Department of Entomology and Plant Pathology

Annual Conference

TENNESSEE ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY

47th Annual Conference

October 9, 2020

You are invited to attend the Forty-seventh Annual Conference of the Tennessee Entomological Society to be held on October 9, 2020. Due to concerns about COVID-19, TES in partnership with the National Institute for Mathematical and Biological Synthesis is presenting the TES Annual Meeting remotely.

The meeting kicks off at 10:30 a.m. EST/ 9:30 a.m. CST, Friday October 9 with the keynote address, “Estimating future climatic suitability of pollinators with niche models and climate change scenarios” by Dr. Monica Papeş of the University of Tennessee’s Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology (EEB). This presentation will provide a brief overview of ecological niche modeling and will illustrate its application to estimating possible changes in species' climatic suitability under future climate scenarios. Two case-studies of changes in richness patterns will be discussed: (1) pollinators of conservation concern in the southern Great Plains; and (2) buzz-pollinators of tomatoes in North America.

Mona Papeş is an associate professor in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology (EEB) and she directs the Spatial Analysis Lab at The National Institute of Mathematical and Biological Synthesis (NIMBioS) at University of Tennessee, Knoxville. She investigates species’ distributional patterns using ecological niche modeling, GIS, and remote sensing. Her research interests span macroecology and conservation biology. Current projects include: potential distributional shifts of species under future climate scenarios in the Appalachian region; use of terrestrial LiDAR to characterize vegetation structural complexity; and fire effects on understory plant communities in Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

The student paper competition will follow the keynote speaker. The meeting will conclude with a presentation of the Entomology Week Proclamation followed by the annual business meeting when we will announce the student paper award winners. Award checks will be distributed to the students at a later date. The program with exact times of talks will be posted on this page prior to the meeting.

Deadline for submission of paper titles and abstracts is October 2, 2020. Submit your titles and abstracts via https://forms.gle/hRU7L1knV6527cMx5. For more information, contact the TES Program Chair, Kaushalya G. Amarasekare at kamarase@tnstate.edu or the TES President, Karla M. Addesso, at kaddesso@tnstate.edu with any questions or concerns. We are only accepting titles for student 12-minute oral presentations this year.

If you would like to attend the TES Annual Meeting but are not presenting a talk, please register for Zoom access to the Meeting here: https://tennessee.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_8Qa5sgLNRL65aOy6PwB43Q. Registration is required to access the TES Annual Meeting. If you are presenting a talk and have submitted a title and abstract, you will be automatically registered to access the Zoom room for the Meeting. The deadline to register to attend is October 6, 2020.

Membership is open to everyone interested in entomology - whether you are employed with a federal or state agency, public or private college or university, industry, or private business - whether you are a researcher, regulator, teacher, student or just interested in insects - whether you are a professional or amateaur entomologist. We extend to you an invitation to join the Tennessee Entomological Society. We are a group truly interested in all phases of entomology.

The TES board requests that all attending the virtual meeting complete a membership form and mail it to the TES treasurer, Steve Powell, Ellington Agricultural Center, 436 Hogan Road, Nashville, TN 37220. For students, registration and membership dues are waived this year. Regular ($10) and Corporate ($50) members, attending the meeting or not, should include their annual dues with their membership forms.