The ant genus Strumigenys Smith, 1860 (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) in western North America North of Mexico

Strumigenys is a globally distributed genus of mostly cryptic leaf-litter ants. In North America they are common throughout eastern deciduous forests but become increasingly rare to the west. Here I review the Strumigenys fauna of western North America north of the Mexico border including all states west of the eastern border of Texas. Six new native species with ranges entirely within this region are described: S. collinsae sp. nov., S. macgowni sp. nov., S. mendezi sp. nov., S. moreauviae sp. nov., S. lucky sp. nov., and S. subtilis sp. nov. Strumigenys ananeotes Longino & Booher 2019 is given a more thorough description, and S. alberti Forel 1893, a Neotropical species, is reported from the region for the first time. All new species bear clear morphological relationships with a native North American clade of “smithistrumiform” species. I include species accounts and provide an illustrated key for all species of this region.

Annotating Colonialism

This exhibition review essay compares three recent interventions into historic cultural representations at the American Museum of Natural History: the Digital Totem that was placed in the Northwest Coast Hall in 2016 to partially modernize its content, the 2018 reconsideration of the Old New York Diorama, which attempts to correct its stereotypical representations of Native North American peoples, and the 2019 exhibition Addressing the Statue providing context for the Theodore Roosevelt statue. Paying attention to visual and textual strategies, I characterize these three interventions as temporary annotations to what have been remarkably static, long-term cultural representations. I argue that, through these annotations, the museum acknowledges the misrepresentations but does not resolve them. The case studies show varying degrees of critical historical reflection expressing the complexities of negotiating different approaches and agendas to engaging with the museum’s past. I also comment on the pervasiveness of a digital aesthetics in all three projects, even though only the Digital Totem was produced as a digital, interactive intervention into the museum space. The invocation of a digital design vocabulary enhances the impression of annotation.

Distribution patterns of the native Eurasian and the non-native North American beaver in Finland—possible factors affecting the slow range expansion of the native species

Distribution patterns of species are affected by resource availability, dispersal, disturbance and population dynamics. The smaller population size and range of the native Eurasian beaver (Castor fiber) compared to the non-native North American beaver (Castor canadensis) in Finland raise questions on reasons for the slower range expansion of the native species. We compared the population growth rates and the spread of both species from their release sites. We also studied the factors possibly affecting the spread of the Eurasian beaver in South western Finland in more detail. We found that the North American beaver has spread longer distances than the Eurasian beaver, but we did not find evidence for movement barriers constraining the expansion rate of the native species. Lack of high-quality habitats does not seem to constrain the expansion to nearby areas either. Despite this, the Eurasian beaver population has grown to a high density close to its reintroduction site, and it has started to spread to novel areas only recently. We conclude that the expansion of the native beaver in Finland seems to be controlled by factors other than those related to barriers for movement: movement behavior and population dynamics, which require further investigation.

Contrasting a reference cranberry genome to a crop wild relative provides insights into adaptation, domestication, and breeding

Cranberry (Vaccinium macrocarpon) is a member of the Heath family (Ericaceae) and is a temperate low-growing woody perennial native to North America that is both economically important and has significant health benefits. While some native varieties are still grown today, breeding programs over the past 50 years have made significant contributions to improving disease resistance, fruit quality and yield. An initial genome sequence of an inbred line of the wild selection Ben Lear, which is parent to multiple breeding programs, provided insight into the gene repertoire as well as a platform for molecular breeding. Recent breeding efforts have focused on leveraging the circumboreal V. oxycoccos, which forms interspecific hybrids with V. macrocarpon, offering to bring in novel fruit chemistry and other desirable traits. Here we present an updated, chromosome-resolved V. macrocarpon reference genome, and compare it to a high-quality draft genome of V. oxycoccos. Leveraging the chromosome resolved cranberry reference genome, we confirmed that the Ericaceae has undergone two whole genome duplications that are shared with blueberry and rhododendron. Leveraging resequencing data for Ben Lear inbred lines, as well as several wild and elite selections, we identified common regions that are targets of improvement. These same syntenic regions in V. oxycoccos, were identified and represent environmental response and plant architecture genes. These data provide insight into early genomic selection in the domestication of a native North American berry crop.

