Arthro-Pod EP 172: Bugs, Maps, and Math with Jeff Holland

 

On this episode of Arthro-Pod, join Mike and Jon as they catch up with Jeff Holland of Bugs, Maps, and Math. Jeff was previously a professor at Purdue, where Mike worked in his lab for several semesters. While they catch up on good times, we also learn all about Jeff's insect consulting company, modeling of insect dispersal, and the sorcery of spatial ecology. Tune in!

Jeff Holland, formerly a professor at Purdue University and now the owner of Bugs, Maps, and Math consulting services.

Jeff and two of his graduate students, Hossam and Kapil, preparing for summer field collecting.

A longhorn beetle in a rearing cage.

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Arthro-Pod EP 168 The Great Insect Fair at Penn State

 

Join Michael Skvarla of Penn State Entomology for a tour around the annual Great Insect Fair. 

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Follow the hosts on Twitter @bugmanjon, @JodyBugsmeUNL, and @MSkvarla36 and Bluesky @NapoleonicEnto

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Arthro-Pod EP 156: Nuptial Gifts, the Packages of Love

 

Hello lovers of bugs, as well as bugs who are in love! In today's episode, we take a journey through the world of nuptial gifts within the arthropods and find out why sometimes it is best to wrap a gift before trying to go on a date. Tune in to learn the basics of why nuptial gifts exist and how they can help facilitate the mating process and generation of the next generation. This one is a bit "spicy" so if you listen with kids, prepare for some biological talk!

Crickets preparing to mate after the exchange of a nuptial gifts (Photo by Biz Turnell, via https://entomologytoday.org/2020/02/14/nuptial-gifts-romantic-gestures-bug-insect-arthropod-world-valentines-day/)

Show notes

Insect (Order, Family)	Nuptial Gift	Purpose
Dung beetles (O: Coleoptera, F: Scarabaeidae)	Food in the form of a dung ball	https://academic.oup.com/beheco/article/21/2/424/323090 Part of courtship display, dung ball is used for food source to help her and the offspring
Fireflies (O: Coleoptera, F: Lampyridae) some species	Spermatophore contains sperm and nutrients	https://now.tufts.edu/2016/12/22/firefly-gift-giving-composition-nuptial-gifts-revealed Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2P8vKghAoh8   To obtain nutrients and fertilization occurs this way
Giant water bug (O: Hemiptera, M: Belostomatidae)	Small aquatic animals as prey (fish)	https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/eth.12416 Part of the courtship ritual, males carry the eggs
Aphids (O: Hemiptera, F: Aphididae)	“mating drop” droplet of nutrient-rich fluid	To obtain nutrients essential for reproduction
Crickets (O: Orthopera, F: Laupala cerasina	Several nuptial gifts before transferring genetic material	https://www.mpg.de/9686444/nuptial-feeding-female-crickets   https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00265-019-2705-9 Nuptial gifts improve the amount of genetic material successfully transferred from the final spermatophore to the female
Long-tailed dance flies (O: Diptera, F: Rhamphomyia longicauda	Nutrients	https://www.jstor.org/stable/23734479 Females do not hunt so they relay on the nuptial gifts. They fill their abdomens with air to look like their eggs are more mature so males will seek them out
Imported cabbagworm butterflies (O: Lepidoptera, F:	Nitrogen	https://www.thegraphicleader.com/opinion/columnists/the-changing-rules-of-romance-for-the-cabbage-white-butterfly
Scorpion flies (O: Mecoptera, F: Panorpidae)	Dead prey item	https://www.jstor.org/stable/4536380 https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg22830480-100-heres-my-nuptial-gift-a-dead-planthopper-now-can-we-mate/   To appease the female and increase chances of successful mating

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Arthro-Pod EP 133: How to get your online MS in Entomology with Erin Bauer

Join the Arthro-Pod gang as they meet up with Erin Bauer of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Department of Entomology to learn about Nebraska's online master's degree and how entomology education works on the internet! UNL's online master's was the first of its kind in entomology and Erin is not only the academic advisor and lecture for this program, she's a graduate of it! Tune in to learn about the three online entomology degrees in the US, how the experience is different than an in person degree, and how you can enroll! 

