Arthropod legs: novelty and homology over half a billion years
Dr. Heather S. Bruce Marine Biological Laboratory
Abstract: Arthropods are the most successful group of animals on the planet, and this is in part due to incredible structures like insect wings, beetle horns, and crustacean carapaces. Many of these structures have been proposed to be novel structures that evolved anew in each lineage, but could some or even all of these structures be related somehow? And what does this tell us about how structures and their gene networks evolve over huge timescales of half a billion years?
NOTICE: We will be holding hybrid meetings to accommodate audience members from around the 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 room MCZ 101 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 all.
Up close and personal: Heat and humidity detectors for mosquito host-seeking and egg-laying behaviors
Abstract: Mosquitoes—and the diseases they transmit—are long-standing scourges of humanity. Female mosquitoes utilize multiple host-associated cues to efficiently home in on the sources of the blood they use to nourish their developing eggs. From meters away, they detect elevations in CO2, odors, and visual cues. At close range, increased temperature and humidity associated with the ~3cm “boundary layer” of warm, moist air surrounding the host provide host proximity information and influence landing decisions. Because mosquito larvae are aquatic, humidity cues take on additional significance for post-blood feeding reproductive behaviors by signaling the presence of standing water for egg laying. Although long appreciated as attractive cues, the molecular mechanisms underlying mosquito heat and humidity seeking have remained elusive. In this talk, I will discuss basic mosquito rearing methods as well as the cutting-edge genetic manipulation techniques we recently leveraged together with physiological and behavioral assays to identify and characterize the thermosensory and hygrosensory (humidity detection) systems that support the blood-thirsty behaviors of different subfamilies of vector mosquitoes.
NOTICE: We will be holding hybrid meetings to accommodate audience members from around the 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 room MCZ 101 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 all.
