Searching for the habits of New World Beetles in the family Orsodacnidae: Observations from points in Central and South America
Donald Windsor
Biologist Emeritus Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Panama
Early systematic work on beetles in the family Orsodacnidae led quickly to inferences on ancient origins and the notion of “living fossil” insects. Recent observations of beetles in the two Neotropical genera, Aulacoscelis and Janbechynea, in Panama, Mexico and Bolivia establish a consistent pattern of association between adults of all taxa and their cycad host plants, a pattern apparently absent in the Old World genus, Orsodacne. Yet one is left wondering where are the immature stages and what are the resources they utilize. A more complete natural history of this group is needed before a possible 150 million year history is brought to an end. Recent observations in Bolivia and elsewhere may be cracking this mystery ever so slightly.
Don Windsor grew up deep in the woods of southern Indiana. He received a BS in Wildlife Conservation at Purdue University (1966), served as a Peace Corps volunteer in the Kalahari Desert of Botswana (1966-67), became infected with Tropical exhuberance on an OTS course in Costa Rica (1970), received a PhD in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology from Cornell University (1972), studied insect herbivory with Dr Daniel Janzen on an NSF fellowship in Guanacaste Province Costa Rica (1972-73), and continued those studies on a Smithsonian Post Doctoral Fellowship (1973-74). Starting in 1975 as a research biologist at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in the Republic of Panama, he was drawn toward documenting cases of subsocial behavior in Neotropical leaf beetles, and more broadly, toward determining feeding associations between Cassidinae and their host plants. As an emeritus researcher he joined Dr. Keith Clay (Tulane Univ.) to examine the role that epibiotic fungi (Clavicipitaceae) may have on leaf beetle diets, and with Hassan Salem (Max Planck, Mutualisms Research Group) to clarify the role bacterial foregut symbionts (Stammera) may have on host plant selection and cell wall digestion. The association between Orsodacnidae beetles and cycads, first in Panama and later in South America, he has been interested in for several decades, initially stimulated by visits and field trips on the Isthmus with the late Dr. Pierre Jolivet.
In compliance with the COVID-19 social distancing guidelines, we are temporarily suspending all physical meetings and pre-talk dinner until further notice.
CEC meetings are normally 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.
Iridescent jewels: Integrative approaches to the studies of color in the beetle family Buprestidae
Nathan Lord
Assistant Professor Department of Entomology, Louisiana State University
The role and importance of color and pattern throughout the animal kingdom is well known. Regarding biological utility, expression and perception of visual signals can change due to myriad reasons involving the light environment, the signaler, the receiver, or some combination thereof. In groups that are especially colorful or patterned, it is easy to reason that visual signals are under strong selection and therefore are ideal candidates for focused investigation of color production mechanisms, visual systems, and behavior. The definition and measurement of these elements, however, can both be objective and subjective, both maddening and beautiful. While the evolutionary significance of visual signals cannot be denied, standard taxonomic works rarely utilize such obvious and important, yet highly variable and seemingly subjective characters such as color beyond superficial levels. Here we demonstrate the measurement, integration, and analyses of various types of color data (reflectance and absorbance spectra, digital images and video, SEM/TEM images, etc.) for taxonomic utility under objective, repeatable frameworks. In addition to analytical pipelines, we introduce the Insect Color Database (ICDB), an online web portal for color data storage and analysis.
Nathan Lord received his B.S. (2006) and M.S. (2008) in Entomology from the University of Georgia, where he conducted morphological revisions and constructed molecular phylogenies of members of the Coccinelloidea. He then completed his Ph.D. at the University of New Mexico (2013), focusing his dissertation research on the tenebrionoid family Zopheridae and testing hypotheses relating to Southern Hemisphere biogeography. Nathan then shifted gears and completed a post-doc at Brigham Young University, where he investigated the evolution of color visual systems within the Odonata and beetle families Lampyridae and Buprestidae. Dr. Lord then spent two years as an assistant professor at Georgia College & State University before relocating to Louisiana State University in 2018. He is currently an Assistant Professor of Insect Systematics in the Dept. of Entomology at LSU and also serves as the Director of the Louisiana State Arthropod Museum. At present, he and his lab are investigating the development and function of color, both structural and pigmentary, in the jewel beetles.
In compliance with the COVID-19 social distancing guidelines, we are temporarily suspending all physical meetings and pre-talk dinner until further notice.
CEC meetings are normally 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.
MCZ 101, 26 Oxford Street, Harvard University
07:30 PM
Natural selection and social networks in a horned beetle
Vince Formica
Swarthmore College
“All of life is social.” This quote by biologist Steven Frank drives home a simple fact about all living organisms: At some point in their lives they interact with members of their own species and those interactions have consequences for their success and ultimately the population’s evolution.
