March Monthly Meeting – Speaker: Donald Hobern ‘Exploring local biodiversity with a Malaise trap’

Insects and invertebrates, many of them tiny, play essential roles in all global ecosystems, but we still know less about them than we might expect. This presentation will show some of the findings from operating a Malaise trap for a year in an Aranda garden, close to the South Aranda Bushland. Discoveries include unexpected diversity and new local records, undescribed species and open questions. The talk will be illustrated with photos of many different local organisms and will also discuss how DNA-based species identification could help to fill some of our knowledge gaps.

Bio:

Donald Hobern grew up on the east coast of England and has loved nature since he was a child. After studying Greek and Latin, he became a software programmer and worked for years in Florida and New Zealand before finding a way to merge an interest in biodiversity with computer science. Between 2002 and 2019, he played leading roles in establishing the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF, https://www.gbif.org/) and the Atlas of Living Australia (ALA, https://www.ala.org.au/) as well as a number of other international biodiversity and, more recently, agriculture-related data efforts. In his spare time, he has a particular focus on moths and on improving tools to monitor their presence and populations but is expanding his focus to other insect groups, in particular parasitic wasps.

The talk will be held in the Slatyer Seminar Room, on the first floor of the R N Robertson Building, 46 Sullivans Creek Road at the ANU. Head up the stepped ramp on the right as you enter the building. Lifts are also available. The Slatyer room will be on your left at the front of the building. Light refreshments will be served from 7pm with the meeting to commence at 7.30pm. Please bring a keep cup or mug for coffee or tea.  Non (and new!) members welcome!