The Pryor Mountains BioBlitz will take place July 6-8, 2012. Organizer Kayhan Ostovar is looking for lepidopterists to assist with identifications and citizen scientists to participate. Travel funds may be available for taxonomic experts. Learn more at http://bioblitz.weebly.com or contact Kayhan Ostovar.
The McGuire Center for Lepidoptera and Biodiversity is seeking a highly motivated undergraduate student with a particular interest in systematic biology to take part in an NSF-funded research project on the systematics of Neotropical butterflies. The student will gain experience in taxonomic methods, collections curation, comparative morphological and molecular study, phylogenetic analysis and potential co-authorship in a resulting publication.
The student will spend the equivalent of 8 weeks full-time working on the project between June-December 2012, with hours somewhat flexible, and will receive a stipend. The project will take place at the McGuire Center for Lepidoptera and Biodiversity, Florida Museum of Natural History, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL. The student must be a citizen or permanent resident of the USA and enrolled as an undergraduate student at a US institution throughout the period of the project (although not necessarily registered for classes).
For application details and further information visit http://www.flmnh.ufl.edu/butterflies/neotropica/reu2012.html
The 2012 Lepidoptera Course will be held at the SW Research Station in the heart of the Chirichahua Mts. of SE Arizona (about 2 hours from Tucson) on 11-20 August. This setting is one of the highest areas of Lepidopteran biodiversity in the US. The focus of the course is to train serious amateurs, citizen-scientists, and academic professors in Lepidoptera identification, classification, and biology.
The staff for the 2012 course includes:
-Deane Bowers, U of Colorado
-Jason Dombroskie, Cornell University
-Lee Dyer, U of Nevada, Reno
-Paul Goldstein, USNM
-Hugh McGuinness
-Jim Miller, AMNH
-Ray Nagle, U of Arizona
-Chris Schmidt, CNC
-Dave Wagner, U of Connecticut.
-Bruce Walsh, U of Arizona
Course fees (which includes room and board) is $1070 for students (and course
alumni) and $1170 for nonstudents. Application deadline is 11 June 2012.
Further details, and a link to the application form, can be found at www.lepcourse.org. For any questions, contact Bruce Walsh, jbwalsh@u.arizona.edu.
Monarch Teacher Network of Canada offering eleven workshops in 2012 on Teaching and Learning with Monarch Butterflies. This year includes their first ever French language workshop. Workshops are hosted over two days and provide educators with the knowledge, skills and resources to raise Monarchs in the classroom and create outstanding learning experiences for their students. Introduce your students to concept of pollination and habitat restoration through this unique and charismatic pollinator.
Skills development is central to the workshops. Participants work with leaders to build confidence and competence in the following areas:
Workshops fees are $95.00 (plus applicable taxes), and include all resources, monarch rearing supplies, curriculum oriented lesson plans and snacks each day.
The workshops will be hosted this July and August at the following locations:
July 10 & 11, 2012, REGINA, Saskatchewan
July 10 & 11, 2012, SUMMERSIDE, Prince Edward Island
July 11 & 12, 2012, OTTAWA, Ontario (in English)
July 17 & 18, 2012, WINNIPEG, Manitoba
July 18 & 19, 2012, OTTAWA, Ontario (en Français)
July 24 & 25, 2012, OSHAWA, Ontario
July 26 & 27, 2012, CAMBRIDGE, Ontario
July 31 & Aug. 1, 2012, M'CHIGEENG, Manitoulin Island, Ontario
July 31 & Aug. 1, 2012, WOODBRIDGE, Ontario
Aug. 16 & 17, 2012, TATAMAGOUCHE (NORTH SHORE), Nova Scotia
Aug. 21 & 22, 2012, PORT ROWAN (near Long Point), Ontario
To register visit www.monarchteacher.ca or call Nancy McGee at 289-268-3911.
Dr. Matt Medeiros is a teacher at the Urban School of San Francisco where he helps students understand everything from chemistry to genetics. Along with his teaching duties, he maintains an active research program, largely involved with discovering rare and imperiled moth species from the uninhabited Hawaiian island of Kahoolawe. Kahoolawe was used as a target range by the US military from 1942 until 1990, but remarkably, there are some surviving species found only on this island and nowhere else on earth. Dr. Medeiros searches for these surviving moth species, learns more about their life histories, and provides this information to land managers in Hawaii.
