Meeting 1191 minutes

Minutes from the 1191st Meeting of the Cambridge Entomological Club

Vice President Tianzhu Xiong called the 1191st meeting of the Cambridge Entomological Club to order at 7:30 pm on Tuesday, November 13th 2018 in MCZ 101. Approx. 16 members and guests were in attendance.

New business:
Dominique Person, Brian Felter, and Caleb Rodriguez were nominated for membership.
Sam Jaffe of the Caterpillar Lab invited the Club to the Lab in New Hampshire for joint activities

Speaker Cera Fisher is seeking postdocs to join her at UConn

Old business:

Nick Dorian was confirmed for membership

Cera Fisher, PhD candidate at UConn, presented a talk entitled “An Ant for a Hat: the fashion-forward treehopper and the evolution of novelty”. Cera began her education as a historian and after an internship at Woods Hole and some teaching stints began her work on treehoppers. She began with an introduction to the “helmet” or pronotum of treehoppers (Hemiptera: Membracoidea) and its various functions: for mimicry (esp. ants, myrmecomorphs); cryptic guiseses, including frass and fungus; and warning colors. Cera went on to discuss the genetic mechanisms that govern the development and evolution of the “helmet”, and hypotheses concerning the body parts from which it originated. She described preliminary results from her work with Entylia carinata, her chosen experimental species, and her plans for continuing work.

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

Respectfully submitted, Andrea Golden, CEC Secretary