Beulah Garner Explained

Beulah Garner
Workplaces:Rothamsted Research, Horniman Museum, Natural History Museum, London
Alma Mater:University of East Anglia (BSc, MA)
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Doctoral Advisors:)--> Alfried Vogler, Terry Erwin
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Beulah Garner FRES is an entomologist in the United Kingdom. She is Senior Curator at the Natural History Museum, London and is an expert of beetles, in particular the ground beetles (Carabidae).

Education and career

Garner grew up in Norfolk[1] and was educated at the University of East Anglia where she graduated with a BSc in ecology in 1998. She worked at Rothamsted Research as a Senior Scientific Officer, before studying an MA in Museology back at UEA, graduating in 2008. During her Masters she worked as Assistant Curator at Norfolk Museums Service and then moved to the Horniman Museum, in 2010 she moved to the Natural History Museum, London where she is Senior curator of Carabidae, Cleroidea, Myxophaga and Archostemata.

Research

Garner researched crop protection and biodiversity in agroecosystems during her time at Rothamsted. Her work included the two-spotted spider mite, Tetranychus urticae,[2] aphid controls on sugar beet crops[3] and she also was part of a large project looking at invertebrate responses to genetically modified herbicide-tolerant crops.[4] [5]

As a museum curator she has collaborated on many publications relating to specimens in the NHM collection, including a guide on how to conserve insect specimens affected by verdigris, a problematic substance that develops on entomological pins underneath specimens;[6] checkered beetles[7] and a review of the taxonomic history of pelidnotine scarabs.[8] In 2019 she was involved in work to help automate the identification of insects using imaging, testing a convolutional neural network to classify images of insect specimens.[9]

She co-edited the Royal Entomological Society identification handbook Coleoptera Larvae with Max Barclay in 2019, it details the morphology of beetle larvae in the British Isles and includes dichotomous keys to help identify the taxonomic family or subfamily of a larval specimen.[10]

Garner's thesis is on the 'Systematics and biogeography of Lebiinae: Carabidae: Coleoptera' at Imperial College London and the Natural History Museum, in the lab of Alfried Vogler and she was also co-supervised by the late Terry Erwin. She has worked on a taxonomic revision of the Carabid beetle genus Plochionus,[11] which are beetles that hunt tent-caterpillars, she has also been involved in re-finding the type specimens of Carabus pallens,[12] and has helped to develop rapid biodiversity assessments of tropical rainforest canopy fogging samples, using imaging to identify morphospecies before molecular sequencing, resulting in a larger diversity of species in the Agra genus of Carabid beetles than previously recorded.[13]

Public activities

Garner is an advocate for the need for more women in entomology and support for them, particularly in countries with limited funding for science;[14] in 2009 she was interviewed as part of a project about women in science by teacher and writer Alom Shaha.[15] In 2014 she gave a talk for Ada Lovelace Day highlighting the victorian entomologist Evelyn Cheesman [16] She expanded on Cheesman's career in interviews for the NHM website[17] and the Daily Telegraph;[18] in 2015 she presented BBC Radio 4 programme on Cheesman, as part of the Natural History Heroes series.[19] In 2019 she co-wrote a paper about Cheesman's career and contributions to science[20]

In 2015 Garner talked with David Baddiel on BBC Radio 4's Today programme about the type of insect that Gregor Samsa transforms into in Franz Kafka's 1915 novella Metamorphosis.[21] Later in 2015 she was interviewed on the Breaking Bio podcast, where she talked about the NHM beetle collections, and challenges that women face doing fieldwork.[22]

In 2021 she gave an online talk about Beetles as part of the NHM's Nature Live series.[23]

Honours and awards

Garner is a Trustee of the Panama Wildlife Conservation Charity,[24] Council member of the Systematics Association,[25] Fellow of the Royal Entomological Society, Chairperson of ColSoc: The Coleopterists Society of Britain and Ireland[26] and President of the Amateur Entomologists' Society.[27]

