Tuesday Tunes – All My Friends Are Insects – Weezer

 Fun Stuff, Insects, Pop Culture, Tongue in Cheek  No Responses »
Nov 152011
 

Ryan FleacrestSince I’m here at ESA 2011 and becoming reacquainted with old friends and meeting all sorts of new people interested in insects, I thought it was only fitting to share this short song from Weezer! We’ll forgive the slight transgression about earthworms being insects for now, but Rivers Cuomo best watch his taxonomy in the future!

Don’t be afraid to go out and make an insect/entomologist friend of your own this week!

 

This song is available on iTunes – All My Friends Are Insects (Bonus Track) – Hurley (Deluxe Version)

ESA Day 3 – The Student Sessions

 Cool Science, Entomology, Life as a Grad Student, Meeting, Trip Report  No Responses »
Nov 152011
 

Today was a bit of an oddity for a large meeting; the morning was chalk full of talks and poster presentations, but absolutely no scientific content all afternoon, but rather full of societal business meetings. This means I ran around like mad all morning and then sat on my hands all afternoon, so it’ll be a bit of a light review today.

As I mentioned, all of the student talks were this morning in order for the President’s Prizes to be awarded this evening. I ended up sitting in on 9 or 10 talks as well as exploring the poster session, so I was able to get a pretty good feel for the level of proficiency displayed, and was it ever high! I don’t think I went to a single talk or saw a single poster which I wasn’t inspired or awed by! Everyone seems to be doing fantastic research, whether revising Neotropical cicada taxonomy, studying the evolution of eusociality in carpenter bees, or exploring the relationships of Australian horse flies, every talk I sat in on had me entertained and curious about the hypotheses they were working on! Not only were the talks well presented, but the slides were well designed, and the research given in an understandable medium, immersing the audience in the project at hand. There was even a student describing the puparium of a North American Neriid fly (a group of flies very closely related to the Micropezidae I study)! I couldn’t have asked for a better morning of talks!

I just wanted to mention how great the new ESA Ento-2011 iPhone App is! It has allowed me to easily keep track of when and where I want to be, who’s speaking and what their talk number is, which I found to be a good way to keep track of citations on Twitter. Normally I’d need to fumble around with my big book of titles, switching pages and losing my spot while wasting valuable talk time, but the app has done an amazing job of keeping me on track and in the right room. Kudos to the ESA for developing and sharing a great tool!

Over lunch I took in the vendor displays again now that there weren’t as many people hanging around, and then looked into the ESA Career Center to see what sort of positions were available. Turns out that it’s not a good time to be looking for an entomological job or graduate position, as there were very few advertisements this year! The last time I was at ESA the binders were stuffed full of job, faculty and graduate postings, but this year there may have been 2 dozen total, with very few looking for ecologists and none interested in taxonomy. Whether this is a normal pattern and we’re in a lull, or whether this is a delayed effect of the economic downturn, I’m not sure, but it was a little disheartening. I suppose it can only get better from here, right?

After finishing up the slides for my last talk, I met with Ignasi Bartomeus (@ibartomeus), a pollination ecology post-doc at Rutgers who I’ve been corresponding with on Twitter since Sunday, to have a beer and talk insects. We had a great discussion about the value of social media for public outreach and the value of natural history collections to ecologists. It was enlightening conversation for me, and one that wouldn’t have happened had I not traveled to Reno, or hadn’t been using Twitter! Social Media for the Win again!

Finally, I met with the rest of the Cerceris fumipennis research crew for a brainstorming session on how to continue the work and discuss Wednesday’s symposium. We ended up crashing the Arkansas/Auburn/Clemson/Tennessee Alumni Reception (shh, don’t tell) and sat in the corner discussing new ideas for the next field season. If you want to see some passionate, dedicated entomologists committed to a research project they fully believe in, then you should come out Wednesday afternoon in room A12 for the Biosurveillance symposium!

Tomorrow is an extremely full day, with talks in almost every slot that I am looking forward to seeing! I’ll be taking plenty of notes, that’s for sure!

