Meeting April 21st: An overview of ongoing insect surveys at Ward Pound Ridge Reserve

Hi everyone,

Our final meeting for 2023 will be held in person AND on Zoom! This is our usual spring potluck meeting and it will be held at the CT Agricultural Station (Jones Auditorium, 123 Huntington St, New Haven). Parking is available on premises for free. Dinner will be provided (probably New Haven pizza). Guests are welcomed to bring in sides and/or dessert treats to share. There will be our usual silent auction if you have any entomology related items to sell. We welcome show and tell items, pinned insect displays, or any announcements for the spring-summer field season. If you are attending on Zoom and would like the meeting link, please email ctentsoc@gmail.com

Dinner begins at 6:30pm and the meeting starts at 7:30pm.

Our keynote speaker will be Harry Zirlin:

Title: An overview of ongoing insect surveys at Ward Pound Ridge Reserve (Westchester Co., NY) Abstract: Dating to 2000, Mr. Zirlin and others have been sampling certain groups of insects at WPRR in order to obtain an overall sense of insect diversity at the largest park in Westchester County. Groups surveyed include butterflies, moths in the families Saturniidae, Sphingidae and the genus Catocala in the family Erebidae. Coleoptera families include Cerambycidae, Buprestidae, Cleridae and Mordellidae. The studies will serve as a baseline for future studies and track additions or declines in population to the extent possible over the time frame involved. Specific conservation efforts will also be discussed. Bio: Although an environmental attorney at a large NY law firm by profession, Zirlin has had a fascination with insects, mollusks and herps since childhood. He has collected insects, shells and fossils (and photographed herps) throughout the USA as well as Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic. He has served on the Executive Board of the Lepidopterists’ Society and written extensively for American Butterflies since the early 90s. His writings on insects (or book reviews of others’ writings on same) have also appeared in the Wall Street Journal, The New York Law Journal, The Bulletin of the Coleopterists’ Society, News of the Lepidopterists’ Society, etc. When not working at the firm or curating his collections, Zirlin paints, draws and suffers with the Mets.