Wednesday, November 18, 2009

Side Project: Spangler's Tropisternus

Once upon a time Paul Spangler, Godfather of Neotropical Waterbeetleology and curator of Coleoptera at the Smithsonian compiled perhaps the most exhaustive treatment of a water scavenger beetle group ever written: a 1000+ page tome on the genus Tropisternus. It is a beast (see photo of the binders that collectively hold just about every piece of information known on this common group). Sadly, after 40 years in the making and 70,000 specimens it never quite crossed the finish line that is "publication" before his retirement. Having borrowed the raw drafts and disks from the Smithsonian, I have been working on and off (mostly off) for the last two years trying to coax/shove it across that finish line. I've recently started making a more concerted effort to get it done. This group is one of the most commonly encountered water beetles in the Americas, and deserves its do, as does Paul. Stay tuned!

Monday, November 16, 2009

Free press

University relations put together a little educational clip following a public lecture I gave in the spring: