Meeting 1220 Minutes

Minutes from the 1220th Meeting of the Cambridge Entomological Club

The 1220th meeting of the Cambridge Entomological Club was called to order by President Jesse Thuma at 7:36pm on Tuesday November 8^th, 2022. Approx. 11 members and guests attended, plus 10 more joined us via Zoom.

New business:

Billy Hickey was nominated for membership.

Old business:

Sarah Ying-Fei was approved for membership.

Jay Shetterly marked 60 years of membership, from November 1962 to November 2022.

Scott Smyers reported on the Wachusett Bioblitz 260 species were recorded on iNaturalist.

He also noted that the Club’s 150^th anniversary will be in 2024.

Our speaker was Isaac Weinberg of the Tufts University Biology Dept. His talk was entitled “Plasticity in honey bee comb arrangement in response to thermal stress”.

Honey bees (Apis mellifera) are defined in part by their large colonies, production of honey, and intricate hives. The bees use cells to store both developing brood and food, arranged with a central cluster of brood below reserves of honey. It is believed that this pattern is maintained by self-organizing behavior–simple rules result in large scale, emergent patterns. Isaac presented data from experiments testing the effect that chronic thermal stress has on the organization of honey bee colonies. Among the findings: heat stress affects the placement of thermally-sensitive brood, shifting it to more insulated areas of the hive, while non-heat sensitive food stores are shifted to warmer areas. Chronic heat stress requires increased energy expenditures to cool the hive, resulting in lower food stores.

The meeting was adjourned at 8:49 pm.

Respectfully submitted, Andrea Golden, CEC Secretary