Author: TheRodger

Federal & State Permit Assistance for the Northeastern Beach Tiger Beetle.

The Client: Private landowner consortium, Martha’s Vineyard, MA. Regulatory partners: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (federal ESA) and Massachusetts Natural Heritage & Endangered Species Program (state MESA).

The Opportunity. A private landowner group on Martha’s Vineyard is restoring eroding coastal dunes for storm protection and sea-level rise resilience. The project area is core habitat for the Northeastern Beach Tiger Beetle, requiring federal and state permits to proceed — and offering the first opportunity for active habitat management for this species.

What ABC Is Doing.

• Drafting beetle-specific content for federal and state regulatory permits, including the project’s Conservation and Management Plans, and Incidental Take Permits.
• Coordinating communication across federal and state regulatory personnel to meet regulatory needs for landowners, and agencies.
• Mapping NBTB habitat within the project footprint to define the boundaries of regulated activities, and designing translocation protocols to move larvae from the project area.

Outcome. Once complete, the project will be the first active habitat management method ever attempted for the Northeastern Beach Tiger Beetle. The approach offers a reproducible, scalable, nature-based strategy combining coastal resilience with endangered species habitat conservation.

For Projects Like this. ABC drafts species-specific content for federal and state regulatory permits in listed-species habitat. We’re a good first call when a coastal project intersects with ESA or MESA requirements.

Federal & State Permit Assistance for the Northeastern Beach Tiger Beetle.

In Preparation: Gwiazdowski, R.A., Knisley, C.B. The Northeastern Beach Tiger Beetle, Habroscelimorpha dorsalis dorsalis (Coleoptera: Cicindelidae) — Ecology, Conservation, and Coastal Coexistence. Invited proposal for Annual Review of Entomology. Proposal due September 2026; if invited, anticipated publication 2029.

The Opportunity. Species-focused review papers are rare in the scientific literature. This work intends to elevate awareness of this particular species, and demonstrate its relevance in broader contexts. This review captures 40+ years of research and substantial grey literature on a conservation-priority species.

What ABC Is Doing.

• Co-authoring with C. Barry Knisley, the leading entomologist on NBTB for over 40 years.
• Synthesizing decades of published and grey literature into a comprehensive framework.
• Providing a model for review papers assembling species-specific knowledge into broader contexts.

Outcome. The completed review will offer comprehensive treatment of NBTB ecology, current status, and conservation outlook; including a framework for agency and policy support and dynamics of coastal climate change.

For Projects Like this. ABC writes peer-reviewed syntheses that translate specialist knowledge into accessible resources for conservation. We’re a good first call when a species or taxon needs a durable, citable framework for its conservation literature.

Connecticut Public Radio follows up the 2018 New York Times story to document a re-introduction milestone. September 18, 2019.

LISTEN HERE @ CONNECTICUT PUBLIC RADIO

THE NExT SERIES @ NPR

Outlet. NPR’s NEXT, hosted by John Dankosky and produced by Connecticut Public Radio. Reported by Patrick Skahill.

The Story. “Searching For One Of New England’s Most Endangered Species.” A year after the New York Times coverage, NEXT joined ABC on the Connecticut River to look for results from the previous fall’s release of lab-reared larvae.

What ABC Brought to It. The coordination, field operation, the team, and a milestone in progress. ABC led the Connecticut River survey with collaborators from a program team of more than 30 people. The team located an adult Puritan tiger beetle — likely the first re-introduced beetle to have successfully pupated on site.

Reception. Broadcast on NPR’s NEXT and Connecticut Public Radio’s station network. Together with the New York Times feature, the piece shares a continuation of ABC’s captive rearing and re-patriation work.

For Projects Like This. ABC works with science reporters to share stories of science as a process. When a producer wants a direct connection to the inside, we’re a good first call.

Cover-of-section feature on the Puritan tiger beetle recovery program. December 4, 2018.

