Meeting 1184 Minutes

Minutes from the 1184th Meeting of the Cambridge Entomological Club

President Zhengyang Wang called the 1184th meeting of the Cambridge Entomological Club to order at 7:40 pm on Tuesday, November 14th in MCZ 101.
25 members and guests were in attendance.

Old business:
Yang announced three new nominations for membership:
Sarah Maunsell
Dajia Ye
Siliang Song

New business:
Speakers for December will be Profs. Carrie Hall and Daniel R. Howard, University of New Hampshire.

Our November speaker was Marc E. Epstein, Senior Insect Biosystematist at the California Dept. of Food and Agriculture. His talk was entitled Charismatic Caterpillars of Limacodidae: or how Limacodidae chose me as biographer of Harrison G. Dyar, Jr.

Marc offered a blend of the taxonomy and natural history of slug caterpillars in the family Limacodidae combined with a biography of their early researcher, Harrison Gray Dyar Jr., also known for “Dyar’s Law” and his work on many families of Lepidoptera. His talk included videos of slug caterpillar locomotion and a discussion of their defenses, which include distinctive tubercules and spines.

Concerning Dr. Dyar: In his recent book, Moths, Myths and Mosquitoes, Marc followed not only Dyar’s scientific work, but also the many twists and turns in Dyar’s personal life: his tunnel building, two wives, and the publicity surrounding his unusual life. The book is extensively researched and illustrated with recently discovered historic photos of Dyar and his family and other historic materials.

The meeting was adjourned at 9:05pm for discussion, refreshments and a book signing.

Respectfully submitted,
Andrea Golden, CEC Secretary