Meeting 1139 Minutes

Minutes from the 1139th Meeting of the Cambridge Entomological Club

President Jess Walden-Gray called the 1139th meeting of the Cambridge Entomological Club to order at 7:30 pm on Tuesday, January 10, 2012 in MCZ 101. Approximately 18 members and guests were in attendance.

New business: 4 perspective members, Richard Bosel, Hannah Lewis-Rosenblum, Christian Rabling, Brian Butler, and Nicole Quinn were nominated.

Old business: 3 people were voted into membership.

Our speaker was Lou Perrotti, Director of Conservation Programs at the Roger Williams Park Zoo. His talk was entitled The 18-year effort to establish the American Burying Beetle to Nantucket Island.

The American burying beetle (Nicrophorus americanus Olivier) is a federally listed endangered species once common throughout the eastern and mid-western United States and now surviving in limited habitats in seven states. Habitat loss and changes in species composition have contributed to the beetle’s decline. The carcasses of the now extinct Passenger Pigeon is one resource thought to be utilized by the beetles, which prefer carcasses in the 80-100 gm range.

An initiative to re-establish the beetle on Nantucket Island was begun in 1994 and has been carried out by a partnership of public and private conservation agencies. During this 18-year period, nearly 3,000 captive raised beetles were released at two sites on the 31,000 acre island. Lou outlined the project and showed how post-release monitoring has confirmed that substantial numbers of beetles are reproducing and surviving over the winter. 2012 marks the project’s next stage, when provisioning for the beetles will end. Hopefully naturally available resources such as carcasses from the island’s rabbit population will be adequate to sustain the beetles.

The meeting was adjourned at 8:30 for discussion and refreshments.

Respectfully submitted,

Andrea Golden, CEC Secretary