READ THE STORY @ THE NY TIMES

Outlet. The New York Times, Science Times section. Cover, above the fold. December 4, 2018. 

The Story. “Puritan Tiger Beetles, ‘Vicious Predators,’ May Soon Hunt Again.” Reporter Karen Weintraub and photographer Kayana Szymczak spent several days with the ABC team in the lab and in the field for a larval release on the Connecticut River. The piece documented one of the largest insect repatriations in the country.

What ABC Brought to It. The science, the field operations, and the access. ABC hosted the Times team and connected them to partners across the recovery program. The piece reads as a working story rather than an overview because the science was happening in real time.

Reception. Cover of the Science Times, above the fold. The story has since anchored subsequent press for ABC’s work and the AMNH Extinct and Endangered exhibit’s connection to the recovery program.

For Projects Like This. ABC works with journalists, producers, and photographers on stories that report on scientific results and the stories behind them. We’re a good first call for media engagements that need a scientifically credible, and communicative partner.

Click HERE for more pictures and a behind-the-scenes story of the Team, the lab and their work.

Scientific advising for a graduate landscape architecture studio on human-insect design relationships. Fall 2021.

Client Harvard Graduate School of Design — class titled “ENTO: Fostering Insect/Human Relationships through Design”, led by Gena Wirth, Design Principal at SCAPE Studio. Co-presenter: Dr. Jeremy Andersen, UMass Amherst.

The Opportunity. SCAPE Studio’s Gena Wirth imagined an innovative graduate studio at Harvard GSD, asking students to consider needs and roles of insects through applied research as design action. The work needed entomological grounding to keep student proposals ecologically coherent.

What ABC Did.

• Presented foundational insect ecology and conservation content to the studio.
• Advised student projects throughout the semester from research to site-based design.
• Helped assess the final gallery showing on both design and ecological terms.

Outcome. Student projects advanced into site-specific design proposals across rural, suburban, and urban Massachusetts landscapes. The studio was featured in Harvard GSD’s news coverage.

For Projects Like This. ABC partners with architects, landscape designers, and design educators where ecological credibility is a design requirement. When the design needs to actually work for insects – we’re a good first call.

A phylogenetic and ecological study showing where, and why species identification needs multiple lines of evidence.

Citation. Duran, D. P., Laroche, R. A., Gough, H. M., Gwiazdowski, R. A., Knisley, C. B., Herrmann, D. P., Roman, S. J., and Egan, S. P.. Geographic life history differences predict genomic divergence better than mitochondrial barcodes or phenotype. Genes 11 (3): 265. https://doi.org/10.3390/genes11030265

The Question. Tiger beetles in the Cicindelidia politula (LeConte, 1875) species complex show extreme phenotypic variation, within and between populations, reflected in prior taxonomy. Is phenotype the right signal for species boundaries, or does a combination of data sources define distinction?

ABC’s Contribution. Advised on analytical methods. Contributed manuscript structure, content, editing, and data visualizations.

Findings. Nuclear analyses recovered only two species, as congruent with adult life history rather than the phenotypic variation that had informed prior taxonomy. DNA barcodes alone would mislead identification in this group, because mitochondrial discordance was widespread; including a pattern of ‘mitochondrial displacement’, where mitochondria from one species unidirectionally displaced others.

For Projects Like This. ABC contributes methods work to reference libraries, eDNA programs, and other genetic identification efforts. We’re a good first call to apply systems-thinking for applied problems.

A comprehensive methods paper that more than doubled the known diversity of a well-studied beetle genus.

Citation. Duran, D. P., Herrmann, D. P., Roman, S. J., Gwiazdowski, R. A., Drummond, J., Hood, G. R., and Egan, S. P. Cryptic diversity in the North American Dromochorus tiger beetles (Coleoptera: Carabidae: Cicindelinae): a congruence-based method for species discovery. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 186 (1) 250–285. https://doi.org/10.1093/zoolinnean/zly035

The Question. Cryptic species are so morphologically similar to known species that they’ve been overlooked. Tiger beetles are extensively studied, yet new North American species descriptions slowed to a trickle after the mid-twentieth century — was the asymptote real, or hiding cryptic diversity?

