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This is our annual "how I spent my summer" meeting. Although it was a fairly cool and damp season there were still interesting insects about so bring your photos to share with your fellow enthusiasts. (Now completed)
Philip Careless
Philip recently completed his Masters in Entomology and is now working as a forest entomologist for the Canadian Food Inspection Agency. He has been interested in nature all his life.
He'll be talking about the beetle-hunting wasp, Cerceris fumipennis, which packs its subterranean nest almost exclusively with stunning metallic wood-boring beetles, the Buprestidae. In a couple of hours the wasp will collect several uncommon beetles for a researcher to identify. He'll also talk about "wasp husbandry" and the success of the 2009 WaspWatcher Volunteer Program, and burrow deep into the strange and elegant lives of some of our more conspicuous solitary wasps.
Tom Mason
Tom is the Curator of Invertebrates and Birds at the Toronto Zoo. He has led our annual spider outing at Blackwater now for several years, a true test of his enthusiasm for the subject. The few spider identification resources assume the researcher will be dissecting the spider to identify it. Tom, however, will give us a general overview of arachnids and some guidelines on how to identify them without bothering them.
Art Weis
Art is the Director of U of T's Koffler Scientific Reserve Centre at Joker's Hill. He is also director of the Canadian Institute for Ecology and Evolution. He has been researching insect life history evolution and the evolution of plant defense systems for many years.
From the time of Theophrastus (ca. 300 BC) naturalists puzzled over plant galls. Are they made by the plant or the insect? Even in the time of Darwin it was debated whether galls were evidence for or against the theory of natural selection. Art will talk about the goldenrod ball gall, the experiments he did with this insect to settle the question, and how it all fits within modern evolutionary theory.
Andrew Mason
Andrew is a neuroethologist at the University of Toronto pursuing the communication techniques of insects and spiders. His current projects include the parasitoid fly that "hears" its cricket hosts, the sound production and hearing of Orthoptera and the complex signalling of other insects and spiders.
His presentation will focus on the courtship displays of some jumping spiders which show an unexpected complexity and diversity of signals. It seems that these attractive spiders don't just rely on their good looks alone!
Adrienne Brewster, Executive Director & Curator, Wings of Paradise Butterfly Conservatory.
Photo: Adrienne Brewster helps to release Toledo Zoo's captive-reared Karner Blue butterflies into the wild
It wasn't the best summer for insects - too cool and wet - but there were still interesting insects about: Marine Blues in Toronto and Giant Swallowtails expanding their range. Bring your photos to share with fellow enthusiasts.
Jim des Rivieres
To say that Jim is a photographer of moths would be a huge understatement. He approaches insects as a visual artist with a background in photography and fine art printing. He scans moth specimens with a high-resolution flatbed scanner. Then he spends hours retouching the images scale by scale using Photoshop to correct blemishes. So far he has produced exhibition-quality images of more than 300 moth species.
His presentation will show moths from an unfamiliar perspective and hopefully give a heightened appreciation of just how beautiful they are.
Bill McIlveen
Don Davis
Instead of a single presentation this month we will have two shorter ones, both by long-time TEA members.
Bill McIlveen is an environmental consultant now following a long career with the Ontario Ministry of the Environment. Many insects use soil by nesting in the ground. Bill's presentation will look at the advanced way certain wasps use soil to build their nests above ground. He'll discuss the biology and nests of both the Mud Dauber and potter wasps.
Don Davis will talk about recent happenings in the world of monarch butterfly conservation, including the presentation he just gave to a group of women from Mexico.
Speaker: Heather Andrachuk
Pollinator Watch is a new project aimed at assessing the status of Canadian insect pollinators. It was spearheaded by Seeds of Diversity in partnership with Environment Canada. Volunteer observers are recruited to record the activities of pollinating insects.
Heather Andrachuk was the Pollinator Watch contact at Environment Canada and is currently pursuing an MSc in pollination studies at Waterloo. Her presentation will give us a look at this timely new project and how we might get involved.
Colin Jones
Colin Jones is a contract biologist with the Ministry of Natural Resources in Peterborough as well as the editor/compiler of the Lepidoptera and Odonata summaries for the TEA. He is very well-known and respected in the odonate world as an expert.
Colin is one of the authors of the new book Dragonflies and Damselflies of Algonquin Park and Surrounding Areas. He will present an overview of the biology and ecology of dragonflies and damselflies, as well as touch on the conservation of these fascinating insects. He will also be bringing copies of his book to this meeting for those who want to purchase it.
ANNUAL STUDENT SYMPOSIUM
Graduate students from Ontario universities present short talks and display posters relating to their work in entomology. There is lots of opportunity to talk to the students and show TEA interest and support for these emerging entomologists.
Coffee and refreshments are served at intermission.
The list of talks is as follows:
- Daniel Antwi-Amoabeng (Brock): Effects of Sugar diets on Black Fly (Diptera: Simuliidae) Longevity & Immunity: Implications for Parasite Transmission Efficiency.
- Jaclyn Bowen (Carleton): The evolution of ritualized vibration-mediated territorial signals in caterpillars (Drepanidae).
- Philip Careless (Guelph): Biosurveillance: Using a native wasp to find Emerald Ash Borers.
- Alan Fleming (Carleton): Sonic, ultrasonic and vibratory signalling in the Mountain Pine Beetle, Dendroctonus ponderosae Hopk. (Coleoptera: Curculionidae, Scolytinae).
- Joel Gibson (Carleton): Hilltopping in the Conopidae (Diptera).
- Crystal Vincent (Carleton): The function of sexually dimorphic pterostigmas in Ormia Ochracea (Diptera:Tachinidae).
The following posters will also be available for viewing:
- Ray Biastoch (York): The Reference Condition Approach to Benthic Invertebrate Monitoring in the Arctic.
- Syed Ghazanfar Ali (independent): Fruit fly control: an economical and non-polluting technique.
- Christopher Luszcek (York): Preliminary Assessment of the Composition and Diversity of Benthic Macroinvertebrate Communities in Lakes and Ponds of Nunavut, Canada.
David Bree
David is a long-time TEA member and has been a park naturalist seasonally and full time for the last 20 years. He spent several years at Petroglyphs in Peterborough and is currently the naturalist at Presqu'ile. For the last decade insects have become his main passion, especially dragonflies.
His talk will discuss the insects of Southeastern Ontario, particularly those found in provincial parks. It will be a personal journey of discovery of what's out there and what they may be doing.
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