Cambridge Entomological Club Meeting 2/10, changing restaurants, and voting state insect

[Amine Kousba]

Please note: We are now meeting at a new dinner venue -- Nirvana at 1680 Massachusetts Ave. Also, read more at bottom of this announcement to submit a nomination for our new state insect!

Join us for a meeting of the Cambridge Entomological Club! 

Date: Tuesday, February 10 @7:30 PM EST 

Location: In Person in MCZ101A, or on Zoom

Title: Forensic Entomology: Filth Flies as Indicators of Death and Environmental Contaminants

Speaker: Dr. Samantha Sawyer from University of New Haven

Summary: Filth flies sit at the intersection of ecological and forensic inquiry, providing valuable information about decomposition dynamics and environmental exposures. Research in filth fly biology and ecology provides powerful tools in forensic investigations, particularly in estimating time of colonization to help infer time of death in criminal cases. An emerging subdiscipline further emphasizes the utility of necrophagous flies as sentinels of biological and chemical toxins in the environment, expanding their relevance to military applications, public health, agriculture, and more.

This presentation will outline the role of forensic entomology in traditional medicolegal casework and demonstrate how entomologists develop and communicate their expert opinions. It will also highlight ongoing research exploring the utility of filth flies in detecting pathogens and drugs in forensic investigations.

NOTICE: We will be holding hybrid meetings to accommodate COVID-19 precautions and audience members from around the world. You can join our Zoom meeting by clicking here.

For those able to attend, we will have an informal dinner at 6:00 pm at Nirvana (1680 Massachusetts Ave) with the speaker, followed by our formal meeting (7:30 - 9:00 pm) in room MCZ101A of the Museum of Comparative Zoology (there will be signs to help direct). The meeting will begin with club announcements, followed by a 60-minute presentation by the invited speaker and Q&A. 

We are also going to be voting on a new state insect at this meeting! At our last meeting, we discussed making a petition to the State of Massachusetts to add on a second state insect. Currently, our state insect is the seven-spotted lady beetle, but we could definitely have a second insect that is native to our beautiful state! Click this link to view my slides about this if you wish, but all the information is summarized below.

We are accepting nominees for new state insects! If you would like to nominate an insect, please submit your nomination to me via email at amine...@gmail.com by February 8th so we can vote at our February 10th meeting. Your email should include a photo of the insect, a range map, and ideally a sentence or two on why you think it's a good candidate (even if it's just "it's a totally cute bug!"). I'll add all these to a PowerPoint for voting purposes. 

Here are the criteria for our insects:

• The insect should be charismatic enough for the average, non-bug-loving person to care about its conservation
• It should be native to Massachusetts
• Ideally, it should be distributed through some different parts of the state so all people here can be proud of and visit their state insect!

[Amine Kousba]

For some reason my email shows up weird in the post -- sorry! it's aminekousba @ gmail.com (no spaces)