Meeting 1203 Minutes

Minutes from the 1203rd Meeting of the Cambridge Entomological Club

President Tianzhu Xiong called the 1203rd meeting of the Cambridge Entomological Club to order at 7:40 pm on Tuesday, March 10th, 2020 in MCZ 101.

Approx. 18 members and guests were in attendance.

Old business: None

New business:

The April meeting is cancelled due to the ongoing threat of Covid-19

Our speaker was Dr. Robert J. Gegear, Professor at UMASS Dartmouth and director of the New England Beecology Project. His talk was entitled “From individuals to ecosystems: Using pollinator neuroecology as a tool for biodiversity conservation”

Wild pollinators have declined in abundance, species richness, and geographic distribution at an alarming rate worldwide for unknown reasons, posing a significant threat to ecosystem health and biodiversity. Habitat loss, pesticides, disease, exotic species, and climate change are thought to be factors. Dr. Gegear presented data showing that pesticide and disease exposure can impair cognitive flexibility needed for foragers to adaptively exploit floral resources. He also presented field data showing that utilization of floral resources varies among bumblebee species. Videos showing a bumblebee learning to navigate the flower of the bottle gentian provided an example of the role of learning in exploiting floral resources. Dr. Gegear also included virtual data simulation showing that individual-level effects can ‘scale up’ to drive population decline and loss of biodiversity.

Dr. Gegear concluded with an overview of the Beecology project, which employs a smartphone app and a supporting website to combine regional data supplied by researchers and volunteer “citizen scientists” to help implement effective conservation strategies for pollinator-plant biodiversity in New England.

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

Respectfully submitted, Andrea Golden, CEC Secretary