Meeting 1182 Minutes

Minutes from the 1182nd Meeting of the Cambridge Entomological Club

President Nate Edelman called the 1182nd meeting of the Cambridge Entomological Club to order at 7:40 pm on Tuesday, May 9th in MCZ 101.

28 members and guests were in attendance.

New business:

Scott Smyers announced a Bioblitz to be held at Mt. Wachusett on August 26.

Treasurer Patrick Gorring gave the annual report on the Club’s finances.

Old business:

The slate of officers for 2017-2018 was approved.

President – Zhengyang Wang

Vice President – Rachel Hawkins

Secretary – Andrea Golden

Treasurer – Shayla Salzman

At Large – Scott Smyers, Jay Shetterly, Edward Pleckavitch

Our speaker was Nate Edelman, Harvard graduate student and current Cambridge Entomological Club president.

Nate’s talk was entitled Broad-scale hybridization in Heliconius Butterflies.

Hybridization among closely related species has important consequences for the processes of speciation and evolution. For example, it can obscure evolutionary histories or enable adaptation through introgression. Nate began with an overview of the genus. Heliconius butterflies are often toxic and mimicry is common. His work concerns hybridization between two species of Heliconius butterflies in South America, Heliconius elevatus and H. pardalinus. Color patterns and their implications, varying fertility of hybrids, and geographic distribution of populations were among the topics Nate discussed.

The meeting was adjourned at 8:40pm for discussion and refreshments.

Respectfully submitted,

Andrea Golden, CEC Secretary