And yet, we still don’t fully understand: how do complex social behaviors evolve in nature? Social network analysis allows us to quantify the behavior of animals at the individual and the emergent, group level.
In this talk I will discuss my work on the evolution of social networks in the forked fungus beetle (Bolitotherus cornutus). Forked fungus beetles are charismatic insects that are found in eastern North American forests, and can live for several years in populations on decaying logs. Most importantly, they exhibit observable social interactions, such as courtship dances and male combat.
Every summer my team of undergraduate students and I track 20 populations of forked fungus beetles in an old-growth forest, mark and release hundreds of individuals, and record tens of thousands of interactions each year. I’ll discuss how the sign and magnitude of sexual selection for social networks is drastically different among populations that are only a few meters from each other. Together we’ll explore how combinations of traits (beetle horns and social network positions) can interact to make complex selective surfaces that could shape the evolution of behavior and morphology.
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 50 minute entomology related presentation. Membership is open to amateur and professional entomologists.
President’s Address: Mechanisms of a Neotropical coevolution: plant-insect communication in a cycad-weevil symbiosis
MCZ 101, 26 Oxford Street, Harvard University
Shayla Salzman
Harvard University
Pollination mutualisms are well known, even kindergarteners know that the bee and the flower both benefit. Obligate pollination symbioses where both partners completely rely on the other for lifecycle completion, however, are represented by only a handful of examples: the fig-fig wasp and yucca-yucca moth mutualisms being the most famous. In this talk, I will introduce you to another obligate pollination symbiosis; one unique in that it involves a non-flowering plant. We will discuss the symbiotic relationship of the gymnosperm cycad genus Zamia and their Rhopalotria weevil partners and ask what mechanisms exist to maintain this specialized relationship and if we can see evidence of co-evolution in these groups.
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 West Side Lounge, 1680 Massachussetts Avenue, 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 50 minute entomology related presentation. Membership is open to amateur and professional entomologists.
The reintroduction of the American burying beetle to Nantucket Island
MCZ 101, 26 Oxford Street, Harvard University
Andrew Mckenna-Foster
Director of Natural Science
Maria Mitchell Association
The federally endangered American burying beetle, Nicrophorus americanus (Coleoptera: Silphidae) is the largest of North America’s carrion beetles. Its historical range covered 35 states in the eastern temperate areas of North America, but today, populations remain in only eight states and it is possibly one of the rarest beetle species in the United States. The range of ABBs on the east coast is particularly limited, only surviving naturally on Block Island, RI. In 1994, 48 N. americanus were released on Nantucket Island, MA in a large collaborative effort to build a second east coast population. As we observed how this new population was settling in on the island, we have adapted our monitoring and reintroduction methodology to efficiently boost the number of wild beetles. After a peak in capture numbers in 2011 (212 beetles), we entered a phase of testing whether the species can survive on the island with little to no assistance. I will talk about what we have learned concerning dispersal, winter survival, reproduction, and ultimately, the probable fate of this population.
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 6:00 PM) at Cambridge Common restaurant, on 1667 Massachusetts Ave.
CEC meetings are held the second Tuesday of the month from October through May. The evening schedule typically includes an informal dinner (6:00 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 50 minute entomology related presentation. Membership is open to amateur and professional entomologists.
2014 Presidential Address
Weevil Diversity: Beyond the 60,000 Names
MCZ 101, 26 Oxford Street, Harvard University
Bruno de Medeiros
Harvard University
Many people know about horned scarab beetles fighting for females, or insect predators such a praying mantises that can be cannibals. What is less well-known is that similar stories can be found among the seemingly uninsteresting plant-feeding beetles known as weevils. Weevils stand out as a very diverse group in terms of number of species – in fact, they are the most diverse family of animals. However, they are much more than a bunch of names, and weevil natural history can also be very interesting and sometimes even surprising. In this talk Bruno will share some stories that he found while doing research on palm-associated weevils during the last few years, and also the adventures that he went through while chasing them in Brazil.
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 6:00 PM) at Cambridge Common restaurant, on 1667 Massachusetts Ave.
CEC meetings are held the second Tuesday of the month from October through May. The evening schedule typically includes an informal dinner (6:00 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 50 minute entomology related presentation. Membership is open to amateur and professional entomologists.
“All of life is social.” This quote by biologist Steven Frank drives home a simple fact about all living organisms: At some point in their lives they interact with members of their own species and those interactions have consequences for their success and ultimately the population’s evolution.
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 
