October, 2014
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Phaëton The Official Newsletter of the Maryland Entomological Society Volume 35, Number 1 October 2014 ___________________________________________________________________________________________________ EDITOR: Eugene J. Scarpulla – [email protected] FACULTY SPONSORS: Frank E. Hanson and Austin P. (Bob) Platt Department of Biological Sciences University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC) 1000 Hilltop Circle Baltimore, MD 21250 WEBSITE: http://www.mdentsoc.org/ ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Meeting Announcement The Maryland Entomological Society’s 300th regular meeting will be held Friday, 17 October 2014, at 8:00 p.m., in Room 004 (one floor below the street level), Biological Sciences Building, University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC). Bring a friend and specimens, observations, and books to share. Refreshments will be provided. Presentations are scheduled to begin at 8:15 p.m. ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Speaker: Jeffrey W. Shultz Ph.D. – Associate Professor and Director of Graduate Studies, Department of Entomology, University of Maryland, College Park Title: “The Diversity and Sex Lives of Daddy Longlegs (Opiliones)” The eastern United States is a diversity hotspot for the harvestman subfamily Leiobuninae, the group than encompasses most of the species commonly known as “daddy longlegs.” However, the eastern leiobunines have been neglected by systematists, such that it is nearly impossible for most people—including most arachnologists—to reliably identify even common species. Dr. Shultz started to bring order to leiobunine taxonomy about 10 years ago and has discovered many new species in the process. As is the case with most arthropod groups, species delimitation in harvestmen depends largely on differences in genitalia and other reproductive characters, but these structures also revealed interesting insights into the evolution of mating systems in harvestmen. The penes in some species have cuticular sacs for delivering nuptial gifts to the female, while penes in other species lack sacs and appear to be specialized for forcing copulation. Males in the latter group often have pedipalps enhanced for powerfully clasping the female during mating and the pregenital opening in females is armed with sclerotized barriers. Upon mapping these features on a phylogenetic tree, it is clear that mating in leiobunines has shifted multiple times from a system dominated by gift-giving males to systems dominated by sexually antagonistic males. This talk will review the evidence for genitalic evolution in the eastern leiobunine harvestmen and discuss possible explanations for patterns in mating system. Jeff Shultz has worked on the phylogeny and functional morphology of arachnids and other arthropods for about 30 years. He earned a B.S. in Zoology from Michigan State University in 1982, an M.S. in Biology from Ohio University in 1985, and a Ph.D. in Zoology from Ohio State University in 1990. His postdoc was concerned with molecular evolution. He has been a member of the Department of Entomology at the University of Maryland since 1994 and has served as the membership secretary and on the executive committee of the American Arachnological Society for 10 years. ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Meet for Dinner before the Lectures If you are interested in meeting for dinner before the lectures, you are invited to join the guest speaker and your fellow MES members at Kibby’s Restaurant and Lounge, “Home of Baltimore’s Best Shrimp Salad Sandwich.” Kibby’s is located inside the Baltimore Beltway at 3450 Wilkens Avenue, Baltimore, MD 21229, just 15 minutes from UMBC. Meet at the restaurant promptly at 6:00 p.m. ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 1 ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Phaëton, the Newsletter of the Maryland Entomological Society Volume 35, Number 1 October 2014 ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ discussion and refreshments, and then the Society business ***DON’T FORGET TO RENEW*** meeting was convened. The April MES meeting minutes were ***IT’S MEMBERSHIP RENEWAL TIME*** read by the Secretary and approved, and Treasurer Ed Cohen OCT 2014 – SEP 2015 MEMBERSHIP YEAR delivered his report which cited the General Fund balance Membership renewal forms were inserted in the front of the currently at $3197.94. There was no old business, but new September 2014 issue of The Maryland Entomologist that was business for the evening included election of Society officers for mailed out in September. If the date on your address label reads next year and a decision on date and location for the Society 2014, it is time for you to renew for the “October 2014 – field trip. After some discussion of the officer positions, September 2015” membership year. Please check that your Society elections resulted in a vote that all current officers contact information is correct and return the form along with resume their individual roles for another year. The Society field your check (made out to Maryland Entomological Society) to: trip was voted to be held at Green Ridge State Forest on 14 Edgar A. Cohen, Jr. (MES Treasurer), 5454 Marsh Hawk June, with 15 June as a rain date. A few announcements, as Way, Columbia, MD 21045. follows, were made next. The Penn State Insect Fair would be ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ held on Saturday, 13 September 2014. MES member Ikumi WELCOME TO NEW MEMBERS Kayama announced that the Guild of Natural Science MES welcomes the following new members to the Society: Illustrators, of which Ikumi is a member, will open a unique exhibit at the Garden Art Gallery of Quiet Waters Park in Michael K. Burchett Churchville, MD ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Annapolis, Maryland, on 27 August. It will feature HONORING MEMBER DONORS contemporary works of scientific illustration, and it will MES wishes to honor the following members who made continue until 12 October 2014. MES member Mike Turell charitable donations along with their recent membership again offered his colorful nature T-shirts, cups, and emblems for renewals. These donations help with the printing and mailing of sale as a fundraiser for his Frederick 4-H entomology group. The Maryland Entomologist. For meeting displays, Vice President Phil Kean brought in two Linda M. & Charles A. Davis Cornell drawers containing examples of some of the world’s George H. Harman largest beetles and strikingly-shaped and colorful moths. These Janet A. Lydon included the Atlas Beetle, Chalcosoma atlas (Linnaeus) Timothy M. McMahon (Dynastidae); Eastern Hercules Beetle, Dynastes tityus Tomas M. Mustelin (Linnaeus) (Dynastidae); Neptune Beetle, Dynastes neptunus Frances B. Pope Quenzel (Dynastidae); Titan Beetle, Titanus giganteus Sue A. Ricciardi (Linnaeus) (Cerambycidae); Elephant Beetle, Megasoma Robert P. & Joanne K. Solem elephas Fabricius (Scarabaeidae); Comet Moth, Argema mittrei F. Christian Thompson Guérin-Meneville (Saturniidae); Jersey Tiger (moth), Euplagia Timothy W. Thompson quadripunctaria (Poda) (Arctiidae); Atlas Moth, Attacus atlas ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Linnaeus (Saturniidae); and the day-flying and toxic moth FLOYD W. SHOCKLEY RECEIVES Alcides agathyrsus Kirsch (Uraniidae). The latter moth is native AWARD OF EXCELLENCE to Indonesia and New Guinea and is mimicked by the butterfly MES member Floyd Shockley (Curation, Collection Papilio laglaizei Depuiset (Papilionidae) native to Papua New Management, and Systematics Research; Department of Guinea. Entomology, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Respectfully