A new student award honoring the late Jacqueline Y. Miller was established by the Southern Lepidopterists’ Society and given at their 2025 combined Annual Meeting with the Association for Tropical Lepidoptera held in conjunction with the 20-year celebration of the McGuire Center. Jackie was Allyn Curator, Associate Director of the McGuire Center, and a longtime member of the Southern Lepidopterists’ Society. She was well known for her research contributions, especially on Lepidoptera of the Caribbean Basin. Her guidance and encouragement as a mentor to countless students of Lepidoptera throughout her career make this an especially appropriate memorial.

Taylor Pierson was presented with the first place award for best student paper by Southern Lepdopterists’ Society Chairman, David Fine. Image by Deborah Matthews.

Isabel Lopez-Cacacho was presented with an honorable mention award by Southern Lepidopterists’ Society Chairman, David Fine. Image by Deborah Matthews.

Sofía Nogales was awarded an honorable mention for her work on long-term butterfly monitoring in Ecuador. Image by Deborah Matthews.

The award, for best student oral presentation at the annual meeting, consists of a certificate and $200. Two honorable mentions, consisting of a certificate and cash award of $50 are also available. All of the student talks were excellent making the job of the judges particularly challenging. This year’s awardees were Taylor Pierson (first), Isabel Lopez-Cacacho (honorable mention), and Sofía Nogales (honorable mention). Taylor presented her work on assembling the first genome for evaluating population structure of the Frosted Elfin, Callophrys irus. Isabel’s study used micro-CT scans to examine the organs of Bella Moth, Utethesia ornatrix, caterpillars fed diets with and without the pyrrolizidine alkaloids normally sequestered from Crotalaria to evaluate the expression patterns of detoxification and immune genes. Sofía’s work involves monitoring long-term changes in butterfly abundance, species diversity and community structure in the tropical rainforest of Yasuní National Park, Ecuador.

Special thanks to the three anonymous judges and to Megan Neal for designing and printing the certificates and congratulations to this year’s winners!

Conference events spanned the course of four days with 38 formal talks including 17 student presenters. Due to construction at the Florida Museum, sessions were held at the nearby Entomology and Nematology Department. The 2026 meeting will likewise be held in Gainesville, April 17-19th with plans for activities at the Division of Plant Industry on 34th street and Cuscowilla Nature and Retreat Center and in Micanopy. More information on the Southern Lepidopterists’ Society and the upcoming meeting will be available at https://southernlepsoc.org/.

Please visit https://www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/science/remembering-florida-museum-curator-jacqueline-miller/ to read more about Jacqueline Miller.