As a high school teacher, Dr. Medeiros isn't eligible for most research grants, so he has been funding his studies out-of-pocket. However, he has recently started a campaign to support his next field trip, and we're hoping you can make a donation to help cover the costs. Please check out his project page for a movie, list of rewards, and much more information about his project: http://rkthb.co/7372.
In return for helping Dr. Medeiros discover new moth species, you can receive a number of cool rewards like moth-related art or even a tour of his lab! His campaign ends on May 31. Every little bit helps!
For additional information, see Dr. Medeiros' research webpage at: http://www.mattjmedeiros.com/.
Angela E. Gradish is a PhD student at the University of Guelph in Ontario, Canada studying the ecology and evolution of Arctic (Oeneis) butterflies. For part of her project, she needs specimens of all North American Oeneis melissa subspecies (except Oeneis melissa semidea on Mt. Washington, New Hampshire). She is looking for people who will be working in or visiting any of the following areas this year that would be willing to collect a few specimens:
Newfoundland/Labrador/northern Quebec/Gaspe along the shores of Hudson Bay Nunavut/Northwest Territories/Yukon/Alaska Rockies Alberta and British Columbia northern British Columbia US Rockies - Nevada, Colorado, northern New Mexico
If you or someone you know may be able to help her, please contact Angela at agradish@uoguelph.ca
Two upcoming courses focused on the Lepidoptera.
Moths of California - July 13-15 - An informal introduction for studying and observing moths. Emphasis will be on collecting and processing adult moths and recording observations based on the techniques described in the book, Moths of Western North America. The workshop is recommended for persons interested in moths or those studying insect/plant relationships, or managing biodiversity conservation. Instructors: Powell and Opler
Butterflies of the Sierra Nevada - July 9-13 - Introduction to the natural history and ecology of butterflies. Lectures and slide talks cover the fundamentals of butterfly
biology. We travel (carpool)to a wide variety of local Sierra Nevadan habitats to identify and observe adult butterflies and their behavior, their larvae, and their host plants. Instructors: Opler and Buckner
Reservations and deposits for the workshop and class must be made with J.R. Blair of San Francisco State (jrblair@sfsu.edu).
the combined 2012 Annual Meeting of the Lepidopterists' Society and the Societas Europaea Lepidopterologica will be hosted by the Denver Museum of Nature & Science from 23 to 29 July 2012. The meeting will take place in an exciting setting in a museum with great exhibits, access to the research collection, 21 field trips (19 of them free of charge), moderately priced accomodation, great food and interesting events. No membership necessary in any of those societies necessary.
For registration and additional information, visit http://www.dmns.org/krell-lab
Please send your suggested talk and poster titles (and abstracts when available) to the program chair, Todd Gilligan, at tgilliga@gmail.com AND copy to lepidopterist@dmns.org
We are proud to announce the addition of 584 early butterfly life stage photographs to BAMONA. These new images of eggs, larvae, and pupae are a valuable addition to our growing image gallery of early stage photographs of the Lepidoptera. We hope the gallery will help users make identifications or comparisons between related species.
Browse all photographs of butterfly and moth eggs, caterpillars, or pupae.
This fantastic set of photographs were taken by Todd Stout (who maintains RaisingButterflies.org) and were watermarked and added to the database by Leslie Bahn. In addition to the photographs, 122 new sightings of these species were added to the database and are viewable on species pages.
We invite any photographer to submit photographs for the image gallery so we can continue to increase the number of represented species. Learn how.
Mark your calendar now for the first National Moth Week, July 23-29, 2012.
National Moth Week is a celebration of moths and biodiversity. With more than 10,000 species in North America alone, moths offer endless options for study, education, photography and fun. Moths are found everywhere from urban and suburban areas to wild and remote places. The diversity of moths is simply astounding. During National Moth Week attend a Moth Night event, start one, get some friends and neighbors together and check the porch lights, set up a light or bait, or simply educate yourself and read literature about moths. Visit www.nationalmothweek.org to register a moth night or to learn more about activities associated with this event.
Please consider taking photographs and sharing your data with BAMONA. Go to the Get Involved page to learn how to submit your sightings to us.