Meeting 1155 Minutes

Minutes from the 1155th meeting of the Cambridge Entomological Club

President Bruno de Medeiros called the 1155th meeting of the Cambridge Entomological Club to order at 7:45 pm on Tuesday, January 14th in MCZ 101, 26 Oxford St. Approximatelly 20 members and guest in attendance.

New business:
Treasurer Patrick Gorring announced that CEC dues are due, and mentioned payment options.

Old business: none

Maria Lubertazzi provided a slideshow of student projects from her entomology course at RISD. These included insect-inspired clothing and illustration.

Bob Smith, post-doctoral fellow at the University of Massachusetts Amherst presented a talk entitled A Heads-up View of Urban Stream Ecology.

Bob discussed his work on caddisflies done during his dissertation research. He compared the diversity of caddisflies in areas with different degrees of urbanization. Natural areas showed more species diversity and some overlap with urban species. Traditionally, this was attributed to water quality, but Bob showed that dispersal constraints also contribute to low diversity in urban streams.
Modeling showed that the caddisflies are more likely to disperse perpendicular to flowing water, against the hypothesis that they fly parallel with the water. Bob also used GIS to look at dispersal abilities on a regional scale. He concluded that urban landscapes are a large factor, in addition to water quality and habitat, contributing to loss of diversity in urban watersheds.

The meeting was adjourned at 8:45 for discussion and refreshments.

Respectfully submitted,

Bruno de Medeiros, CEC President, and Patrick Gorring, CEC treasurer.