Boston Flora

Tag: Cambridge Entomological Club

  • Tuesday, January 10, 7:30 pm Eastern – Names, Concepts, Codes and the Diversity of Neotropical Butterflies, Live and Online

    The public is invited to attend the January meeting of the Cambridge Entomological Club on January 10, presented by Shinichi Nakahara, Biodiversity Postdoctoral Fellow at Harvard’s Museum of Comparative Zoology. You may attend in person in the Gilbert Room MCZ 101A, or on Zoom: https://harvard.zoom.us/j/92664403460?pwd=ME%5DGMmxrTi%5DHNGVjOFozbzluR3%5DqZzog#success

    Butterflies (Lepidoptera: Papilionoidea) are often regarded as one of the best taxonomically studied groups of insects. However, our understanding of their species richness may prove to be startlingly below common expectation and a disturbingly high number of unresolved nomenclatural issues surrounding names exists, especially in the Neotropical region. With over 30,000 names published for the purposes of zoological nomenclature, tracing the sources of Neotropical butterfly names and resolving their correct applications can potentially result in contention or confusion. Furthermore, in a rapidly changing world, the basis of understanding species diversity is facing many challenges. In this talk, Dr. Nakahara will explore the proverbial tip of the iceberg regarding Neotropical butterfly diversity, ranging from some of the rarest butterflies to common and widespread species in this region, and take this opportunity to reconfirm the importance of stable nomenclature as a progress towards understanding organisms which we share this plant with.

  • Tuesday, November 8, 7:30 pm – Plasticity in Honey Bee Comb Arrangement in Response to Thermal Stress

    Welcome back to the first Cambridge Entomological Club meeting of the 2022-2023 academic year. We will be holding hybrid meetings to accommodate COVID-19 precautions and audience members from around the world. 

    Honey bees are a charismatic social insect species defined in part by their large familial colonies, production of honey, and intricate hives. Within their hives, honey bees use cells to store both developing brood and food. These stores are generally arranged with a dense central cluster of brood below large reserves of honey with a thin strip of pollen separating the two. It is believed that this characteristic pattern is maintained by self-organizing behavior – individuals following simple, localized rules to create large scale, emergent patterns. My PhD research has focused mainly on testing the limits of this emergent pattern. In this talk, Isaac Weinberg, Fifth Year PhD candidate, Tufts University Biology Department, will present data from three field experiments which observe the effect that chronic thermal stress has on the organization of honey bee colonies, and the implications these results have for honey bee health in a changing world.

    For those able to attend, we will have an informal dinner at 6:00 pm at Cambridge Common Restaurant with the speaker, followed by our formal meeting (7:30 – 9:00 pm) in the Gilbert Room of the Museum of Comparative Zoology (there will be signs to help direct). The meeting will begin with club announcements, followed by a 60-minute presentation by the invited speaker and Q&A. Membership is open to amateur and professional entomologists. 


  • Tuesday, October 11, 7:30 pm – Ecology and Evolution of Interactions Between Insect Herbivores and Plants, Live and Online

    The first Cambridge Entomological Club meeting of the year will take place Tuesday, October 11th at 7:30 in the Gilbert Room of the Museum of Comparative Zoology, and online on Zoom HERE. Mayra Vidal of UMass Boston’s Department of Zoology will speak on the Ecology and Evolution of Interactions Between Insect Herbivores and Plants. Nature can be seen as an ‘intertwined web of interactions’, where species directly or indirectly influence each other. Interactions between different species can drive the evolution of traits and potentially lead to the formation of new species, thus contributing to the diversity of organisms we have on Earth. Insect herbivores are one of the most diverse groups of organisms, and the interaction with their host plants is arguably a major driver of their diversification. In this talk, Mayra will explore how host plants and natural enemies influence the evolution of a generalist herbivore, and how global environmental changes affect the interaction between insect herbivores and their host plants.