ESA 2011 Day 1 – ECN

 Entomology, Meeting, Taxonomy  6 Responses »
Nov 132011
 

The true ESA conference doesn’t start until tomorrow, but today marked the start of the Entomological Collections Network meeting. This is where curators and researchers of natural history collections come together and discuss new ideas or trends in the maintenance and advancement of insect collections.

The morning session was largely focused on the different programs available for specimen databasing, highlighting the similarities and advantages for a variety of different programs and testimonials from users. Ranging in price from free to several thousand dollars per year, these programs all do largely the same thing, with some room for customization depending on the curators preferences. If you’re looking at starting your own collection and are anticipating it to include many thousands or millions of specimens, then this was the symposium for you!

The afternoon started off with discussions of a relatively new movement in the insect collections community; mass imaging and digitization of specimens. By using a variety of technologies and even more databases, many institutions are striving to make virtual representations of their holdings available online so people can explore and utilize data remotely. You can learn more at the following websites:
InvertNet
NCSU Insect Collection

The North Carolina State University Entomology Lab is also running a survey to learn how entomologists and those interested in insects use the internet. You can take the survey here.

The final session of the day revolved around the practice of specimen loans, and about those researchers who may be a little slow with repatriating loaned specimens! These 4 talks were some of the most entertaining talks I’ve heard in awhile. Victoria Bayless from the Louisiana State Arthropod Museum started it off by classifying loaners from the hoarder who returns nothing and who can’t bring themselves to part with borrowed specimens to the lazy loaner who couldn’t be bothered, to the saint, the researchers who return loans promptly and include flowers! Mike Ferro also briefly discussed a new idea of a community loan wiki, showing who’s borrowed what from where. It looks like a pretty neat idea which has a lot of potential if accepted by the taxonomic community!

Next, Peter Oboyski of the Essig Museum of Entomology at Berkeley discussed some potential policies for dealing with loan requests where material will be used for molecular analyses. He made some excellent points regarding the potential destruction of specimens and how collections should demand GenBank Accession numbers for sequences from their specimens (to attach to the specimen database entry) and also raw genomic DNA if they have the facilities to properly store it.

We next heard from a confessed loan scofflaw, Zack Falin of the University of Kansas Insect Collection, who offered up some reasons why someone might not be the perfect loaner.

Mike Ivie, the curator of entomology at Montana State University finished up the session by discussing how we should all prepare our loans for the “bus” situation. This is literally a situation where a researcher dies suddenly (ie hit by a bus) leaving their loans behind for colleagues or family to sort out and return. It was certainly an excellent reminder to properly label my own loans, although it was a bit sobering hearing some of his tales of dealing with these situations himself.

A decent banquet meal with plenty of interesting discussion with other Dipterists and a few Neuropterists rounded out day 1.

The big show starts tomorrow, and I’ve got to put the final touches on my presentations for the day. Looking forward to some good talks tomorrow!

ESA 2011 – The Plan

 Entomology, Life as a Grad Student, Meeting, Travel  7 Responses »
Nov 082011
 

Entomological Society of America 2011 Annual Meeting LogoAs I mentioned yesterday on Tuesday Tunes, I’m heading West this weekend to partake in the Entomological Society of America Annual Meeting in Reno, Nevada. Besides marking my first time in the Pacific Time Zone, this conference will also be the first time I’ve given a triplet of talks at a conference, as I’ve been invited to give 3 talks in 3 different symposia! Chronologically, here’s my talk schedule:

Sunday Nov. 13 — Citizen Scientists in Entomology Research (Room A2, First Floor)

11:35-11:55 — “CJAI & citizen science – putting the “public” in publication” – M.D. Jackson & S.A. Marshall

CJAI LogoAbstract: The Canadian Journal of Arthropod Identification (CJAI) is dedicated to providing high- quality, peer-reviewed identification aids to allow naturalists of all levels access to North America’s biodiversity. With papers published by both funded and unfunded professionals and shared online as 100% open access, CJAI has been referenced by scientists around the world, and has assisted countless “amateurs” in identifying specimens and photos. In the information age, CJAI unlocks the gate to biodiversity and democratizes the identification of insects and arthropods around us. Examples of published and upcoming publications and the impact they are expected to have will be presented.

