Bug Banter with the Xerces Society

Millipedes. Do they really have a thousand feet? To answer this and many other much more sensible questions, we are joined today by two people who know way more about these largely overlooked animals than I do, Drs Ben Jantzen and Jackson Means.
Ben is the founder and President of the Virginia Institute for Invertebrates. With a background in biophysics, especially insect flight, he is presently Associate Professor of Philosophy at Virginia Tech. Jackson is an Assistant Curator of Recent Invertebrates at the Virginia Museum of Natural History and a myriapodologist (i.e., a scientist that studies millipedes, centipedes, and relatives). His research focuses on the discovery and description of new species, primarily in the mountains and foothills of Appalachia.
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Photo: Peter Pearsall/USFWS
Thank you for listening! For more information go to xerces.org/bugbanter.

We spend a lot of time talking about how we can create habitat for pollinators in yards, but there are other spaces too. So if you don’t have a yard or even if you do and you want to expand your impact, no problem! Today we are going to explore how to create pollinator habitat beyond your home. 
Joining us to talk about this is Kelly Gill, Pollinator Conservation Specialist and Partner Biologist with the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service for Xerces. Kelly provides advice and support on planning, designing, installing, and managing habitat in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast. Kelly also works with staff and research partners to develop technical guidelines and provide training on pollinator conservation practices.
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Photo: Kelly Gill (c)

Thank you for listening! For more information go to xerces.org/bugbanter.

The color green is associated with a clean, healthy environment. When we see a green space, we often think it’s good, whether it is a beautiful forest or a neighborhood lawn. All plants provide for wildlife, right? Unfortunately, no. Some landscapes, in particular lawns, provide very little to no habitat. So, what can folks do to change their landscape? How can they rethink or replace their lawn to support wildlife?
To explore this topic, we are joined by Emily May and Stephanie Frischie. Emily is part of our pesticide reduction team at Xerces. With a focus on pesticides in agriculture, Emily works with farmers, researchers, conservation professionals, and agencies across the U.S. to reduce pesticide risks to pollinators and other beneficial insects, support the adoption of ecologically sound pest management practices, and expand high-quality habitat in working lands. 
Stephanie Frischie is an Agronomist and Native Plant Materials Specialist at Xerces. Stephanie brings technical expertise on native plant materials, native plants, and plant-insect interactions to her work across conservation agronomy; plant ecology; ecological restoration; and native seed production, use, policy, research, and quality — all to improve the supply and growth of important plant species for restoration of insect habitat.
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Photo: Emily May
Thank you for listening! For more information go to xerces.org/bugbanter.

The Xerces Society is named for a blue butterfly, the Xerces blue, which went extinct in the 1940s. Luckily, there are other blues, some of which are doing fine and we can see regularly in our parks and neighborhoods, little butterflies who flash bright blue when they move their wings. Others, unfortunately, are not doing so well. In this episode, we are highlighting one of those, the Karner blue.
Joining us to talk more about this butterfly is Julie Michaelson. Julie works for the Xerces Society as a pollinator conservation planner and NRCS partner biologist covering the Connecticut River Valley in New England. In this role, Julie collaborates with the USDA Natural Resource Conservation Service and the American Farmland Trust to provide technical support, training, and conservation planning assistance to farmers and land managers seeking to develop pollinator and beneficial insect habitat. Prior to joining Xerces, Julie was an environmental steward with New York state parks where she monitored and managed habitat for the endangered Karner blue butterfly, the topic of today’s conversation.
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Cover Photo: Justin Meissen CC BY-SA 2.0
Thank you for listening! For more information go to xerces.org/bugbanter.

Few beetles are revered as sacred, seen as a symbol of rebirth, represented in ancient art, and to this day are used commercially for waste disposal, but dung beetles are. And if that’s not impressive enough they use the Milky Way to navigate. Truly amazing animals.
To dig a deeper into the lives of dung beetles, we are joined today by Katie Harris. Katie works for the Xerces Society as a Pollinator Conservation Specialist and NRCS Partner Biologist in Texas, where she works to conserve pollinating insects, with a focus on monarch butterflies, across the state. Katie has an M.S. degree from the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay, where she studied the biodiversity of spiders. She then began investigating and creating effective monarch butterfly habitat and in 2023 graduated from the University of Missouri with a PhD. That led to a position as a postdoc researcher at the University of Texas at Austin examining the effects of parasitism on dung beetle behavior and ecosystem services in central Texas.
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Photo: Katie Harris (c)

Thank you for listening! For more information go to xerces.org/bugbanter.