​Kristin Jayd (Undergrad student, Gruner Lab) was awarded first place in the Student Virtual Infographics Competition. Jayd’s award-winning graphic: "Mangrove herbivory across a salinity gradient” (pictured to the left). This was the first year for the infographic category. 

​Kristin Jayd (Undergraduate, Gruner Lab) particpated in a poster presentation at the fifth Mangrove Macrobenthos and Management meeting held in Singapore this year. Her poster, titled "Patterns of Mangrove Seedling Herbivory Across a Salinity Gradient", presented her work done last summer in Kosrae, FSM.  Currently Jade is interning at the Smithsonian Entomology Collection at the Natural History Museum, working on micro-hymenoptera from Singapore mangrove forests. The location of this year's meeting was opportune Kristin says, "I was able to connect with people who have done the field work for that project, which I hope to roll into graduate study next year via the University of Maryland College Park’s Certificate in Museum Scholarship and Material Culture."

On May 6, 2019 Elske Tielens successfully defended her dissertation, "Diversity and structure of Metrosideros polymorpha​ canopy arthropod communities across space and time."

Dr. Tielens will accept a postdoctoral research position at the University of Oklahoma, in the Aeroecology group.

Over the last two semesters, Betsy has analyzed spider communities in the Hawaiian Islands in Dr. Gruner’s lab. Her goal is to gain a better understanding of which ecosystem factors influence the assemblage of a predator community. Because Hawaii is made up of several volcanic islands of differing ages, it is a good system for studying differences in communities at different stages of primary community assembly. She says, “So far, I have found that age is not a good predictor for abundance of most spider families; instead, their abundance may be based on other environmental factors, like canopy structure or available plant types. Recently, I have also joined a project studying parasitoids of the Emerald Ash Borer, an invasive pest in the United States.”

Congratulations to biological sciences student Lily Durkee who successfully presented their entomology honors thesis. Lily Durkee's thesis title, "Does goose exclusion impact the benthic macroinvertebrate community of a restored freshwater marsh?"

Lily Durkee is now an MS student at Colorado State University. In 2020, Durkee received an NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program Award!

​Lily Durkee has been working with the Gruner Lab since the summer before her senior year of high school. It was because of this incredible experience that summer that she decided to attend UMD as an undergraduate student and pursue a degree in Ecology and Evolution. Currently, she is working towards completing an Honors Thesis within the Department of Entomology that focuses on assessing the effects of restoration strategies on the macroinvertebrate benthic communities in Anacostia Park marsh systems. After she graduates next spring, she plans on attending graduate school to pursue a PhD in entomology, ecology, or natural resource management. 

VICTOR SETTLES, Gruner Lab, Undergraduate Research Assistant
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Victor has been impressed by the diversity of insects since he was a child. After taking an entomology course this past spring and reading deeper into the primary literature, he pursued an undergraduate research position in Dr. Dan Gruner’s Lab. He now works under the guidance of Elske Tielens, a Gruner Lab BEES graduate student. His major tasks involve sorting, identifying, and curating arthropod samples from the Hawaiian Islands in order to assist Elske in investigating the effects of invasive predators on canopy insect communities in forests fragmented by lava flows and how these communities assemble over evolutionary time.

​Victor hopes to use his experience in the Gruner lab working with dichotomous keys and learning to develop hypotheses about ecology and evolution to build a foundation in research that will ultimately set him on a path towards a career as a Principle Investigator.