The Xerces Society Announces the 2004 Joan Mosenthal DeWind Award Winners.

The Xerces Society is pleased to announce the recipients of the 2004 Joan Mosenthal DeWind Award for Lepidoptera Research and Conservation:

Systematics and status of threatened Hawaiian leaf-roller moths in the genus Omiodes (Gueneé) (Lepidoptera: Crambidae).
William Haines
University of Hawai’i at Manoa

The genus Omiodes contains some of the most remarkable and anomalous of Hawaiian insects. Unfortunately, due to the impacts of non-native parasitoids and habitat alteration, over half of the Hawaiian species are thought to be extinct. In this project Mr. Haines will survey for populations of threatened Omiodes species, map these populations, and assess their status by scoring sites based on presence or absence and parasitism rates. He will also construct a phylogeny of the group, assessing the validity of currently described species.

Microlepidoptera of hill prairies
Terry Harrison
Department of Entomology, University of Illinois

Microlepidoptera are of substantial biological importance in prairie communities. Larvae of almost all microlepidoptera are a food source for a diverse and often specialized array of pathogens, parasitoids, and predators. In this project, microlepidoptera will be collected at eight different hill prairie sites in Illinois. Mr. Harrison will compile the first-ever dedicated species inventory of microlepidoptera in a prairie community within the original range of eastern tallgrass prairie. He will then analyze the data to test hypotheses regarding reserve design and management, which are of critical importance in conservation of endangered biotic communities such as prairie remnants.