Show notes: 

Learn more about UNL's online program here

Erin's email: ebauer2@unl.edu

Erin Bauer Dept of Ento profile: https://entomology.unl.edu/faculty/erin-bauer

Online MS in Entomology UNL webpage: https://entomology.unl.edu/online-master-science-entomology

Online MS in Entomology Students Facebook Page: http://on.fb.me/1U5ibO1

Distance Entomology Masters Projects: https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/entodistmasters/

Nebraska Entomology Twitter: https://twitter.com/UNLEntomology

UNL Entomology Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/unlentomology/

 

Fun stuff:

Insects in the World Fiction: https://academic.oup.com/ae/article/59/2/95/6742

Ultimate Recyclers: Maggots and Murder video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u4pTI-Cgq8Q

Shed that Cuticle (fun video!): https://vimeo.com/372642833 (PW: ento115)

Death Scene Insect Succession in Nebraska Guidebook https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/entomologyfacpub/983/

Entomology Lesson Plans for Elementary Educators: https://pressbooks.nebraska.edu/unlentomologylessonplansforelementaryeducators/

Questions? Comments? 

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Arthro-Pod Special Mini-Pod: A Giant Discovery with Michael Skvarla

Recently, Michael has been making the rounds in the news due to a discovery he made starting in 2012 back in his old stomping grounds of Arkansas. What started with insect collected straight off the side of a Wal-Mart has ended with a media blitz covering the epiphany that Mike had in front of a Zoom class in 2020 and the release of a journal article focused on a giant lacewing! Tune in and read on to find out more.  

Photograph of the giant lacewing specimen, used as Figure 1 in the publication about the discovery

Screenshots of Michael teaching his Biodiversity and Taxonomy class over Zoom when he determined that the specimen was a giant lacewing. This is what the class was seeing as the discovery happened.

Show notes

If you want to read the paper that reported the discovery, it can be found here. If you can't access it because of the paywall, email Michael (mxs1578_NO_@_SPAM_psu.edu and he will be happy to provide a copy.

If you haven't seen any of the news articles, some of the more prominent can be found below:

PSU press release

NY Times

BBC

der Speigel

NPR Weekend Edition

 

Questions? Comments? 

Follow the show on Twitter @Arthro_Podshow

Follow the hosts on Twitter @bugmanjon, @JodyBugsmeUNL, and @MSkvarla36

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Arthro-Pod EP 105: College Arthropod Mascot Mania

Hello bug lovers! Today's show is a little bit different from what we normally offer! We're focusing on college nicknames and mascots that have an arthropod bend to them. There are quite a few schools out there who have chosen an arthropod of some sort to represent them and we are trying to cover them all. From boll weevils to yellowjackets. We discuss issues with the anatomy of some of these mascots, why schools may have picked certain species to represent them, and why we like or dislike each of them. We also handed out some awards to the fictional arthropods we thought deserved them! Tune in to hear all about it!!

Stinger the Hornet of Alabama State University if a good example of the classic arthropod mascot

Show notes

Today's show is a little more visual than our usual audio content. To help with that, we hope you will use the slides below to follow along!

Arthropod mascot Powerpoint

Some links to places where you can find even more mascot information

Wikipedia list of college nicknames

Mascot Database http://mascotdb.com/

We also gave out some awards on our show!

Best Overall Presentation

University of Richmond Spiders

Enterprise State Boll Weevils

Cutie Pie Award

Universidad de Guanajuato Bees

University of Baltimore Bees

Most Scientifically Accurate

Alabama State University Hornets

Nevada State Scorpions

Unique choice

University of South Carolina Sumter Fire Ants

Emporia State University Hornets

Questions? Comments? 

