Tuesday February 12th
MCZ 101, 26 Oxford Street, Harvard University
07:30 PM
Army ants in an ecological network
Daniel Kronauer
Professor, Rockefeller University
Army ants are keystone species in tropical ecosystems. As top arthropod predators, they not only have direct effects on their prey populations, but they also affect guilds of ant-following birds, butterflies, and parasitic flies that indirectly rely on the presence of the ants. Furthermore, a large number of socially parasitic species, so-called myrmecophiles, have evolved a variety of strategies to infiltrate and exploit army ant colonies. Professor Kronauer will discuss how DNA barcoding and ecological network analyses can reveal the specificity of these manifold interactions, and shed light on the underlying ecological and evolutionary dynamics.
The talk is free and open to the public. The meeting is readily accessible via public transportation. Parking is available in the Oxford Street Garage with advance arrangement, as described here, or (usually but not always) at spaces on nearby streets. Everyone is also welcome to join us for dinner before the talk (beginning at 5:45 PM) at the Cambridge Common, 1667 Mass Ave., Cambridge.
CEC meetings are held the second Tuesday of the month from October through May. The evening schedule typically includes an informal dinner (5:45 to 7:15 PM) followed by our formal meeting (7:30 – 9:00 PM). The latter begins with club business and is followed by a 60 minute entomology related presentation. Membership is open to amateur and professional entomologists.
