Date:
Location:
Cambridge Entomological Club March meeting
March's meeting will be held Tuesday March 10th at 7:30 PM in room 101 of the Museum of Comparative Zoology. Andrew Mckenna-Foster, the Director of Natural Sciences at the Maria Mitchell Association will be telling us about The reintroduction of the American burying beetle to Nantucket Island.
The federally endangered American burying beetle, Nicrophorus americanus (Coleoptera: Silphidae) is the largest of North America’s carrion beetles. Its historical range covered 35 states in the eastern temperate areas of North America, but today, populations remain in only eight states and it is possibly one of the rarest beetle species in the United States. The range of ABBs on the east coast is particularly limited, only surviving naturally on Block Island, RI. In 1994, 48 *N. americanus* were released on Nantucket Island, MA in a large collaborative effort to build a second east coast population. As we observed how this new population was settling in on the island, we have adapted our monitoring and reintroduction methodology to efficiently boost the number of wild beetles. After a peak in capture numbers in 2011 (212 beetles), we entered a phase of testing whether the species can survive on the island with little to no assistance. I will talk about what we have learned concerning dispersal, winter survival, reproduction, and ultimately, the probable fate of this population.
The meeting is free and open to the public. Snacks will be provided and you are also welcome to join us at 6:00 pm for an informal pre-meeting dinner at Cambridge Common.
Please feel free to distribute this announcement to other individuals or groups that you feel would be interested in this talk or in the Cambridge Entomological Club.
Also, please follow us on facebook -