Diarsia Awards: small research grants for Masters and PhD students in memory of Douglas Boyes

Background

These grants will be awarded by Butterfly Conservation in memory of Dr Douglas Boyes, who died suddenly in September 2021. Douglas was a young entomologist whose pioneering research into the impact of light pollution on insects has already led to changes in lighting policy in the UK. Douglas’s research interests were focused on UK Lepidoptera and biodiversity declines.

Following his death, many people contributed to a memorial fund set up by Butterfly Conservation, with the full support of Douglas's family. It is from this fund that the Diarsia Awards will be made.

About the awards

These awards aim to inspire a new generation of Lepidopterists to share Douglas’s passion and further the careers of young researchers. The awards are named after the genus that contains moth species including Ingrailed Clay, Barred Chestnut, Purple Clay, Small Square-spot and Fen Square-spot, and which was the name of Douglas’s Twitter profile.

Annual awards will be made to support UK-focused research that helps answer a question to further Lepidoptera conservation. For example, work that focuses on Lepidoptera declines or potential causes of decline such as light pollution.

There will normally be two awards per calendar year – one for a Masters-level student to support fieldwork up to £1,000 and one for a PhD student to support field or lab work up to £3,000. Only students already accepted on an Masters or PhD programme are eligible to apply and only one grant is available per person. The grant is not available for international travel, fees or journal publication costs.

Application

We are no longer accepting applications for 2024. The successful applicants for 2024 funding will be notified by 29th February 2024.

Past Awards

See summaries of past projects supported by Diarsia Awards.

About Douglas

Douglas studied at Oxford where his undergraduate project on the moths of bird nests resulted in two publications. He graduated in 2017 with a first-class degree and continued at Brasenose College for his Masters in Biodiversity, Conservation and Management. Douglas was awarded the Wallace Prize for "a dissertation demonstrating qualities of excellence, independence and adventure”. His subject was Anthropocene ‘winners’: the moth species whose numbers are increasing against the backdrop of general biodiversity declines.

In October 2018, Douglas started his NERC-funded PhD focusing on the effects of light pollution on moth populations with the UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology (UKCEH), Newcastle University and Butterfly Conservation. His doctorate was awarded posthumously in 2022.

His research gave him the opportunity to combine his outstanding field skills with scientific investigation and his research was already ground-breaking. He showed that streetlights have a big impact on the local abundance of moth caterpillars, reducing numbers on grass verges by one-third, and by almost a half in hedgerows - the first real-world evidence that light pollution is reducing moth populations. He also found that ‘environmentally friendly’ LED lights were even more detrimental to moth populations than old-style sodium streetlights.

To collect this data, Douglas spent over 400 hours searching for caterpillars along roadsides over three years. When published, in the journal Science Advances in August 2021, the findings were met with huge media interest from all corners of the world. This is the sort of research that can fundamentally change how we interact with and protect nature and is already having an impact with lighting professionals.