Meeting 1199 Minutes
Minutes from the 1199th Meeting of the Cambridge Entomological Club
President Tianzhu Xiong called the 1199th meeting of the Cambridge Entomological Club to order at 7:30 pm on Tuesday, November 12th 2019 in MCZ 101.
Approx. 28 members and guests were in attendance.
New business:
The Club now has a Twitter account!
New nominees for Club membership include: Nichole Merullo, Helen McCreery, and Fernando Seixas
Old business:
Avalon Owens announced the meeting of the NE Entomological Society at UMass Boston on November 16th, where she gave a talk on the effect of light pollution on insects.
Jay Shetterly reminded us about “Show and Tell”, where bring members interesting specimens to share. As a starter, Jay brought 2 flightless Mongolian cerambicids from his recent travels.
Scott Smyers is working on upcoming field trips at Wachusett Mtn and possibly NH and VT. Details to come.
Our speaker was Evan P. Economo of the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology His talk was entitled Ant Mandibles 3D: Evolution of wood drillers, vibratomes, and biomechanical mousetraps
Ants owe their success partly due to the many adaptations they have made to exploit their environments. Evan gave a general introduction followed by a discussion of ant mandible diversity and insights gained from X-ray imaging and 3D imaging via a micro-CT system. The results of some of this work are available at Economolab on sketchfab.com
Among the functions performed by specialized ant mandibles are: spring mechanisms for escaping predators and capturing prey, drilling into wood and cutting leaves, and shaving millipedes.
Analysis of these structures in 3D can aid in the study of evolutionary change and offer a window into biodiversity for researchers and the public. Resources that benefit from 3D-related technologies include production of oversized 3D models for public education and an app, “Insects 3D”.
The meeting was adjourned at 8:55 pm for discussion and refreshments.
Respectfully submitted, Andrea Golden, CEC Secretary
