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Title: Microlepidoptera: Biology, Ecology, and Identification
Dates: August 31–September 6, 2025
For the PDF flyer for this seminar, click here.
For information on seminar costs, accommodations, and the meal plan, click here.
Description: This lab-intensive course will systematically cover all of the families of the microlepidoptera from Micropterigidae to Mimallonidae in the United States and Canada. The
focus will be on identification characters for each family and most of the major subfamilies and tribes through talks rich in photos and examination of specimens. Overall natural history will be covered with special focus on ecologically and economically important species. There will be practical training on collecting methods, pinning techniques, and genitalic dissection along with a discussion of larval rearing techniques.
Jason Dombroskie (jjd...@cornell.edu) has had a lifelong interest in nature and started seriously collecting moths at the age of 12. Over ten years of collecting moths in his childhood backyard in rural Renfrew County, Ontario, he collected over 1000 species of moths and began networking with the larger lepidopterist community. From 1996 to 2005 he worked as a naturalist in Algonquin Provincial Park where he delivered popular educational programs as well as document the moth diversity culminating in nearly 1000 confirmed species. He obtained a BSc. Hon. in Biological Sciences from the University of Guelph and his PhD was on aspects of archipine [Tortricidae] evolution at the University of Alberta. Since 2012 he has worked as the manager for the Cornell University Insect Collection and the coordinator for the Insect Diagnostic Lab. Jason has published 26 scientific papers in entomology including a matrix-based key to the Lepidoptera of Canada. Current research in his lab focuses on systematics of the tribe Archipini (Tortricidae) in the New World, but some of his students work or have worked on other Tortricidae, Argyresthiidae, Mimallonidae, and other insect orders. Jason regularly hosts public mothing events across NY and gives richly-illustrated, popular talks and workshops on moth natural history, basic entomology, beneficial insects, and other topics.
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