EXEB meeting on Tuesday April 15: Visit by Wiebke Feindt and talk about comparative transcriptomics in Neotropical damselflies

Posted by Erik Svensson

 For next week's EXEB-meeting, I am pleased to welcome Wiebke Feindt from ITZ Division of Ecology & Evolution in Hannover (Germany). Wiebke is currently doing a PhD on evolution, conservation genetics and comparative transcriptomics of Neotropical odonates. She is particularly interested in the charismatic genus Megaloprepus, which contains the largest damselflies in the world and which are often called "Helicopter damselflies". Below is the title of Wiebke's talk and a brief Abstract.

Odonate speciation in the Neotropics: New insights into the genus Megaloprepus

In an ever-changing world flying insects play a significant role for studying speciation. As the world’s largest living odonate species, Megaloprepus caerulatus is an excellent model organism to investigate this crucial point of evolution. Despite its niche conservatism, a strong genetic differentiation and a morphometric separation into four distinct clusters was detected. On this basis, ongoing comparative transcriptomics may further contribute to elucidate the complex evolutionary processes and causal interplays of speciation.

Time: Tuesday, March 15, 2016, at 10.00

Locale: "Argumentet", 2nd floor, Ecology Building

Wednesday: Dragonfly excursion!

For those of you who are interested, there is a possibility to participate in a dragonfly excursion on Wednesday, instead of our regular lab-meeting. Because of nice weather, I think we should skip lab-meetings from now, and instead spend time in the field (or lab, if we need to).

However, those of you who can are welcome at Stensoffa Ecological Field Station at 09.00 on Wednesday. If you go by your own car, you can decide to go back when ever you want (e. g. after a few hours), but I will probably spend more or less the whole day in the field visiting my census plots for the Official Dragonfly Census in Skåne that has just taken off and will run for the next five years. This is an excellent opportunity for those of you who wish to learn how to identify dragonflies. Everybody are welcome to book one or several census plots (5 x 5 km), which can be done by contacting these persons, and no special expertise is needed.

In case you cannot arrange transportation, there is also the opportunity to take the bus to Dalby and go with me, or send me an e-mail (erik. svensson@zooekol.lu.se).

Quizz of the week: Which species of odonate is shown above?