Meeting 1247 Minutes

Minutes from the 1247th Meeting of the Cambridge Entomological Club

The 1247th meeting of the Cambridge Entomological Club was called to order by President Amine Kousba at 7:35pm on Tuesday, February 10, 2026. Approx. 14 members and guests attended 4additional members and guests on Zoom.

New business:
We voted on a new state insect, we had 8 candidates and landed on Photinus obscurellus, the murky flash-train firefly.

Our speaker was Dr. Samantha Sawyer from University of New Haven
Her talk was entitled “Forensic Entomology: Filth Flies as Indicators of Death and Environmental Contaminants”

We heard from Dr. Samantha Sawyer, one of 26 board-certified forensic entomologists in the USA. She runs the Decomposition and Theoretical (DEATH) Ecology Laboratory at University of New Haven and talked to us about her work.
She told us about how she uses insects to determine things in both living and dead organisms. For example, the type and lifestage of insects can be used to find a time window in which someone may have died.

Myiasis, the colonization of a living individual by an insect, can be used to inform cases of abuse to animals or humans who are dependent on physical care from others.
She is interested in using necrophagous insects such as filth flies as environmental sentinels to monitor toxic chemicals to apply to human, animal, and environmental health.

Thanks to Jim Mallet for taking notes!