On Wed. Feb. 12 celebrate Darwin Day! The University, College of Letters & Sciences, Biological Sciences Dept., and TriBeta (Biological Honors Society), will host two free events that you can attend:
The Edible Tree of Life, 6pm in Hyland Hall’s atrium, followed by a keynote address at 7pm by Dr. Laura Lavine, associate professor of Entomology at Washington State University, in Hyland Hall’s Timmerman Auditorium. Dr. Lavine’s talk, “Mechanisms of extreme growth and sexual dimorphism in sexually related weapons: Insights from the beetles,” will “explain how insects adapt and use different parts of their body for weapons or to attract to a mate.”
I’ve attended this celebration in the past, and the Edible Tree of Life is not to be missed. You can buy food that has been prepared in the shapes of different animals, organisms or plants. (The talk is usually really interesting too, of course!)
Are you curious and interested in learning more? Andersen Library’s resources may help! Search HALCat for books such as How not to be eaten: The insects fight back (3rd-floor Main Collection, QL496 .W336 2012) and The evolution of insect mating systems (3rd-floor Main Collection, QL468.7 .T46 1983). Articles, such as “A nonspecific defensive compound evolves into a competition avoidance cue and a female sex pheromone” about female wasps Leptopilina heterotoma (2013, Nature Communications, v.4, doi:10.1038/ncomms3767), can be found by searching article databases.
Please ask a librarian for assistance with finding additional materials.
