Day of talks on grasshoppers & related insects

Everyone is very welcome to attend the annual "Orthoptera Special Interest Group" meeting of the Royal Entomological Society, whether to present research or just to listen and meet others. The next meeting will be held in the Neil Chalmers Room in the London Natural History Museum on Wednesday 1 November 2017, 12:30-5:30pm, followed by drinks and a cold buffet. Please see below for the programme and registration details.

Programme

12:30    Arrival and tea; posters & displays           

1:00      Welcome

1:10      Darron Cullen (University of Leuven, Belgium): The role of yellow colouration in locust mating behaviour

1:35       Julie Sarmiento-Ponce (University of Cambridge): Does age matter in female crickets when finding a mate?

1:50      Aqib Ali (presenting), D. Gee, M. Bulling & K. Vahed (University of Derby): Does relative weapon size affect fighting success in the field cricket Platygryllus primiformis?

2:10      Karim Vahed (University of Derby): Scaly crickets Pseudomogoplistes vicentae are in the running for the Wellcome Sanger Institute’s 25 genomes project            

2:15      Break             

2:35      Fernando Montealegre-Z (University of Lincoln): From fossils to physical reality: Transformation of acoustic organs in crickets and bush-crickets

3:00      Adam Bent (Anglia Ruskin University): Mate location under conditions of anthropogenic noise: What are the fitness consequences?

3:20      Simon Springate (Natural Resources Institute): Thermal biology of UK Orthoptera or: How I got distracted by less important things for 12 years. Part 1.

3:40      Tim Gardiner (Environment Agency): Grasshopper stories for children (The Voyage of the Queen Bee, Geronimo the Grasshopper)

3:50      Luc Willemse (Naturalis Biodiversity Centre, Netherlands): ObsIdentify - a new app for automated species recognition in the field             

3:55      Break            

4:15      Martin Harvey and Paul Brock (Natural History Museum London): A re-survey of the New Forest populations of the Large Marsh Grasshopper Stethophyma grossum

4:40      Jacqui Miller (Royal Society for the Protection of Birds): A review of habitat requirements and RSPB site surveys for Large Marsh Grasshopper Stethophyma grossum

4:55      Megan Shersby (Naturalist and writer): Bringing Orthoptera to the British Birdwatching Fair

5:05      David Browne (Wildlife photographer): How to photograph grasshoppers and crickets

5:25      Drinks, followed by supper

8:00      Finish

Posters and exhibits:

• Andrew A. Baker (University of Lincoln): Wing resonances in a new dead-leaf-mimic katydid (Tettigoniidae: Pterochrozinae) from the Andean cloud forests

• Ed Baker & Ben Price (Natural History Museum London): BioAcoustica - an online depository and analysis platform for wildlife sounds

• Katie E. Davis, Adam Bakewell, Ed Baker, Jon Hill, Peter Mayhew & Dave Chesmore (University of York): Miocene adaptive radiation in grasshoppers revealed by a species-level supertree of Orthoptera

• Peter Prince & Andrew Hill (University of Southampton): AudioMoth: A low-cost, open-source acoustic monitoring device

• Martin Harvey: Demonstrations of iRecord (species recording) and Pantheon (analysing invertebrate records and adding information to them)

• Tim Gardiner: Copies of books for children (The Voyage of the Queen Bee, Geronimo the Grasshopper)

• Paul Brock: Copies of new Photographic Guide to Insects of Southern Europe & the Mediterranean

• Megan Shersby: Entomological greeting cards

• Brian Laney: Captive-reared Mole Cricket (Gryllotalpa gryllotalpa)

• Stephen Lee Thomas: Phasmids to give away
   

Registration
Please register by sending an email to orthoptera@ceh.ac.uk, or by post to Björn Beckmann, Centre for Ecology & Hydrology, Wallingford OX10 8BB, providing the following details:
• your first name, surname and institution if applicable (for name badge)
• title of talk or poster or display, if you would like to present something
• indicate whether you will be staying for the buffet or not, and any special dietary requirements

Cost
• Either a full price of £14 to include a cold buffet with wine, and tea and biscuits during the afternoon
• Or a reduced price of £4 to include tea and biscuits only, if you are not staying for the buffet
• For students and members of the Royal Entomological Society the respective prices are £10 (with buffet) and £0 (without)

Payment
• either send a cheque made payable to the Royal Entomological Society to: Kirsty Whiteford, RES, The Mansion House, Chiswell Green Lane, St Albans, Herts, AL2 3NS
• or pay by bank transfer:  Royal Entomological Society, sort code 30-97-25, account number 01921533. Please include your name and "Orthoptera SIG" for reference.
• or pay by card over the phone. Please phone Kirsty on 01727 899387. There is a 2% admin charge for credit cards, no charge for debit cards.

Directions
The meeting will be held in the Neil Chalmers Room in the Natural History Museum London. Use the Cromwell Road entrance into the Central Hall; turn left/west into Waterhouse Way to the Darwin Centre; continue down the steps by the Cocoon, then turn right and walk towards the steps at the north end; on the left, under these steps is the door into the Neil Chalmers Room and reception area, where refreshments will be served before/during the meeting. Bags are searched when entering the museum so do not carry knives, scissors or similar sharp items as they will be (temporarily) confiscated. In the evening, the Cromwell Road entrance is locked at 6pm; if you leave after this time you must be escorted through locked doors, or incur the wrath of Security!

Hope to see you there!