    For those able to attend in person, the Club will have an informal dinner at 5:45 pm at Cambridge Common Restaurant with the speaker, followed by our formal meeting (7:30 – 9:00 pm) in the Gilbert Room (there will be signs to help direct). The meeting will begin with club announcements, followed by a 60-minute presentation by the invited speaker and Q&A. Membership is open to amateur and professional entomologists. 

  • Saturday, March 13, 12:30 pm – Identity as a Pathway: Scorpion Evolution and Queer Advocacy, Online

    The Cambridge Entomological Club will hold an online meeting with keynote speaker Lauren Esposito, Schlinger Curator of Arachnology at the California Academy of Sciences. She will be speaking about “Identity as a Pathway: Scorpion Evolution and Queer Advocacy.”

    We will also host a panel discussion, “Encouraging Diversity in the Field of Entomology: A Panel Discussion with BIPOC Entomologists.”

    The panel will feature:

    • Dr. Dominic Evangelista, Adelphi University, co-founder of EntoPOC (Moderator)
    • Dr. Sebastian Echeverri, American Arachnological Society
    • Megan Wilson, PhD candidate, American Museum of Natural History & Rutgers University-Newark, co-founder of EntoPOC
    • Sallqa-Tuwa Mafla BondocGawa, American Museum of Natural History & Rutgers University-Newark, co-founder of EntoPOC
    • Teá Kesting-Handly, PhD Student, University of Massachusetts Boston

    The meeting will be held from 12:30pm to 4pm Eastern Time. There will be a business meeting preceding the panel discussion and keynote presentation; a full agenda will be sent prior to the meeting.

    Advanced registration is required. Use this link to Register now!

  • Tuesday, March 9, 7:30 pm – Ecophysiology of Honeybee Colonies

    Dr. Jake Peters, postdoc at the Collective Embodied Intelligence Lab in the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at Cornell University, will present a free Zoom talk for the Cambridge Entomological Club on March 9 at 7:30 entitled Ecophysiology of Honeybee Colonies. To register email ehoki@g.harvard.edu.

    Honeybee colonies exhibit extraordinary control over their microenvironment to maintain suitable conditions for brood rearing, food storage and communication despite fluctuating macroenvironmental conditions. They ventilate their nests to exchange respiratory gasses, modulate their density to control hive temperature and even change their shape to maintain mechanical stability when shaken by the wind. I will share some of my work to uncover the biomechanical and behavioral mechanisms that allow honeybee colonies to coordinate these collective physiological responses. 

    Jake Peters received his PhD in Organismic and Evolutionary Biology at Harvard University in 2018. He is now a postdoctoral research fellow in the Collective Embodied Intelligence Lab in the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at Cornell University. His current work is focused on understanding modes of indirect communication in social insects and how they might inform the design of communication strategies in large groups of small robots. 

  • Tuesday, May 19, 7:30 pm – Swallowtails: A Kaleidoscope of Natural and Laboratory Hybrids Online Lecture

    The May meeting of the Cambridge Entomological Club will take place Tuesday, May 19 at 7:30 pm on Zoom. Click HERE to join meeting – password nabakov.

    Closely related species are prone to hybridization. The effect of natural hybrids on the evolutionary trajectory of parental species is manifold. On the other hand, laboratory hybrids are useful genetic techniques to study the divergence between incipient species. Historically, swallowtail butterflies are among the best studied insects in terms of both natural and lab hybrids, and are continuing to present challenging problems in insect speciation. In this talk, Tianzhu Xiong will present his recent study on the hybridization within the Asian peacock swallowtails. Specifically, 1) natural hybrids: the debatable relationship between Papilio syfanius and Papilio maackii near a zone of environmental shift; 2) laboratory hybrids: genetic incompatibilities within the Papilio bianor species complex. 

    Tianzhu Xiong is a 4th year graduate student from the Mallet Lab at Harvard Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology. He obtained his bachelor’s degree in Biomedical Engineering from Shanghai Jiao Tong University and is the current president of the Cambridge Entomological Club. His research interests are theoretical population genetics and divergence in swallowtail butterflies from the oriental region.

