As reported in the last issue of this newsletter, the Survey's “Annotated List of Workers on Systematics and Faunistics of Canadian Insects and Certain Related Groups” has now been published. This list of 465 personnel, based on information collected in 1996, is intended to provide readily available information to assist the roles of coordination and cooperation supported by the Survey. The information was compiled from returned questionnaires and therefore cannot be viewed as a definitive profile of Canadian entomologists working or interested in systematics and faunistics. Nonetheless some interesting statistics were compiled from the information received.
The 465 entries in the current published list compare with 439 entries in the 1989 edition and 436 in the 1977 edition. The differences probably reflect higher rates of return rather than an increase in the numbers of interested people, because the number of entomologists in Canada has declined over the past 20 years [Membership trends in the Entomological Society of Canada. Bulletin of the Entomological Society of Canada 26(3): 101-113, 1994].
Of the 465 people listed, 402 are located in Canada, 50 in the U.S.A. and 9 respondents were from a country other than Canada or the U.S.A. (4 have been removed from the database since publication). Distribution among the provinces and territories is shown above.
The largest numbers of Canadian respondents are employed by or associated with a university or college (32%). Most of the remainder work in or are associated with a federal (26%) or provincial (13%) government department, or are students (12%) or amateurs (2%). 15% fall into a miscellaneous category labelled ‘Others’ which includes private industry, self-employed and unemployed respondents.
About 8% of all respondents are retired or have honorary status with a university or government institution.
The graph above shows the number of entomologists who declared an interest in one or more families of the labelled orders. Orders that had fewer than 20 people with an interest are not shown.
Entomologists were asked to list their major fields of interest. More than one category could be chosen. The above graph shows the number of people with a major interest in each category.
As well as major interests, the questionnaire asked for minor fields of interest, giving the profile shown above. These interest profiles demonstrate a wide concern with the nature and roles of arthropod faunas among ecologists, environmentalists and other entomological practitioners, in addition to students of taxonomy and systematics.