Meeting 1151 Minutes

Minutes from the 1151st Meeting of the Cambridge Entomological Club

President Patrick Gorring called the 1151st meeting of the Cambridge Entomological Club to order at 7:30 pm on Tuesday May 14th in MCZ 101, 26 Oxford St. Approximately 23 members and guests were in attendance.

Old business:
Nominations for CEC officers for 2013-2014 year:
President: Bruno de Medeiros
Vice President: Jack Boyle
Treasurer: Patrick Gorring
Secretary: Andrea Golden
Executive Committee: Edward Pleckavich, Jay Shetterly, Dorothy Barr

New business: Scott Smyers of the CEC and the Friends of Wachusett Mountain has organized a trip scheduled for June 1st.

Stefan Cover, curatorial assistant at the MCZ, presented a talk entitled Reviving the Endangered Art of Faunistics: Revising the Ants of North America.

Faunistics (the study of faunas) combines alpha-taxonomy, biogeography, life-history studies, and natural history to produce a comprehensive, practical, useful portrait of a fauna. Stefan explained his view that faunistics is basal to other biological disciplines. Using a faunistic approach, he is currently revising Wm Creighton’s 1950 work, The Ants of North America, revising and enlarging it from 585 ant taxa to 900 taxa and counting. By closely examining the morphology, behavior, and natural histories of ants, hidden diversity is revealed. Stefan described several of his discoveries using this comprehensive approach, including parasitic ant species whose intricate life histories escaped previous notice.

The meeting was adjourned at 8:50 for discussion and refreshments.

Respectfully submitted,
Andrea Golden, CEC Secretary