Meeting 1232 Minutes

The 1232nd meeting of the Cambridge Entomological Club was called to order by President Jacob Dayton at 7:37pm on Tuesday, March 12, 2024. 16 members and guests attended with 3 additional attendees on Zoom.

New business: Lucy Wilson was nominated for membership.

Old business: Jacob discussed new details for the club’s 150^th anniversary.

Dates for the Mt. Washington celebration will be July 12-14 and August 15-17.

A well-attended event, “ArtsThursday” featuring insects, was held March 28 at the museum. The Ent Club had a table manned by Club members.

Our speaker was Elio Challita of Harvard SEAS. His talk was entitled “Uncovering the mysteries of insect waste removal: Why and how sharpshooter insects use droplet superpropulsion.”

Consuming food and eliminating waste are essential processes for all living organisms. The impact of feeding on animal anatomy and behavior has been extensively researched, but the role of excretion in shaping and limiting animal behavior remains largely unexplored.

Sharpshooter insects (Cicadellidae) face challenges due to their small size and nutrient-poor food source, xylem sap, which at 95% water, requires them to excrete large amounts of water to obtain needed nutrients. Dr. Challita explored the how and why of the physical principles, mechanisms and interactions involved in eliminating this large amount of waste. At the small scale of these insects, surface tension is a significant factor. The sharpshooters’ excretory organs include an anal stylus and hair projections used to eject droplets at speeds that exceed the speed of the stylus itself (superpropulsion). Dr. Challita described various experiments and calculations to characterize the limits and principles of superpropulsion. He ended with a comprehensive chart of “Fluid ejections in nature”, a comparison of organismal excretion across taxa and eight orders of magnitude, from fungal spores to elephants.

The meeting was adjourned at 8:47.