Although we are already a few weeks into 2020, I thought it would be a good idea to look back at the year that was 2019.
2019 was a tumultuous year to say the least. I began the second year of my PhD in March, and from then on, it was non-stop. Let’s recap!
January: I started the year in beautiful Tahiti, spending a few weeks in the sun with my friend Heiana and her family. It was an incredible holiday, and the sights and sounds took me right back to my childhood in New Caledonia. Once I was back to New Zealand and especially uni, it was straight back to work with my field season going full-steam. I was out there collecting stick insects, taking photos and analysing those, trying to wrap my head around the computer program I was going to use. Two days after landing from Tahiti, I also filmed a test shoot with Gibson Production for the potential tv show/web series we were planning together! It was very exciting!
February: During this month, I continued with field work, testing and working out methods I wanted to use in my future planned experiments. On the 7th-9th, I attended the 68th Entomological Society of New Zealand Conference in Hanmer Springs. This is a great conference, where you get to meet the majority of entomologists in New Zealand and see first hand what their research is all about. I gave a talk on my planned research for my PhD, which was well received and led to a lot of discussion (which is always good!). I also won 21st Anniversary Award, granting me $1000 to help me towards in-field colour analysis of stick insects research! I am very grateful to the society for this award. On the 25th, I participated in the Faculty of Science Postgrad Welcome Orientation as a mentor, and helped lead activities that would help new postgrads better integrate into the school.
March: This month marked the beginning of Semester 1, when the University becomes a bustling hub once again. As usual, the first two weeks of Semester are filled with bright -eyed new students trying to find their way around campus, as well as incredibly long lines any time you want to go and get food. This first semester I was a teaching assistant for two papers: BIO108 (Biodiversity: Patterns of Life) and BIO109 (Ecology and Evolution: The continuum of life). These papers were brand new, merging subjects from previous papers, as well as introducing new topics. I thoroughly enjoyed both, especially the field trips with the students! March also marked the beginning of my second year as a PhD student (oh, how time runs away…). Another exciting moment was when I was informed by Gibson Production that we had secured funding for our project! “Bug Hunter” would be a collaboration between New Zealand and Canada. It would be a short children’s tv show about insects. On the 2nd, I also attended a Wikipedia Workshop at Auckland Museum led by Mike Dickison. Mike has long been an advocate of the use of Wikipedia as an outreach tool, especially for entomology. That day, I started writing the wikipedia page for the Lemon Tree Borer beetle (which I finished a few days later). From that, I also submitted a Did You Know fact which links to the main article. This was featured on the front page of Wikipedia a month later!
April: In April, things continued much as they did during the previous month. I carried on with my teaching assistant duties and the field work/experiments for my PhD. I was also helping some of my fellow lab mates with their field work. On Sunday the 7th, I helped organise for my lab group to take part in Motat’s STEM Fair day. We had a booth showcasing some of our amazing New Zealand insects to visiting kids and their parents. It was a huge success, and we had a great day!
May: This month was pretty calm and uneventful compared to the rest of the year. Notable events were joining the gym, helping put together a Science Postgrad event aimed at fostering social connections among our cohort. I was also trying to get everything booked and ready for my trip to the UK! That meant finding someone to take care of my stick insects while I was gone (thank you Erin and Claudio!). I also attended three really good seminars, one by Hugh Kearns on “Presenting your Research with Confidence”, another on “Sustainability, Science & Society: flourishing people, thriving ecosystems” presented by speakers from the Faculty of Science who talked about their current research and thinking on the topic and a guest speaker from an organisation that is applying an innovative solution. The last one was by Anthropologist Agustin Fuentes on “Animals, plants, buildings, pots, war and peace: how the last ~15-20 millennia shaped humanity, and why it matters.”