  • Tuesday, February 11, 7:30 pm – Deadly Cargo

  • Tuesday, January 14, 7:30 pm – Mound-building Termites and How They Coordinate Their Work

    The public is invited to attend the January meeting of the Cambridge Entomological Club on Tuesday, January 14, at 7:30 pm at Harvard University, 26 Oxford Street MCZ 101. Dr. Justin Werfel, Senior Research Scientist at the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University, will present a talk entitled Mound-building Termites and How They Coordinate Their Work.

    Termites construct complex mounds that are orders of magnitude larger than any individual and fulfill a variety of functional roles for the colony. The traditional understanding of how the insects organize their efforts focuses on stigmergy, a form of indirect communication in which actions change the environment and thereby provide cues that influence future work. Dr. Werfel will discuss studies that point to the importance of cues including surface geometry, active excavation, and humidity, but, surprisingly, show no role for the putative cement pheromone that has been central to the theory for six decades. There will also be robots!

    Justin Werfel leads the Designing Emergence Laboratory. His research interests are in the understanding and design of complex and emergent systems, with work in areas including swarm robotics, social insect behavior, evolutionary theory, engineered molecular nanosystems, and educational technology. His work has been featured by numerous national and international media, highlighted among Science’s “top 10 scientific achievements of 2014”, and denounced by a former assistant secretary of the US Treasury as “an enemy of the human race.” (which to our mind is high praise) The meeting is free.

  • Tuesday, April 9, 7:30 pm – Strangers in the Night: Has Light Pollution Led to Firefly Declines

    The Cambridge Entomological Club’s April meeting will take place Tuesday, April 9 at 7:30 pm in Room 101 of the Harvard Museum of Comparative Zoology on Oxford Street in Cambridge.

    Why do fireflies flash? Because they want to be seen! But their unique bioluminescent courtship signals can be obscured by street lamps, house lights, and other sources of nighttime light pollution — and if we’re not careful, our lights might extinguish theirs forever. Learn more about the total impact of light pollution on firefly reproduction, and methods whereby fireflies, moths, and other essential members of the nocturnal ecosystem can continue to coexist with humans on this increasingly urbanized planet.

    Avalon Owens is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Biology at Tufts University, where she studies the impact of light pollution on North American fireflies. She earned her Masters degree in Entomology from National Taiwan University, and hosts a bilingual educational YouTube channel called INSECT [昆蟲島] ISLAND.

    The talk is free and open to the public. The meeting is readily accessible via public transportation. Parking is available in the Oxford Street Garage with advance arrangement, as described here, or (usually but not always) at spaces on nearby streets. Everyone is also welcome to join us for dinner before the talk (beginning at 5:45 PM) at the Cambridge Common, 1667 Mass Ave., Cambridge.

  • Tuesday, October 9, 7:30 pm – The Whole Story: A Celebration of Caterpillars in All Their Incarnations

    Tuesday, October 9, 7:30 pm – The Whole Story: A Celebration of Caterpillars in All Their Incarnations

    Samuel Jaffe from the Caterpillar Lab will present a photograph and video packed talk on Tuesday, October 9 at 7:30 that explores backyard pollinators, plants, and the many caterpillars that are positioned at the center of it all. He will introduce a “Whole Story” perspective of natural history study and appreciation that just might make you reconsider a herbivore’s place in our gardens. The “Whole Story” is a celebration of caterpillars in all their incarnations. Sam founded “The Caterpillar Lab” in 2013, a non-profit educational outreach organization. He travels the country working with museums, nature centers, schools, and individual teachers helping native insects find their place in our everyday lives.

    The talk is free and open to the public. It will be held in Room 101 of the Harvard Museum of Comparative Zoology, 26 Oxford Street in Cambridge. The meeting is readily accessible via public transportation. Parking is available in the Oxford Street Garage with advance arrangement, or (usually but not always) at spaces on nearby streets. Everyone is also welcome to join The Cambridge Entomological Club for dinner before the talk (beginning at 5:45 PM) at the Cambridge Common, 1667 Mass Ave., Cambridge. For more information visit http://entclub.org.

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