Introduction to Beetles: Zoom Talk by Dr Amol Patwardhan
Screenshot from the presentation
Introduction to Beetles - Zoom Talk by Dr Amol Patwardhan
(Beetle Mania 2022)
Time: Aug 21, 2022 04:00 PM Mumbai, Kolkata, New Delhi
Speaker : Amol Patwardhan, Ph.D
This is the link to the presentation on youtube
Notes on the Zoom Session
The sessions started with some introductions to Beetle Mania 2022 , India's Nature - followed by a detailed introduction of Dr Amol Patwardhan and Flabeller Ecoservices LLP.
In the Initial part the video is in Zoom Gallery Mode (apologies) and after a while the presentation appears in full screen - being new to zoom we did not realize that the video would capture gallery view.
Notes on the Talk
- Dr. Amol Patwardhan, made the presentation via zoom. This 1st talk kickstarted Beetle Mania, 2022
- There was an peak audience of 82 people
- Following the presentation there was an active and interested Q & A session
- Concurrent to the presentation there were a lot of questions posted on the Chat and responses were made primarily by Harshad Parekar (Flabella Team) and Ram.
Some Notes on Beetles Collated from the talk
About Dr Amol Patwardhan
He currently works with the Department of Zoology, Somaiya Vidyavihar in Mumbai.
He does research in Zoology, Systematics (Taxonomy) and Entomology
Key Points
- Talk centred around how to identify beetles based on looking at its body forms for a lay person and its importance to our ecosystem, their diverse forms and the insufficient identification of beetles done till date.
- Beetles are insects that form the order Coleoptera. The word beetle stands for little biter, they have sheathed wings, the outer structure of beetles is actually its skeleton.
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One can ID beetle from their
Features of few common beetles, weevil found in rice can survive in close containers with less oxygen
Dung beetles are useful in decomposing, they burrow into dungs
The larva of beetles are called grubs, many are edible, scarab beetle larva are edible and are also fed to domestic chickens.
What do beetles eat - from herbivores to super carnivores, and they are not good pollinators unlike bees. Some do like Cantharophily.
A family of beetles means, a group of beetle that show one or some distinct common characters.
Number of Beetle Species in India : In India 15-17000 beetles have been reported, data is meagre. But considering our diversity there may be upto 100,000
Some interestung beetle facts - There are some aquatic beetle, like the zig zag swimming beetle. Many beetles carry mites, parasites on their body.
How to differentiate between bugs and beetles? was also addressed
There is a lot more in the actual presentation, and hope you find it as useful as some of us in the live audience did.
Resources for the event were supported by Uma , and S Kalyanaraman
Another Screenshot from the presentation
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