June: In June, I presented a talk about colour analysis of my stick insects at the Joint Graduate School in Biodiversity & Biosecurity Seminar Day. This was well received, and gave me practice for my upcoming talk at the Anti-Predator Colouration Symposium I was about to attend in Cornwall. On the 19th, I finally set off for the UK. I spent 3 days in London, getting over my jet-lag (also caught a cold off someone on the plane, so spent a day in bed hacking my lungs off!) and exploring. My lab mate Cass (who I was attending the conference with) and her husband Andrew met up with me 2 days later. They had just been travelling through the UK, and Andrew was now off to Switzerland to work with his collaborators. Cass and I were going down to Penryn, Cornwall for two weeks to discuss methodology with Prof Martin Stevens and Jolyon Troscianko, and attend the Anti-Predator Colouration Symposium. We spent the last week of June exploring Penryn and the nearby towns of Falmouth, Penzance, Truro and many others.
July: From the 4th to the 7th was the Anti-Predator Colouration Symposium. I presented a talk on “Hiding in Plain Sight: Camouflage and colour in New Zealand stick insects”. I got a bit of feedback, and it was really nice to discuss research with other members of my field. The aim of the symposium was to bring together researchers at all career stages interested in defensive coloration in nature. It involved a mixture of short (five minute) talks followed by discussions. There was also four workshops exploring key issues and unresolved questions in the subject area. I live tweeted most of the symposium! Cass left for New Zealand straight after the symposium while I stayed in Cornwall for an extra week. That is because, incredibly, three species of New Zealand stick insects were accidentally introduced in the early 1900’s and have naturalised in the UK. Two of those Acanthoxyla species can be found in Cornwall and Devon. I thought that this was serendipitous, and I needed to make the most of it! I decided it would be the perfect opportunity to photograph some of the naturalised NZ stick insects on their chosen substrate, both for my personal interest and to be able to compare them to the New Zealand ones in term of colouration. A few months before I left for the UK, I got in contact with Malcolm Lee. He has for the past few decades collected and analysed all UK reports of these stick-insects from those lucky people who find one in their garden. As such, he had very good knowledge of where I could find my little critters (especially as they are quite slow dispersers and I only had a few days). After a few weeks of emailing back and forth, we set up an itinerary where Malcolm would be kindly taking me around to visit a few spots and known locations. I thoroughly enjoyed being shown around and finding the stickies, it was great (thank you so much Malcolm!). Here is detailed report he wrote up about our stick insect hunt! From Cornwall, I went back to London for one more week to visit and be a tourist. My cousin from France (who I hadn’t seen in five years) joined me for a couple of days. It was really nice to catch up! I also visited the Tate Britain and Tate Modern, caught up with a couple of friends who were travelling through Europe, and went to the Natural History Museum. Part of my trip to the Natural History Museum was to check out their phasmid collection. So many amazing specimens from around the world, with some collected over 200 years ago! They also have the holotypes (the specimen that was originally used to describe and name the species) of some of our New Zealand stick insects! I got back to Auckland on the 22nd, which was also the start of Semester Two. That semester I was TA for BIO 207 (Adaptive Form and Function), and a marker for BIO 100 (Antarctica: The Frozen Continent).
August: After the whirlwind that was July, I thought this month would be more chilled. How wrong was I! On the 5th, my family and I officially became citizens of New Zealand after having lived here for over 10 years. We were (and still are!) incredibly proud and thrilled to be officially part of this country that we now call home. From the 17th to the 27th, I headed to Toronto, Canada to begin filming the first half of our very exciting project, ‘Bug Hunter’! This was an incredible opportunity, and I met people, saw places and made memories that I will cherish forever. I am very thankful to the team I had there who helped me with every step, especially as a complete novice to this industry. While I was there, I met fellow entomologist and co-star Gil Wizen, who is such a kind and wonderful soul. On a side note, travelling through the US (I had a lay-over in San Francisco) is a bloody nightmare. If you can avoid it, do it.
