Meeting 1166 Minutes

Minutes from the 1166th Meeting of the Cambridge Entomological Club

President Jack Boyle called the 1166th meeting of the Cambridge Entomological Club to order at 7:30 pm on Tuesday, April 14th in MCZ 101, 26 Oxford St. Approximately 18 members and guests were in attendance.

Old business:

Bruno is looking for photos for the Club’s Facebook page.

New business:

Scott Smyers announced a field trip to Long Pond in Littleton.

Nominations for 2015-2016 officers:

President: Shayla Salzman

Vice-president: Nathaniel Edelman

Secretary: Andrea Golden or Jacqui Kluft

Treasurer: Patrick Gorring

Executive Committee:

Bruno de Medeiros

Edward Plekavich

Jay Shetterly

Scott Smyers

Dr. Sarah Kocher of Harvard University discussed her work about harnessing natural variation to study the evolution of social behavior.

Halictid bees harbor extensive variation in sociality both within and between species, making them a model system for understanding the evolution of social behavior. Dr. Kocher chose Lasioglossum albipes for her work dissecting the genetic basis of social behavior. L. albipes varies in social structure (solitary vs. eusociality) and experiments have suggested that this variation has a strong genetic component. She recently completed a draft genome for L. albipes, and ongoing work suggests that there are common genetic factors underlying the evolution of social behavior in this group of bees. She’s also been working to identify ecological factors associated with biogeographic patterns in social structure.

The meeting was adjourned at 8:35 for discussion and refreshments.

Respectfully submitted,

Andrea Golden, CEC Secretary