[Pollinator] Joan Mosenthal DeWind Award Recipients Announced

[Margo Conner]

The Xerces Society is pleased to announce the 2013 Joan Mosenthal DeWind
Award recipients. This award provides two students each year with $3,750
each for research into the conservation of Lepidoptera.  In memory of his
wife Joan Mosenthal DeWind, who was a longtime Xerces supporter and
pioneering member, Bill DeWind established this student research endowment
fund.

 

2013 Joan Mosenthal DeWind Award Recipients

 

Consequences of selective-herbicide use on butterfly populations: evaluating
the magnitude and persistence of negative herbicidal effects on the
demography of a lycaenid (Glaucopsyche lygdamus columbia).

Rachel Glaeser - Washington State University, Vancouver

 

Selective herbicides are a cost-effective tool for controlling invasive
perennial grasses and improving habitat for plants and animals. However,
these chemicals can potentially alter butterfly demographic vital rates and
negatively impact populations. The field component of this study will
examine the effects of a grass-specific herbicide on the oviposition and
larval survivorship of the Columbia silvery blue (Glaucopsyche lygdamus
columbia). A complementary laboratory investigation will evaluate mechanisms
for how herbicides might deter butterfly oviposition. The study will
characterize negative effects in order to improve spraying regimes and will
additionally evaluate the use of a potential surrogate for at-risk butterfly
species.

 

Conservation genomics of the checkerspot butterfly, Euphydryas editha:
finding genes responsible for dispersal propensity 

John Schroeder - Stanford University

 

Many threatened butterfly species face rampant habitat destruction that
interrupts metapopulation dynamics of colonization and extinction. These
disruptions result from the isolation of a shrinking number of available
habitat patches. Thus, reintroduction is necessary to replace the natural
process of recolonization following local extinction. Refining
reintroduction techniques is therefore important for butterfly conservation.
This project seeks to develop genetic techniques to select optimal subsets
of source populations for reintroduction. Specifically, it will determine
the genes responsible for dispersal propensity, which can then be used to
select a subset of the source population prone to remain in optimal habitat
patches.

 

 

Margo Conner

Contract Assistant

 

The Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation

1971 - 2011: Forty Years of Conservation!

 

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invertebrates and their habitat.

 

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Butterflies

 

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