Last weekend, I traveled to Annapolis, MD, to attend the 89th Annual Meeting of the Eastern Branch of the Entomological Society of America (ESA). This was my first time attending this meeting and my first time being in Annapolis, which I was surprised to learn is the location of ESA Headquarters. I never knew it was so close!
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A central theme of the conference was scientific communication. The plenary speaker was Kim Todd, a science writer who wrote a book about the life of Maria Sibylla Merian titled “Chrysalis: Maria Sibylla Merian and the Secrets of Metamorphosis“. There was also a panel discussion with Kim Todd and three other science communicators: Mike Murillo, a news anchor and reporter in Washington, D. C.; Inglasia Schrobsdorff, producer of the Kojo Nnamdi show on Washington’s NPR station; and David Malakoff, the Deputy News Director of AAAS. Moderated by professor and extension specialist Michael Raupp, the panel gave excellent advice on how to work with the media to communicate science effectively. One piece of advice that stayed with me was from David Malakoff, who said that the key to good science communication is “distilling complexity”.
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I saw a talk by fellow Penn State PhD student Shelby Kilpatrick, titled “A case study on updating checklists: The bees (Hymenoptera: Apoidea: Anthophila) of Pennsylvania, USA”. To document the diversity of native bee communities and create a checklist of all species found in Pennsylvania, Kilpatrick reached out to several insect collections for specimen records, including the Frost! From her presentation, it was clear that the collection at the Frost Museum has contributed a great deal to helping understand how many bee species are present in Centre County, PA.
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References:
Kilpatrick, S.K., J. Gibbs, M.M. Mikulas, S. Spichiger, N. Ostiguy, D. Biddinger, and M.M. López-Uribe. 2018. Checklist of the Bees of Pennsylvania. http://lopezuribelab.com/checklist-bees-pennsylvania/
Kilpatrick, S.K., J. Gibbs, M.M. Mikulas, S. Spichiger, N. Ostiguy, D. Biddinger, and M.M. López-Uribe. 2018. A case study on updating checklists: The bees (Hymenoptera: Apoidea: Anthophila) of Pennsylvania, USA. 89th Annual Meeting of the Eastern Branch of the Entomological Society of America (ESA), March 17-19th, 2018, Annapolis, MD.
Edit: This post was edited on 4/3/18. Shelby Kilpatrick is a PhD student, not a PhD candidate (yet!).
Regarding “The 5 counties with the highest number of bee species (100+) recorded are those with major insect collections within them or close by. ” Not surprising. It’s not that the other counties, y’know, LACK BEES or whatever. I mean, maybe they do but it’s way more likely that the bees are not being observed. Do species exist when nobody sees them?
I don’t know from bees, but I’ve been looking into the odonata for my county (Fulton) and *sheesh* the available species lists for the county are not real comprehensive. The PA Natural Heritage Project (see here: http://www.naturalheritage.state.pa.us/CNHI.aspx) offering for Fulton County includes an odes species checklist on p. 63, table 14. Nice! (But it is not sufficient, see here: http://which-chick.dreamwidth.org/618165.html ) And I checked over at odonatacentral.org and their list was also not that great but is getting better because they let people like me submit digital pix as proof. (See here: http://which-chick.dreamwidth.org/605653.html )