Can you repeat this experiment? How a request from Mike Haverty changed our career paths

Mike had read a Blomquist et al. publication describing the cuticular hydrocarbon profile of the dampwood termite species, Zootermopsis nevadensis. Mike was confident that they had described profiles from Z. angusticollis. Mike gave me several collections to analyze. We only had a gas chromatograph, so I could only provide cuticular hydrocarbon profiles. We completed several analyses that showed a very different cuticular hydrocarbon profile than published by Blomquist. I asked a chemist friend at the USDA lab to identify the hydrocarbons by GC-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). They were only able to identify the normal hydrocarbons. We were confident that their termite was not Z. nevadensis. Gary agreed to repeat the experiment with our termite samples. Unfortunately for Gary he had to correct the termite name in his published paper. Gary offered to teach me how to identify mass spectra of cuticular hydrocarbons and provide the latest knowledge on lipid biochemistry. So once a month I would spend a week in his lab and office at the University of Nevada. Mike and I now had acquired the analytical chemistry equipment and knowledge to pursue different career paths. My earlier research centered on bark beetles. I was curious to see if cuticular hydrocarbons and other biological information could increase our knowledge of the relationships of bark beetles (Dendroctonus sp., Ips sp.), cone beetles (Ips sp.), cone moths (Diorytria sp.) and termites (Reticutitermes sp.). My results with cuticular hydrocarbons of four Dendroctonus sp. were used for a Master’s of Science Degree in Entomology.