2024 Wombats SA AGM

Members of Wombats SA / NHSSA are invited to attend our 2024 Annual General Meeting!

2:00pm on Saturday, 6th April 2024

Meeting to be held in person in Room 101/2, Charles Hawker Building, Waite Road, Urrbrae

Also available via Teams – Meeting Link will be provided upon RSVP.

Please RSVP no later than Saturday, 30th March 2024: info@wombatssa.org.au.

SPEAKER: Mollie Slater-Baker – winner of Alwin Clements Award 2023
"The biodiversity and systematics of the wasp genus Apanteles, a megadiverse group of caterpillar parasitoids"

You just couldn’t make these things up! Mollie will be speaking on one of the strangest events in the world of wasps around us. Apanteles are tiny parasitoid wasps who lay eggs into a caterpillar host. The wasp larvae then feed upon the caterpillar's internals while it is still alive! This ‘gruesome’ lifecycle means that parasitoid wasps have important roles in regulating caterpillar populations. Before Mollie’s work, the genus Apanteles had not been formally studied in Australia for over 30 years. Apanteles specimens from museum collections were used to produce DNA sequence data to estimate species boundaries and morphological differences between species. Brace yourself. Mollie’s work is a challenge and we’re grateful she is sharing it with us.

Coffee/tea, nibbles will be provided FOC and Wombats SA merchandise will be available for purchase - please bring cash or your credit card!