"ABF upcoming Events Above - Next Meeting Below"
Join us on Monday October 28th at Zilker Botanic Garden or on Zoom for Presentation "Title: An Arthropod Biodiversity Project - The Nature Conservancy's Davis Mountains Preserve.Orthoptera Diversity and Biogeography in Texas."
Prsented by Ashley Schmitz
Join us on Monday October 28th at Zilker Botanic Garden or on Zoom for Presentation "Title: An Arthropod Biodiversity Project - The Nature Conservancy's Davis Mountains Preserve.Orthoptera Diversity and Biogeography in Texas. "
Prsented by Ashley Schmitz
Join us on Monday October 28th at Zilker Botanic Garden or on Zoom for Presentation "Title:An Arthropod Biodiversity Project - The Nature Conservancy's Davis Mountains Preserve.Orthoptera Diversity and Biogeography in Texas."
Prsented by Ashley Schmitz
Join us on Monday October 28th at Zilker Botanic Garden or on Zoom for Presentation "Title: An Arthropod Biodiversity Project - The Nature Conservancy's Davis Mountains Preserve.Orthoptera Diversity and Biogeography in Texas."
Prsented by Ashley Schmitz
Join us on Monday October 28th at Zilker Botanic Garden or on Zoom for Presentation "Title: Ashley Schmitz "
Prsented by Ashley Schmitz
Join us on Monday October 28th 7:00pm at Zilker Botanic Garden or on Zoom for Presentation An Arthropod Biodiversity Project - The Nature Conservancy's Davis Mountains Preserve.Orthoptera Diversity and Biogeography in Texas." Presented by Ashley Schmitz
Description: The Davis Mountains Preserve is about 33,000 acres and has been managed by The Nature Conservancy since 1998. This “sky island” is surrounded by the vast Chihuahua Desert in Texas. Plants and vertebrates have been well documented, but the arthropod community present in the preserve has not been comprehensively studied. Since 2021 a research team has been collecting specimens at the preserve, aiming to generate a comprehensive checklist of arthropods. To date, about 19 researchers with an additional 50 specialists are involved in the project, with over 1400 arthropod taxa currently recorded.
Specimens have been deposited at several collections, both private and institutional. The Invertebrate Zoology Collection of the Museum of Texas Tech University has been designated to house voucher specimens for this project. Here we will provide information on how the specimens are collected, identified, and then transferred and digitized, with data available online via ecdysis. Also, the discoveries of new species and range expansions will be discussed.
Bio:
Ashley Schmitz is a Store Manager with HEB with a total of 30 years with the company. On the side, since his freshman year (’87-’88) in high school, he has been passionate about the field of Entomology. His work emphasizes systematics and taxonomy, within the Order Coleoptera. His work is not limited to this, since he works with many other taxonomic groups of insects. Primary Geographical locations for collecting are Texas (west, south) and Uganda, Africa.
Over the years, his field work and identification skills has garnered some recognition for by multiple institutions. Since 2020, he is the Volunteer Curator of the insect Collection at the Corpus Christi Museum of Science and History. In 2023, he was recognized as a Research Associate with the Museum of Texas Tech University. Also, in 2023 a new insect species to Science was named in his honor: Phytocoris schmitzi.
He also is committed to community outreach and education in Entomology. His outreach includes: numerous School Districts, Parks and Rec Depts., Universities, and other Educational organizations. He mentors and develops future scientists in Entomology and other sciences.
His passion for Entomology, now more than 35 years has been a driving force for his work, research, outreach, and mentorship.
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