ABC’s Contribution. Provided the conceptual and analytical framework. Contributed editorial support throughout.

Findings. Combining phylogenetic, ecological, and morphological data, the paper finds evidence for eight species of Dromochorus, more than doubling the previously recognized diversity. The congruence-based approach is portable to other taxonomic groups facing similar cryptic-diversity questions.

For Projects Like This. ABC contributes to taxonomy and systematics projects using multiple data types to discover or validate species. We’re a good first call when species boundaries, or cryptic diversity matters for conservation listing or management.

Custom field and lab tools built in collaboration with SmartGiraffe Consulting.

Scroll down for pictures, and details.

Collaborator: Kevin Hannon, owner of SmartGiraffe Consulting combines coding and manufacturing for innovative technical tools.

The Opportunity. Tiger beetle recovery work needs environmental data at scales and conditions standard equipment doesn’t handle. Off-the-shelf telemetry doesn’t fit, so the tools had to be built. The focus is on laboratory, and field applications.

What ABC + SmartGiraffe Did.

• Designed the SCADA system controlling the world’s first purpose-built captive rearing lab for tiger beetles, with stepped-intensity remote alerts (inc. direct phone calls).
• Developed micro-telemetry hygrometers placed inside beetle enclosures, cutting larval mortality by more than 50%.
• Built solar-powered, SIM-card-enabled field telemetry units that survived submersion and remotely reported continuous microclimate data online.

Outcome. Tools became core infrastructure for ABC’s Puritan tiger beetle recovery program. Applications extend across tiger beetle habitats and ecological work requiring durable remote sensing.

For Projects Like this. ABC and SmartGiraffe collaborate on custom field and lab instrumentation where off-the-shelf options don’t fit. We’re a good first call for purpose-built telemetry, SCADA, or environmental monitoring tools.

Kevin Hannon (above) deploys a telemetry unit at PTB habitat in southern Connecticut in June 2019, and Rodger (at right) retrieves this same unit in late October 2019. Clearly, water height varies in the river – sometimes fully submerging the unit, which continued reporting unscathed.

These units observe continuous above, and below ground micro-climate conditions for tiger beetle larvae, and adults. Kevin developed independent solar powered units using SIM cards to view real time data via a dashboard online. The prototype units have applications for all tiger beetle habitats, and any ecological work requiring durable remote sensing technology.

An internal overview of the main field-telemetry units components.

Kevin custom designed circuit boards for many parts of the Puritan tiger beetle rearing project, including these used for telemetry of soil moisture in larval tubes.

Micro telemetry units, seen here placed in a “sentinel” tube of sandy soil, was one of several serving to alert staff when sand may become lethally dry for larvae, throughout the lab.

An invited methods chapter on reproducible reference standards for species identification.

Citation. Gwiazdowski, R. A. Principles for Constructing DNA Barcode Reference Libraries. In R. DeSalle (Ed.) DNA Barcoding Methods and Protocols. Methods in Molecular Biology Series, Springer Protocols. Humana Press. ISBN 978-1-0716-3580-3. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-0716-3581-0

The Question. DNA barcodes — standardized DNA sections used to identify species — depend on reference libraries, but reproducible standards for those libraries don’t exist. How do you build a reference set other researchers can trace, audit, and build on?

ABC’s Contribution. Authored the invited chapter articulating principles and methods for building DNA barcode libraries linked to well-curated voucher specimens. The framework is scalable from single-marker barcodes to whole-genome reference sets and works across database frameworks.

Findings. The proposed curatorial workflow addresses traceability, reproducibility, and scalability across database frameworks using just DNA barcodes, or entire genomes.

For Projects Like This. ABC contributes methods work to reference libraries, eDNA programs, and other genetic identification efforts. We’re a good first call to apply systems-thinking for applied problems.