The Midwestern Carabidologists Working Group

 

	News and Events
	If you have anything you would like posted on this page, please contact Jonathan Lundgren (jlundgren@ngirl.ars.usda.gov)
2006 International Carabidologist's Meeting	June 7-10, 2006 Carnegie Museum, Pittsburgh, PA.   Registration deadline: extended to June 1, 2006.   For more information, go to the website: http://nature.berkeley.edu/~kiplingw/ICM2006Main.html
Summer Short Course	Ground Beetle Shortcourse   June 25-28, 2006 Oak Lake Field Station in Eastern South Dakota   Instructors: Jonathan Lundgren, USDA-ARS Foster Purrington, Ohio State University James Harwood, University of Kentucky Donald Weber, USDA-ARS Matt O’Neal, Iowa State University   Cost (includes meals and lodging): $130   The Midwest Biological Control Institute will focus on ground beetles this year in the four-day course titled “The Natural History of Ground Beetles”.   Content of the course will be the taxonomy, internal physiology (particularly with regard to gut dissections), the applied ecology of ground beetles in a diversity of habitats.   Students of all ages and skill levels are encouraged to attend! For more information, contact Jonathan Lundgren jlundgren@ngirl.ars.usda.gov
Regional Research Project	Regional Research Project             Matt Greenstone and Jonathan Lundgren are conducting a couple of regional projects on ground beetles, and were wondering whether you would be willing to donate some ground beetle specimens this summer. More specifically, Matt is going to be looking at intraspecific genetic variability in key agricultural ground beetles. He is actively developing molecular tools to aid in identifying the immature stages of carabids, and needs to substantiate how certain areas of the genome vary within a species. I am working on bacterial symbionts of ground beetles. So far, we have some evidence that gut bacteria may be helping ground beetles in digesting plant material, and I am interested in finding out how widespread certain bacteria are within a handful of species over a wide area.             For this study, we are focusing on five species common to agriculture (if you are pitfalling this summer, you will likely collect them!). For each species, we need 25 individuals that have been collected in antifreeze (or collected alive) and placed into tubes in 70% ethanol (one tube per species is fine). Keep the specimens in the freezer and mail them to my address below. I can cover any shipping or collecting costs that you might incur.   Ground beetle species for sampling will be:             Harpalus pensylvanicus             Poecilus chalcites             Scarites subterraneus             Pterostichus melanarius             Anisodactylus sanctaecrucis   Thank you for your help!   Sincerely,   Matt and Jon