Here’s a little announcement for you; I’m the new Technical Editor for the Canadian Journal of Arthropod Identification, where I’ll be taking over from Dave Cheung as he moves on to a new job in Copenhagen! He’s left some pretty big shoes to fill, but I’m really looking forward to contributing to the running of the journal, and will be discussing how CJAI is a great resource for citizen science projects. Also, expect plenty more info on CJAI coming up in the near future here on the blog!

 

Biodiversity in FocusSunday Nov. 13 — Myths, Misconceptions, and Mental Modifications: Identify, Clarify and Speak Out about Entomology (Room A13, First Floor)

14:50-15:05 — “The Social Entomologist: How connecting with social media can benefit your research program” – M.D. Jackson

This is a similar talk to the one I gave at the Entomological Society of Ontario AGM a few weeks ago (which was a great meeting and something I’ll write about soon), where I’ll be discussing the power of social media for entomology research and discussing how you can incorporate social media into your project. This is a topic which I find really interesting, and hope to do a week-long series of posts shortly after my return from Reno to share and expand on some ideas I have!

 

Buprestis rufipes Buprestidae Jewel BeetleWednesday Nov. 16 — Biosurveillance: Using a Native Wasp Cerceris fumipennis to Find Emerald Ash Borer and Other Species of Buprestidae (Room A12, First Floor)

16:30-16:50 — “A Field Guide to Northeastern Jewel Beetles: Identifying the prey of Cerceris fumipennis including both native and invasive species of Buprestidae” – M.D. Jackson, S.M. Paiero, & A. Jewiss-Gaines

This is a project I’ve been working on for over a year now and which I’ve been unable to publicly discuss until now. Myself, Steve Paiero and Adam Jewiss-Gaines, in collaboration with the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, are putting the final touches on a massive field guide to the Buprestidae of Northeastern North America, which should be in print  in early 2012! With over 450 pages of colour illustrations, this field guide is designed to allow forestry professionals, border inspection agents, researchers and naturalists alike to recognize these beautiful yet economically important beetles, and features some stunning images and identification resources which I’m very proud to be a part of! Again, I’ll be sharing plenty more information here on the blog regarding the field guide, and hope to start showcasing some of these beautiful beetles which are found in our own backyards!

 

Between my talks I’ll be running around like a mad man trying to take in as many presentations, posters and other events as I can. Here are a couple I’m especially looking forward to:

Mon. Nov. 14 – 11:03-11:15 — Descriptions of Glyphidops flavifrons (Bigot) (Diptera: Neriidae) – Charity G. Owings

Tue. Nov. 15 – 9:40-10:00 — Design and development of web-based identification tools for wood boring beetles: a case study – Eugenio H. Nearns

Tue. Nov. 15 – 10:00-10:20 — A traditional taxonomists view on modern web-based insect identification — Charles O’Brien

Tue. Nov. 15 – 15:35-15:50 — Sharing the wonderful world of insects via the internet – Brett R. Blaauw

Tue. Nov. 15 – 17:05-17:20 — Operation global insect media domination: the adventures of Bug Girl – Bug G. Membracid

 

When I find a moment to breathe I’ll be checking on the multiple poster sessions (there are a bunch of Guelph students sharing their work this year) as well as scoping out the vendors, job bank and pretty well anything else I happen to wander into! And guess what! I’m taking you all with me, digitally speaking. I’ll be doing much the same as I did for my trip to Costa Rica last summer, providing a nightly report of the day’s activities, but I also hope to tweet my way through the conference as well, sharing all sorts of interesting insect news and science with you! If you’ve considered joining Twitter, perhaps this would be a good time to do so, just don’t forget to follow me @BioInFocus!

After the meeting concludes, a friend and I are going to take a mini road trip to do some exploring, so hopefully I’ll have plenty of new photos to share on my return.

It’s shaping up to be a crazy week, but I’m excited to take it all in, and I if you’ll be in Reno make sure to say hello!