Culture Chronology and Change

Archaeology emerged as part of the general discipline of anthropology in North America, the overall focus of which for the first five or six decades of the twentieth century was to write the history of the culture of each group of native North American people. The goal of writing a culture’s history could only be accomplished by placing artifacts in a chronological sequence, which demanded a chronometer. It was not always possible to refer to stratigraphic superposition, so various techniques of seriation—arranging artifacts based on their formal attributes in what was believed to be a chronological order—were invented and used. The results of the seriation techniques and stratigraphic superposition studies were initially summarized in tables of artifact frequencies but eventually were graphed in several ways. Interest in culture chronology and change among North American archaeologists has extended throughout the twentieth century and into the twenty-first century.

Colonial costuming: representations of playing Indian in photographs, settler Colonialism and the appropriation of native North American culture

This thesis examines the cultural significance of “playing Indian” in photographs: the practice of non-Native peoples dressing up in Native North American costumes and posing for photographs. It addresses photographs made both inside and outside the studio of people playing Indian, during both the later part of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and looks at the extent to which these photographs reinforce settler colonial ideology prevalent within white society during this time period. Examples from two collections will be explored, portraits from the Notman photography collection at the McCord museum, which includes examples of white Europeans and North Americans dressing up in Native “costumes” and photographs of children playing Indian in the First Nations collection at the Archive of Modern Conflict Toronto. Themes of masculinity, nation-building, “Canadianness,” and childhood in relation to indigeneity are explored by situating the photographs within their historical and cultural context and subsequently relating them to the already existing theories on playing Indian.

Colonial costuming: representations of playing Indian in photographs, settler Colonialism and the appropriation of native North American culture

This thesis examines the cultural significance of “playing Indian” in photographs: the practice of non-Native peoples dressing up in Native North American costumes and posing for photographs. It addresses photographs made both inside and outside the studio of people playing Indian, during both the later part of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and looks at the extent to which these photographs reinforce settler colonial ideology prevalent within white society during this time period. Examples from two collections will be explored, portraits from the Notman photography collection at the McCord museum, which includes examples of white Europeans and North Americans dressing up in Native “costumes” and photographs of children playing Indian in the First Nations collection at the Archive of Modern Conflict Toronto. Themes of masculinity, nation-building, “Canadianness,” and childhood in relation to indigeneity are explored by situating the photographs within their historical and cultural context and subsequently relating them to the already existing theories on playing Indian.

Phragmites australis (common reed).

Phragmites australis, the common reed, is an aggressive, vigorous species which, in suitable habitats, will out-compete virtually all other species and form a totally dominant stand. Its invasive character has been particularly apparent in North America where it has become dominant in a range of wetland habitats replacing native species and biotypes including the native North American P. australis subsp. americanus. Bird, fish and insect populations can also be affected.

Heterospecific pollination by an invasive congener threatens the native American bittersweet, Celastrus scandens

Invasive plants have the potential to interfere with native species’ reproductive success through a number of mechanisms, including heterospecific pollination and hybridization. This study investigated reproductive interactions between a native North American woody vine (American bittersweet,Celastrus scandens) and an introduced congener (oriental bittersweet,C.orbiculatus). The decline ofC.scandensin the eastern portion of its range is coincident with the introduction and spread ofC.orbiculatus, and the two species are known to hybridize. The relationship between proximity and floral production of conspecific and heterospecific males on fertilization and hybridization rates was measured at a field site in northwestern Indiana, USA where both species occur and reproduce. We found that the invasive vine had an extreme advantage in both male and female floral production, producing nearly 200 times more flowers per staminate plant and 65 times more flowers per pistillate plant than the native. Using nuclear microsatellite DNA markers we found that hybridization rates were asymmetric; 39% of theC.scandensseeds tested were hybrids, compared to only 1.6% ofC.orbiculatusseeds. The asymmetric hybridization rates were likely not solely due to greater abundance ofC.orbiculatuspollen because experimental hand crosses revealed thatC.scandenshad a higher rate (41%) of heterospecific fertilization thanC.orbiculatus(2.4%). We previously reported that few hybrids were observed in the wild, and hybrids had greatly reduced fecundity. Thus, in our system, the threat posed by heterospecific pollen is not replacement by hybrids or introgression, but rather asymmetric reproductive interference. Reproductive interference extended to distances as great as 100 meters, thus, efforts to conserve the native species must reduce its exposure toC.orbiculatusover a relatively large spatial scale.