Cambridge Entomological Club Meeting Tomorrow (1/13)!

[Amine Kousba]

Happy New Year everyone! 

Join us for a meeting of the Cambridge Entomological Club!

Date: Tuesday, January 13th @7:30 PM EST 

Location: In Person in MCZ101A, or on Zoom

Title:  Phenotypic plasticity in horned beetles: regulatory mechanisms and evolution

Speaker: Dr. Sofia Casasa from Boston University

Summary: Onthophagus horned beetles are a model system for studying the intersection of ecology with evolutionary developmental biology. These beetles exhibit an extreme form of developmental plasticity, polyphenism. Low nutrition males develop as small, hornless individuals, whereas high nutrition males develop as large, horned individuals. Horns in large males are used as weapons to gain access to females. Hornless males instead use a sneaker tactic, bypassing large males to gain access to females. Our research using horned beetles seeks to understand: 1) what are the genetic and genomic mechanisms regulating plastic horn development and their evolution? And, 2) what are the mechanisms regulating behavioral plasticity, how are they integrated with morphological plasticity, and how do they evolve?

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 Cambridge Common Restaurant 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