The Xerces Society is thrilled to announce the two winners of the 2014 Joan Mosenthal DeWind Awards. The DeWind Awards are given to individuals engaged in studies or research leading to a university degree related to Lepidoptera research and conservation, and working or intending to work in that field. The following two students were selected:
Anuj Jain – National University of Singapore, Department of Biological Sciences
Habitat enrichment for butterflies in tropical forest and urban landscapes
Deforestation and habitat degradation are primary conservation concerns, reducing and fragmenting critical habitats and resources for tropical insects. As a result, many threatened insects cannot maintain their own populations and need intervention in the form of habitat enrichment. Experimental studies that manipulate key insect resources and quantify insects’ response are lacking, despite these studies’ great conservation potential. Using Singapore as a model system, our research will quantify the effect of a habitat enrichment strategy by using larval host plants and nectar plants for four butterfly species (two locally threatened) with different habitat requirements, studied across mature forest, degraded forest, and urban landscapes.
Yu-Hsuan Liu – North Carolina State University, Department of Biological Sciences
Do corridors increase gene flow in butterflies?
Many butterflies are threatened by habitat fragmentation, which causes loss of genetic diversity in their populations, deteriorating long-term survival, and diminishing restoration success. Corridors, which reconnect fragmented landscapes through strips of habitats, are a promising conservation strategy to reverse these adverse effects. However, there is not enough support for the theory that corridors promote sufficient gene flow to assist in butterfly population persistence. I propose to use two well-studied species, the buckeye (Junonia coenia) and variegated fritillary (Euptoieta claudia), in the world’s largest corridor experiment at Savannah River Site as a case study to test whether corridors will be an effective long-term conservation strategy for butterflies.
Joan Mosenthal DeWind was a pioneering member of the Xerces Society. A psychiatric social worker by profession, she was also an avid butterfly gardener and an accomplished amateur lepidopterist. Her contributions of time, organizational expertise, and financial support were essential to the growth and success of the Xerces Society over the past 40 years. Joan also had a keen interest in young people, supporting what became the Young Entomologists’ Society. In Joan’s memory, Bill DeWind established a student research endowment fund in her name.
For more information on the DeWind Award, visit http://www.xerces.org/dewind.htm