Meeting 1175 Minutes
Minutes from the 1175th Meeting of the Cambridge Entomological Club
President Shayla Salzman called the 1175th meeting of the Cambridge Entomological Club to order at 7:40 pm on Tuesday, May 10th in MCZ 101. Approximately 28 members and guests were in attendance.
New business: Shayla presented the annual Treasurer’s report in Patrick’s absence.
Scott Smyers updated the club on the upcoming June 4th Bioblitz at Mt. Wachusett.
Old business:
Election slate for 2016-2017 approved:
President – Nate Edelman
Vice President – Zhengyang Wang
Secretary – Andrea Golden
Treasurer – Patrick Gorring
Exec board – Jay Shetterly, Edward Plekavich, Shayla Salzman
Old business: Melissa Whitaker and Alonzo Izquierdo were approved for membership
Santiago Ramirez presented a talk entitled “Coevolution in a Bee-Orchid Mutualism”.
Dr. Ramirez studies the genetic bases of coadaptation in a plant-pollinator mutualism between euglossine bees and certain orchids. Male euglossine bees do not produce their own pheromones, but instead gather perfume compounds (terpenes) to present to females during courtship display. The perfumes are species-specific, and likely mediate reproductive isolation among related bee lineages. Diversity orchid species from the American tropics have evolved the production of terpene-rich floral scents to attract the male bees in exchange for pollination services. Dr. Ramirez utilizes approaches from evolutionary biology, genomics, molecular biology, chemistry and physiology to investigate how genetic toolkits are coopted to generate the intricate associations we observe between species in nature.
The meeting was adjourned at 8:50pm for discussion and refreshments.
Respectfully submitted,
Andrea Golden, CEC Secretary