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This episode is freely available on archive.org and is licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

Beginning/ending theme: "There It Is" by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

Arthro-Pod EP 104: Going Bugwood with Joe LaForest

 

Howdy bug lovers! On today's episode of Arthro-Pod, the gang meets up with Joe LaForest, Associate director of the Center for Invasive Species and Ecosystem Health at the University of Georgia. Joe was kind enough to talk to us about his work with two great entomology projects, Bugwood and EDDMaps. Bugwood in particular may be familiar to many listeners as a database of images that are free to use (with attribution of course). Dive in with us as we get to hear the origins of these projects, how we can all contribute, and how they may best serve you. 

Show Notes

Check out Bugwood at

https://www.bugwood.org/

EDDMaps

https://www.eddmaps.org/species/ 

You can also meet Joe's pup at @sleepzoomsleep on Twitter. Prepare for adorable greyhound content!

Oh Insect Images, how I love you. 

Questions? Comments? 

Follow the show on Twitter @Arthro_Podshow

Follow the hosts on Twitter @bugmanjon, @JodyBugsmeUNL, and @MSkvarla36

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Subscribe to our feed on Feedburner!  

This episode is freely available on archive.org and is licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

Beginning/ending theme: "There It Is" by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

Arthro-Pod EP 102: Untangling Insect-Bird Food Webs with Dr. Ashley Kennedy

 Howdy bug lovers! Today, we are honored to be joined by Dr. Ashley Kennedy the Delaware Tick Biologist in the state Division of Fish and Wildlife! However, we are not recording with her to talk about ticks! Instead she shares with us her graduate experiences focused on birds eating bugs. Her research included an interesting angle of recruiting the public to send in images of birds eating. What insects do birds like to eat the most? You'll have to tune in to find out!

Show Notes

Article about Ashley in Entomology Today (June 2021) “Coming Full Circle: How an Entomologist’s Experience with Vector-Borne Disease Inspired her to Study Them” https://entomologytoday.org/2021/06/22/entomologist-vector-borne-diseases-inspired-study-ashley-kennedy-standout-early-career-professional/ 

 

When one goes to the ESA meeting near Halloween, it's best to be prepared with an awesome costume! 

 

Facebook Community Page: What Do Birds Eat? https://www.facebook.com/WhatDoBirdsEat/ 

Crowd-source photos and resources about birds-insect food web interaction 

 YouTube: Ashley’s video was one of five finalists for the ESA Video Contest in 2018. Great visuals of birds and insects. 

 What do bluebirds eat? 

 

Vimeo: Ashley presenting her PhD research at LRSM Science Café (The Laboratory for Research on the Structure of Matter, the LRSM, is the center for materials research at the University of Pennsylvania) 
“Living Materials: What the ‘Insect Apocalypse’ Means for You and Your Yard” 
(January 2020) 

LRSM Science Café: Ashley Kennedy “Living Materials: What the ‘Insect Apocalypse’ Means for You and Your Yard” 

Ticks of Delaware: Ticks of Delaware 

You can find Dr. Ashley on twitter @DETickTalk 

 https://twitter.com/DETickTalk  

We have had some questions recently about donations to the show. We won't be setting up anything for ourselves because of the logistics regarding us being university folks and this show being part of our work, but if you have a giving spirit we highly encourage you to go to the Entomologists of Color group and donate. They are also known as #ENTOPOC and their mission is one that we believe is a great cause for entomology and science. You can visit https://www.entopoc.org/donate to support them and say that Arthro-Pod sent you!

Questions? Comments? 

Follow the show on Twitter @Arthro_Podshow

Follow the hosts on Twitter @bugmanjon, @JodyBugsmeUNL, and @MSkvarla36

Get the show through Apple Podcast, Stitcher, Spotify, or your favorite podcatching app!

Subscribe to our feed on Feedburner!  

This episode is freely available on archive.org and is licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

Beginning/ending theme: "There It Is" by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0