Colletes_2021

February 23, 2022, Wednesday, 4 pm EST

Virtual American Entomological Society Meeting

Dr. Justin O. Schmidt, Southwestern Biological Institute and Department of Entomology, University of Arizona

Justin Schmidt

Stinging Insects Are Beautiful

This presentation will highlight the beauty of stinging insects and how the pain of their stings has helped answer questions on how insects evolved into social colonies.

Mutillidae

 

January 26, 2022, Wednesday, 4 pm EST

Virtual American Entomological Society Seminar

Dr. Matthew Persons, Professor of Biology,
Susquehanna University
Lethal and sublethal effects of herbicides on spiders: Hidden costs to beneficial agrobionts

Commercial farming practices often use a cocktail of herbicides to control weeds. These herbicides can have unintended, sometimes surprising consequences on beneficial spiders. This talk will discuss a series of formal laboratory experiments that examines the effects of chronic exposure to a variety of herbicides on spiders that live within these systems.

December 15, 2021 • Wednesday, 4pm •

American Entomological Society Webinar

Mortal combat between ants and caterpillars: an ominous threat to the endangered Schaus’ swallowtail butterfly in the Florida Keys, USA

The federally endangered Schaus’ swallowtail butterfly (Heraclides aristodemus ponceanus) inhabits subtropical dry forest in the northern Florida Keys. Historically, habitat loss and (potentially) mosquito control have contributed to population declines; however, not much is known about the impacts of invertebrate predators, particularly non-native ants. Ant surveys and predator exclusion manipulations were conducted to assess which ant species foraged on the host plants and which type of threat (aerial or crawling) was the most prevalent to the immature stages of H. a. ponceanus. An “ant danger index” was designed to rank the predatory abilities of the four most common ant species collected on the host plants. The winning (potential) ant threat will be revealed in the upcoming presentation.

Dr. Jaeson Clayborn

Assistant Professor of Biology, Miami Dade College Padrón Campus

http://www.jaesonclayborn.com/

November 17, 2021 • Wednesday, 4pm •

Virtual American Entomological Society Meeting

Entomologist Mary Treat (1830-1923)

Mary Treat: Entomologist Extraordinaire

Writer Deborah Boerner Ein offers a sneak peek at her Mary Treat biography, Dear Mrs. Treat: Life and Letters of a 19th Century Scientist, with a special emphasis on Treat’s entomological research and writings. Mary Treat corresponded with Charles Darwin as they both studied insectivorous plants, but her correspondence with entomologists—Benjamin D. Walsh, Charles V. Riley, Auguste Forel, Henry McCook, and others—gives us a broader, more accurate view of Mary Treat’s life and work in the natural sciences.

Ant specimens named in honor of Mary Treat

November 17 @ 4:00 pm – 5:00 pm EST (USA)

Zoom link will be emailed to members.

Meetings are free and open to the public.

 

October 27, 2021 • Wednesday, 4pm •
Virtual American Entomological Society Meeting

Dr. Michelle Duennes, Assistant Professor of Biology, St. Vincent College

https://maduennes.wordpress.com/

Using molecular tools to understand how environmental stressors impact bumble bees

Poor nutrition due to a lack of floral resources, pesticide exposure, and climate change all have direct effects on the health, stability, and fitness of bumble bees. This talk will discuss how Dr. Michelle Duennes and colleagues have used and are using -omics approaches to understand how these factors work individually and synergistically to affect bumble bee health at the individual level via laboratory manipulations and at the population level through wild bumble bees in the Sierra Nevada.

June 23, 2021 • Wednesday, 4pm •
Virtual American Entomological Society Seminar

Dr. Kathryn Weglarz, Assistant Professor of Biology, Westfield State University, Westfield, Massachusetts

Using Existing Entomological Data to Improve Conservation Efforts and Undergraduate Education

Guest lecture by Dr. Kathryn Weglarz:

https://www.westfield.ma.edu/academics/biology-department/kathryn-weglarz

May 26, 2021 • Wednesday, 4pm •
Virtual American Entomological Society Seminar

Dr. Jessica L. Ware, Associate Curator of Invertebrate Zoology, American Museum of Natural History

Dragonfly, Damselfly and Dictyopteran Evolutionary History

Dragonflies and damselflies (Odonata) are charismatic freshwater insects, but their systematics have been difficult to resolve using traditional molecular methods. The results of new genomic level phylogenetic work has influenced our understanding of the evolution of reproductive strategies in this group. Termite diet driven diversification will be reviewed briefly.

