Biology student to be published in Northeastern Naturalist
A
Biology student at the University
of Maine at Presque Isle
who recently completed a two-year research project on crayfish worms has had a
paper she wrote with a biologist and a museum curator accepted for publication
in the peer-reviewed journal Northeastern Naturalist.
Lana McCurry - who is majoring in Biology with a minor
in Chemistry and will graduate this year - just completed a two-year research
project on the first-ever study to establish the distribution of crayfish worms
in the Maritime Provinces of Canada, according to Dr. Stuart R. Gelder,
emeritus Professor of Biology at the University of Maine at Presque Isle, who supervised
the project.
In
an international collaboration, Dr. Donald F. McAlpine, Curator of
Invertebrates at the New Brunswick Museum in Saint
John, New Brunswick, Canada, provided crayfish specimens
for the project. Over the course of two years, McCurry mastered the methods of
examining crayfish for their worms and then preparing specimens for microscopical
examination. This was followed by her identification of the species collected
and a mapping of their distribution.
The
results showed that the same species of crayfish worms were found in New Brunswick, Canada,
as those that are known to be in Maine;
however, no crayfish worms were found in the other Maritime Provinces of
Canada. According to Gelder, this somewhat surprising finding has established
that the eastern boundary of crayfish worms in North America exists along the
eastern border of New Brunswick.
McCurry
presented her finding at the University's annual day devoted to student research,
University Day. On the morning of the presentation, Dr. Gelder was informed
that the manuscript, "Distribution and first records of Branchiobdellidan
(Annelida: Clitellata) from crayfishes in the Maritime Provinces of Canada" by
S. R. Gelder, Lana McCurry and D. F. McAlpine, had been accepted for
publication in the peer-reviewed journal, Northeastern Naturalist.
