FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Nov. 5, 2008
Contact: Anika Mitchell Perkins
(662) 329-7124
aperkins@pa.muw.edu

Brown to discuss `The Black Prairie: Mammoths, Milkweeds & Moths’

COLUMBUS, Miss. - Dr. Richard Brown, professor in the Department of Entomology & Plant Pathology at Mississippi State University and director of the Mississippi Entomological Museum, will discuss “The Black Prairie: Mammoths, Milkweeds & Moths” as part of the Sunday at the Bluff program Nov. 9. The program will begin at 2 p.m.

Before the last Ice Age, mammoths, mastodons, camels, giant tapirs and other animals that are now extinct roamed the numerous open grassy areas of the Black Prairie that extended from the Tennessee border in an arch through East-Central Mississippi and into Alabama. The few remaining remnants of this unique habitat have many plants and animals that otherwise occur only in the Great Plains and some that are not known to occur anywhere else in the world. 

Brown’s illustrated presentation will provide an overview of the unique plants and animals that are now found in the Black Prairie or once occurred here.  Dr. Brown also will discuss threats to this habitat and efforts to preserve the few remnants that exist today.

He joined the faculty at MSU in 1980 after receiving his doctoral degree in insect taxonomy from Cornell University. He has extensive research experience and publications involving moths of the southeastern United States and a particular interest in the taxonomy and morphology of tortricid moths.

The event is free and open to the public.