Tuesday, October 8th

In-Person Meeting
Virtual Zoom Option
7:30 PM EST

Alfred Russel Wallace: Insects and the Discovery of Evolution

Dr. Andrew Berry

Assistant Head Tutor of Integrative Biology

Lecturer on Organismic & Evolutionary Biology

Harvard University

In 1908, at an event to mark the 50th anniversary of the publication of the theory of evolution by natural selection by Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace, Wallace addressed a simple question: why did it fall to him and Darwin (who had died a long time previously, in 1882) to make the discovery?  Why had the simple insight that is natural selection not occurred to other arguably more penetrating contemporary thinkers?  Wallace’s answer: Beetles.  Both he and Darwin started their careers as naturalists as avid beetle collectors.  Historians of science have traditionally dismissed this claim as a typical instance of Wallace’s modesty, but I will argue that in fact studies of beetles — and other groups of insects — did indeed provide the scientific foundation of the Darwin-Wallace theory. 

Tuesday, May 14th

In-Person Meeting
Virtual Zoom Option
7:30 PM EST

Leveraging the circadian clock to reprogram insect diapause

Jacob Dayton

Jacob Dayton

Ph.D. Candidate in Biology, Tufts University

Abstract: The timing of insects’ daily behaviors (feeding, movement) and seasonal development (diapause, migration) affects their population dynamics and distribution. Despite the implications for insect conservation and pest management, the genetic mechanisms underlying variation in timing are poorly understood. To fill this gap, I will report how manipulating the circadian clock gene function alters the daily activity and larval diapause of the European corn borer (Ostrinia nubilalis), a widespread corn pest.