External links

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Ada Lovelace Day . BArnett . Sam . palaeosam.wordpress.com/ . Palaeosam's Blog . 11 March 2021.
  2. Book: Dewar, A. M. . Haylock, L. A. . Bean, K. M. . Garner, B. H. . Boyce, R. . The BCPC Conference--Pests & Diseases 2000 : proceedings of an international conference : held at the Brighton Hilton Metropole Hotel, UK, 13-16 November, 2000 . 2000 . British Crop Protection Council . Farnham, Surrey . 1901396606 . 11 March 2021 . The ecology and control of the two-spotted spider mite, Tetranychus urticae, in sugar beet..
  3. Book: Dewar, A. M. . Haylock, L. A. . Bean, K. M. . Garner, B. H. . Sands, R. J. N. . Ecclestone, P. M. J. . Seed Treatment: Challenges and Opportunities. BCPC Symposium Proceedings No. 76 . 2001 . British Crop Protection Council . 33–40 . 11 March 2021 . NOVEL SEED TREATMENTS TO CONTROL APHIDS AND VIRUS YELLOWS IN SUGAR BEET.
  4. Brooks . D. R. . Bohan . D. A. . Champion . G. T. . Haughton . A. J. . Hawes . C. . Heard . M. S. . Clark . S. J. . Dewar . A. M. . Firbank . L. G. . Perry . J. N. . Rothery . P. . Scott . R. J. . Woiwod . I. P. . Birchall . C. . Skellern . M. P. . Walker . J. H. . Baker . P. . Bell . D. . Browne . E. L. . Dewar . A. J. G. . Fairfax . C. M. . Garner . B. H. . Haylock . L. A. . Horne . S. L. . Hulmes . S. E. . Mason . N. S. . Norton . L. R. . Nuttall . P. . Randle . Z. . Rossall . M. J. . Sands . R. J. N. . Singer . E. J. . Walker . M. J. . Invertebrate responses to the management of genetically modified herbicide–tolerant and conventional spring crops. I. Soil-surface-active invertebrates . Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B: Biological Sciences . 29 November 2003 . 358 . 1439 . 1847–1862 . 10.1098/rstb.2003.1407 . 14561318 . 1693272 .
  5. Haughton . A. J. . Champion . G. T. . Hawes . C. . Heard . M. S. . Brooks . D. R. . Bohan . D. A. . Clark . S. J. . Dewar . A. M. . Firbank . L. G. . Osborne . J. L. . Perry . J. N. . Rothery . P. . Roy . D. B. . Scott . R. J. . Woiwod . I. P. . Birchall . C. . Skellern . M. P. . Walker . J. H. . Baker . P. . Browne . E. L. . Dewar . A. J. G. . Garner . B. H. . Haylock . L. A. . Horne . S. L. . Mason . N. S. . Sands . R. J. N. . Walker . M. J. . Invertebrate responses to the management of genetically modified herbicide–tolerant and conventional spring crops. II. Within-field epigeal and aerial arthropods . Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B: Biological Sciences . 29 November 2003 . 358 . 1439 . 1863–1877 . 10.1098/rstb.2003.1408 . 14561319 . 1693277 .
  6. Beulah . Garner . Alessandro . Giusti . Malcolm . Kerley . Conservation of Insect Specimens Affected by Verdigris . NatSCA News . 2011 . 21 . 50-59 . 11 March 2021.
  7. Leavengood . John . Garner . Beulah . Nomenclatural notes on some checkered beetle (Coleoptera: Cleridae) types of the Natural History Museum, London (BMNH) . Zootaxa . May 2014 . 3760 . 3 . 301–35 . 10.11646/zootaxa.3760.3.1 . 24870084 . 11 March 2021.
  8. Moore . Matthew . Jameson . Mary . Garner . Beulah . Audibert . Cédric . Synopsis of the pelidnotine scarabs (Coleoptera, Scarabaeidae, Rutelinae, Rutelini) and annotated catalog of the species and subspecies . ZooKeys . April 2017 . 666 . 1–349 . 10.3897/zookeys.666.9191 . 28769631 . 5534527 . 11 March 2021. free . 2017ZooK..666....1M .
