Claudia Ratti

M.Sc. in Biology, Simon Fraser University
Honours B.Sc. in Biology, University of Waterloo
Email: cratti@yorku.ca

Claudia moved to France but was a valued digital imaging technician. She also maintained the Bugsrus Website, worked on the Bee Tribes gallery and the technical aspects of online keys, databased 49,000 specimens for the Global Biodiversity Information Facility, organized the Bee-BOL inaugural meeting and performed curatorial work on the collection.

Publications

Colla SR, Ratti CM. 2010. Evidence for the decline of the Western Bumble bee (Bombus occidentalis Greene) in British Columbia. Pan-Pacific Entomologist 86(2): 32-34. doi: 10.3956/2009-22.1
Ratti CM, Colla SR. 2010. Discussion of the presence of an eastern bumble bee species (Bombus impatiens Cresson) in western Canada. Pan-Pacific Entomologist 86(2): 29-31. doi: 10.3956/2009-19.1
Sheffield CS, Ratti CM, Packer L, Griswold T. 2011. Leafcutter and mason bees of the genus Megachile Latreille (Hymenoptera: Megachilidae) in Canada and Alaska. Canadian Journal of Arthropod Identification 18: 1-107. doi: 10.3752/cjai.2011.18 Full text
Ratti CM, Higo HA, Griswold T, Winston ML. 2008. Bumble bees influence berry size in commercial Vaccinium spp. cultivation in British Columbia. The Canadian Entomologist 140: 348-363. doi: 10.4039/n07-065
Ratti CM, Barton DR. 2003. Decline in the diversity of benthic invertebrates in the wave-zone of eastern Lake Erie, 1974-2001. Journal of Great Lakes Research 29(4): 608-615. doi: 10.1016/S0380-1330(03)70464-X
Ratti CM, Packer L. 2009. Key to the Bee Families of the World. United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation.

Favorite Recipe

Chirpy Chips
(Roasted Crickets)

Ingredients

½ lb crickets
1 tsp butter
salt

Directions

Purchase crickets at your local pet store. Feed crickets apple slices for 24hrs to improve their flavour (remember that crickets need air holes). Next place crickets in freezer for a few hours or until the are sufficiently slow. Do not include any crickets that are already dead as they will taste awful.

Melt butter in a pan. Place crickets in pan and cover with a lid (they may start jumping as they heat up). Roast until crunchy. Salt / season to taste. You may choose to remove the hind legs as they can scratch as you chew. Enjoy!

Funniest Research Story

Sense of Direction

Having just moved to Vancouver from Ontario to start my Masters I was having a bit of a hard time getting my bearings. A fellow student was heading to Alberta for her summer field season. I asked my supervisor when she was heading West. He looked at me with utter disgust and said "She's heading East!"

Dragging sound? What dragging sound?

I was in charge of picking up a very important visitor to the lab. My car was on its last leg but no other vehicle was available. Pulling out of the airport parking lot, the side moulding of my car (which had already been quite loose) peeled back and dragged on the ground for thirty seconds before finally falling off with much clanging. Should I stop to pick it up? My embarrassment won out and I kept driving without saying a word.