Hello all! We are now seven (SEVEN!!) weeks into the course, and hard at work with assignments and extra reading for past and upcoming lectures. We have had a week off after Diversity and Evolution of Insects, and are just about to head into Experimental Design and Analysis. Kick-sampling in the rivers at Harper brought some hilarity to the week, as the rest of the week was devoid of fimo clay insects!
‘Italians will eat anything’ from Lucy Crockford
Luckily we found time on Halloween for an anatomically correct, Entomology themed Halloween party!
I asked Louis (again petition pending to get Louis on Twitter) for a short write-up on BENHS, so thanks to him for this lovely piece:
Last weekend eight of us went to the British Entomological and Natural History Society (BENHS for short) annual student meeting. The day was packed with entomology-based talks and networking opportunities. Upon arrival, the staff – Jon Cole and Ian Sims – opened up the previous night’s moth trap catch for us to have a look at; then we began the talks! The subjects covered throughout the talks ranged from bumblebee genetics to photography of insects and other creatures in the Peruvian Amazon. During each coffee break and over lunch time we had the chance to talk to the speakers and learn more about their work and glean advice as well as discuss future collaborative opportunities. Despite the overarching entomological theme, there was another, more subtle theme that I noticed throughout the talks: I learned that routes into a career in entomology needn’t follow a specific, typical path as I had previously believed to be the case; each speaker at the meeting presented a different route by which they found their way into entomology. This message, whether intentional or not, was refreshing amongst us, the students. We also learned about the plethora of useful and interesting resources such as the collection, books and journal subscriptions available to us, should we choose to join BENHS. I therefore highly recommend checking out the BENHS and all they have to offer!
The dedicated students who headed down to BENHS, L-R Charlie, Rachel, Amy, Jen, Graham, Mark, and Louis in front.
As always, find updates on our Twitter, though there may just be photos of tears and computers as we grapple with R this week!
Mastering Entomology 