 

Collecting in Guyana

April 28, 2021 • Wednesday, 4pm
Virtual American Entomological Society Meeting

Sujaya Rao, Ph.D., Entomology Department, University of Minnesota

Edible Insects: Western Taboo Food or Healthy, Eco-friendly Diet of the Future?

Worldwide, many cultures embrace entomophagy, the eating of insects. Grasshoppers, mealworms, giant water bugs, and many other insects are eaten out of choice, not as famine food in times of scarcity.  So, why haven’t western societies embraced entomophagy? And why should they? Sujaya Rao will share her perspectives, and leave you with ‘food for thought’, in lieu of food with bugs!

https://www.entomology.umn.edu/faculty-staff/sujaya-rao

We  will also Present the Calvert Awards for the best entomological science projects in the Philadelphia region – junior and high school students

students and coworkers

March 24, 2021 • Wednesday, 4pm

Virtual American Entomological Society Meeting

Vaughn Shirey, PhD Student, The Ries Lab of Butterfly Informatics, Georgetown University, Department of Biology, Washington, D.C

Detecting Climate-Driven Macroscale Changes in Boreal and Tundra Butterfly Communities

Earth’s boreal and tundra regions are facing some of the most extreme climatic changes on the planet, yet our knowledge of insect biodiversity in this region is sparse. Here I use museum and community science observations to assess how threatened butterfly communities are responding to climate change within western subpolar North America over the past 5 decades.

Tundra Butterfly

February 23, 2021, Wednesday, 4pm

Virtual American Entomological Society Meeting

Karen Poh, Penn State University, Postdoctoral Scholar

Parasite Hunters: Engaging the Hunting Community to Uncover the Status of Ticks, Deer Keds, and their Pathogens

The speaker, Karen Poh, Penn State University, Postdoctoral Scholar, will discuss the Parasite Hunter project, a community science project involving hunters to collect ticks and deer keds from hunter-harvested deer. The goal of this research is to protect hunters and other outdoor enthusiasts from vector-borne diseases by determining the distribution of ticks and deer keds on white-tailed deer, identifying the pathogens they may carry, and highlighting the tactics people take to prevent vector-borne diseases while outdoors.

 

Deer Tick and Ked

December 2, 2020, Wednesday, 4pm

Virtual American Entomological Society Meeting

Finding Our Way to Greener Pastures:
Successes and Challenges of Regal Fritillary Butterfly Conservation, Grassland Management, and Reintroductions

The speakers, Erika McKinney and Virginia Tilden will discuss the ongoing efforts in the conservation of the Regal Fritillary Butterfly in eastern North America, including reintroduction efforts.

 

Speyeria idalia

October 28, 2020, Wednesday, 4pm •
Virtual American Entomological Society Meeting

Kelsey Fisher

Investigating Monarch Butterfly (Danaus plexippus) Movement Ecology to Inform Conservation Strategies

Kelsey E. Fisher,
Iowa State University
Department of Entomology – Ph.D. Candidate
Center for Communication Excellence (CCE) – Interdisciplinary Writing Consultant

View her paper here:
Employing Very High Frequency (VHF) Radio Telemetry to Recreate Monarch Butterfly Flight Paths

Monarch butterfly with a 220 mg LB-2X radio telemetry transmitter

February 26, 2020, Wednesday, 7 pm •

American Entomological Society Meeting

A Manatawny Creek stonefly nymph in the family Perlidae, 2018.

Stream Restoration in the Delaware Basin:
Insects as Bioindicators

Stefanie A. Kroll, Ph.D., Watershed Ecology Section Leader
Delaware River Watershed Initiative
Patrick Center for Environmental Research
Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University
Assistant Research Professor
Department of Biodiversity, Earth and Environmental Science
Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University