The Ries Lab of Butterfly InformaticsThis little guy hatched from an egg clutch found by Anngely in a MD site and these hatchlings will help us determine how well they can survive on invasive English plantain. In this part of their range - moms do not lay on plantain (but they do in...
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July 11, 2024: Our first Baltimore Checkerspot caterpillar of the season hatches!
June 20, 2024: New collaborative article shows the dangers of neonicotinoids
After many years of work, a collaborative article between Leslie and scientists from Michigan State University and Iowa State shows the negative impacts of insecticides in general and neonicotinoids in particular. The study was...
Read moreJune 14, 2024: The Ries Lab gets a private tour
On June 11, Bob Robbins - the head curator of Lepidoptera at the Smithsonian's Museum of Natural History - gave our lab a tour of the collections (huge and overwhelming) - and also showed us some specimens of particular interest. Thanks Bob!!...
June 14, 2024: Digging up host plants for Anngely's first season!
Anngely is digging up invasive plantain to keep in our lab garden - this will be fed to experimental caterpillars along with their native hostplant - white turtlehead. Now all we need are caterpillars!
April 23, 2024: First field trip of the season - successful!
Our first collecting trip of the season was to Green Ridge State Forest to catch silvery blues for our study of genetic patterns across our species' range. We were able to find five individuals for our study and discovered a beautiful park that...
Read moreApril 09, 2024: Alumnus Kevin Czuchara returns!
Kevin, now at USFWS working with DOD to manage habitat and species, is back to work on a collaborative project with Anngely, picking up his lab Baltimore Checkerspot work where we left off! Welcome back Kevin!
April 04, 2024: Planting caterpillar food
Lab members are busy preparing for this summer's experimental work raising butterflies. Recently, several lab members headed to a nearby campus garden to plant Chelone glabra (White Turtlehead) seedlings, a plant eaten by Euphydryas...
Read moreMarch 04, 2024: New Global Change Bio publication
Check out lab alumnus Vaughn's latest publication of PhD dissertation research.
Rising minimum temperatures contribute to 50 years of occupancy decline among cold-adapted Arctic and boreal butterflies in North America (published in Global...
October 14, 2023: Leslie is excited to start an NSF rotator position
Leslie will be working 80% time at NSF in the Division of Biological Infrastructure to help devise a new system for assessing project outcomes for infrastructure awards. Building infrastructure is an essential component of supporting research...
Read moreAugust 30, 2023: Welcome Anngely
The Ries Lab welcomes new graduate student Anngely Leeds to Georgetown! Anngely will be presenting past work at the Entomology 2023 conference in November.