September: In 2015, together with 162 other countries, New Zealand committed to achieve 17 new sustainable development goals set by the United Nations by 2030. These goals aim to address the current ongoing and future issues plaguing our society. On the 2nd of September 2019, a summit was held in Auckland to bring together people from all sectors (industry, government, non-profit, research and academic) to develop and commit to positive action and accountability on the critical SDGs within their broader spheres of influence. I was one of the lucky few attendees being sponsored by my university, as the summit was held there. The Summit aimed to engage central and local government agencies, businesses, community groups, Māori, Pasifika, non-governmental organisations, health providers, researchers, educators and youth in working together to accelerate action towards the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals. It was an extremely interesting and touching day. It definitely reinforced some previous thoughts I had on the topic, but also opened my eyes to new challenges and solutions to tackle them. From the 9th to the 13th, Cass and I headed to Sydney for a week long workshop on the new version of the QCPA toolbox held at Macquarie University. This workshop allowed us to further ask questions and troubleshoot some problems we were having with the toolbox. I also started being involved in an outreach program called “Buzz in the Garden” led by Curious Minds, SouthSci and Auckland Council Libraries. The project involved staff from three south Auckland libraries (Ōtāhuhu, Māngere Bridge and Māngere East) building community gardens in collaboration with local community groups, businesses and schools to increase the diversity and abundance of beneficial insects. They also hoped to generate a range of benefits for their urban environment, such as increasing greenery, reducing pollution and feeding the community. Me and three other entomologists volunteered to help provide expert advice and resources. On the last weekend of the month, my family and I took a quick trip to Sydney to celebrate my mum’s birthday and attend a concert at the Sydney Opera House of one of her favourite band. I got us front row seats to Apocalyptica! Among other things, this was also to celebrate our citizenships, my dad’s promotion and was our first family holiday together in over 10 years!
October: This month was definitely a bit calmer than the previous ones. It was nice to be able to catch my breath a bit! I was busy with keeping up with my research and my teaching assistant duties. I also did outreach at a Bucklands Beach Primary School, talking to kids about insects and answering many, many, many questions. It was really fun and I loved it! Kids always have such good and interesting questions, and they’re not yet tethered by convention like so many adults are. I also organised with my BioGrad Club, a Halloween Party for the school. We held it on the Friday (which ended up being the 1st of November, but it was a much better day). It was a really fun party, everyone went really hard with the costumes, which is always great to see. We had lollies, drinks, vegetarian pizzas, good music and a fun quiz to get everyone socialising.
November: I started this month by ticking off a big bucket list item. My lab group and I completed the Tongariro Alpine Crossing! It was an amazing hike, even if I definitely felt all of the 19 kms in each and everyone of my muscles. I also moved desk to be closer to the window and therefore have a better chance of seeing the sun and dreaming about being outside. I went back to Bucklands Beach Primary School to do another day of insect fun, since it went so well the previous time. On the 20th, the School of Biology held it’s annual SBS showcase. As a second year PhD, I didn’t have to present anything and only attended to see what my fellow postgrads were up to. As a first year PhD the previous year, I had to do a 2 minute presentation on my research. I got first place for my efforts, so that was nice! But it was also nice to not have to stress about presenting anything this year. This month also marked the beginning of field work for my lab, including me. I joined Cass in a few excursions to do some light trapping to catch her ever evasive moths!
December: Finally the last month of the decade! The first week of December was spent preparing for the next segment of filming for my show ‘Bug Hunter’. This included rounding up props (most of them mine haha) and collecting insects that were going to be featured in each episode. The week after that was spent shooting! Incredibly fun, but also very tiring! But so worth it. I got to meet young entomologist Olly Hills who also co-stared with me on some of the episodes. He is an expert on New Zealand cicadas and wrote a book on them! Our lab mate Erin also handed in her PhD thesis. Yay! But she also moved back to America on the 16th, which was quite sad. But this world is small, and we will surely cross paths again. She is onto a post-doc at the University of Florida, which is very exciting! The rest of December was spent resting , spending time with family and enjoying the holiday break.
As I look back on the past year, I have come to realise that outreach and science communication is quite important to me. I really enjoy it and get a huge sense of fulfilment out of it. I also hope that the people I get to meet and talk to through these events, come away from them with a deeper appreciation of insects and critters in general.
It’s always a weird feeling, looking back on the past year. I came to the end of 2019 feeling like I hadn’t actually done much, but in reality I was very busy and had a brilliant year! Onwards and upwards!
Morgane Merien 