  9. Hansen . Oskar L. P. . Svenning . Jens-Christian . Olsen . Kent . Dupont . Steen . Garner . Beulah H. . Iosifidis . Alexandros . Price . Benjamin W. . Høye . Toke T. . Species-level image classification with convolutional neural network enables insect identification from habitus images . Ecology and Evolution . January 2020 . 10 . 2 . 737–747 . 10.1002/ece3.5921 . 32015839 . 6988528 . 2020EcoEv..10..737H .
  10. Book: Barclay . Maxwell . Garner . Beulah . British Coleoptera larvae. A guide to the families and major subfamilies. . 1 August 2019 . Royal Entomological Society . 9781910159033 . 280 . 1st . 11 March 2021 .
  11. Garner . Beulah . Terry . Erwin . Pantropical Carabidae: studies of the genus Plochionus Dejean 1821, the tent-caterpillar hunters . Entomological Society of America Conference . November 2015 . 10.13140/RG.2.1.4935.2725 . 11 March 2021.
  12. Beulah . Garner . E. Geoffrey . Hancock . The 'Lost' Types of Carabus Pallens Fabricius, 1775 (Coleoptera: Carabidae: Lebiinae) from the Banks and Hunter Collections: Lectotype Designation, Redescription, and Distribution . The Coleopterists Bulletin . December 2018 . 72 . 4 . 845 . 10.1649/0010-065X-72.4.845 . 92051827 . 11 March 2021.
  13. Beulah . Garner . Alfried . Vogler . Terry . Erwin . Laura . Zamorano . The carabids in the trees: rapid biodiversity assessment of an Ecuadorian rainforest . ARPHA Conference Abstracts . August 2019 . 2 . 10.3897/aca.2.e39251 . 202179741 . 11 March 2021 . free .
  14. Web site: Kimbrough . Liz . Canopy beetles and flowering trees rely on each other in the Amazon, study . news.mongabay.com/ . Mongabay . 11 March 2021 . 6 January 2021.
  15. Web site: Shaha . Alom . Why Science is Important . blog.sciencewomen.com . Women in Science . 11 March 2021 . 30 March 2009.
  16. Web site: Worldwide Events 2014 . findingada.com/ . Finding Ada Network . 11 March 2021.
  17. Web site: Lotzof . Kerry . Lucy Evelyn Cheesman: the woman who walked . www.nhm.ac.uk/ . Natural History Museum . 11 March 2021.
  18. News: Shaikh . Sameeha . Evelyn Cheesman: the 20th century entomologist who helped to open the door for women in science . The Telegraph . 11 March 2021 . 11 October 2018.
  19. Web site: Natural History Heroes: Evelyn Cheesman . bbc.co.uk . 11 March 2021 . October 2015.
  20. Beulah . Garner . Grace . Touzel . The Person Herself Is Not Interesting" Lucy Evelyn Cheesman's Life Dedicated to the Faunistic Exploration of the Southwest Pacific . Collections: A Journal for Museum and Archives Professionals . February 2019 . 14 . 4 . 495–530 . 10.1177/155019061801400407 . 198667545 . 11 March 2021.
  21. Web site: BBC Radio 4 - Today . www.bbc.co.uk/ . BBC . 11 March 2021 . 5 May 2015.
  22. Web site: BB 88 - Beetles and Battling Sexism with Beulah Garner . podcasts.apple.com . Breaking Bio podcast . 11 March 2021 . September 2015.
  23. Web site: Nature Live Online: The Beetles . www.nhm.ac.uk . Natural History Museum London . 10 August 2021 . en.
  24. Web site: BEULAH GARNER . panamawildlife.org . Panama Wildlife Conservation Charity . 11 March 2021.
  25. Web site: Beulah Garner . systass.org . Systematics Association . 4 October 2017 . 11 March 2021.
  26. Web site: Who We Are . ColSoc . The Coleopterists Society of Britain and Ireland . 3 February 2022 . en.
  27. Web site: Council officers . www.amentsoc.org . Amateur Entomologists' Society . 3 August 2022.