Newsletter of the Biological Survey of Canada (Terrestrial Arthropods)

Volume 17 No. 1, Spring 1998

News and Notes

Activities at the Entomological Societies’ meeting

The 1997 joint annual meeting of the Entomological Society of Canada and the Entomological Society of Alberta took place in Edmonton, 4-8 October 1997. The meeting was very well attended including a large number of student members, many of whom presented papers. Items in the program or associated with it included:

• A plenary lecture by G.G.E. Scudder, entitled “Insects: diversity, impacts and adaptations”
• A plenary symposium on forest biodiversity
• Symposia on Insects and ecosystem productivity, on Pollinators, and on Fluctuating asymmetry
• Workshops on Forest insect defoliators and Bt: a system of multiple-trophic interactions, Biological control of pests of field crops, Lygus bug management, and Communicating entomology
• A student paper competition in several simultaneous sessions
• The ESC Heritage Lecture, and the ESC Gold Medal Address

Governing Board and annual general meetings also took place, the Gold Medal and other honours were awarded, and there were many opportunities for informal exchange of information, including an opening reception. The after-dinner speaker was the television host John Acorn, who spoke on “Bringing Bugs to the Box . . .” Activities especially relevant to the work of the Biological Survey included the following.

Plenary symposium on Forest biodiversity: What’s next?

Four major presentations outlined the diversity and importance of arthropods in forest systems, and the significance of information about them. These presentations were:

• Forestry and Fennoscandian boreal insects: where are we and where should we go? J. Niemelä
• Importance of integrating arthropods in the criteria and indicators of sustainable development in forestry. C. Hébert
• The biodiversity of arthropods from northern temperate ancient coastal rainforests: factual foundations or fictional myths. N. Winchester
• The ‘natural disturbance paradigm’ and forest management: magic bullet or biodiversity bingo? J. Spence

Symposium on insects and ecosystem productivity

Four major presentations treated the roles of insects in certain ecosystems, as follows:

• The role of insects in grassland trophic structure and energy flow. D. Johnson
• Insects in northern prairie wetlands: functions and values. D. Wrubleski
• A forest is more than trees; but show me one without trees: do insects modulate forest productivity. J. Volney
• Winter ticks on moose and mange mites on elk: do they affect host population size? W. Samuel

Symposium on Pollinators and Mother Earth: Global perspectives in productivity, diversity and behaviour

A wide range of presentations treated many aspects of pollination, especially the many interactions involved.

• Who buzzes for rare plants. V. Tepedino
• Plant-pollinator interactions in a Mediterranean scrubland. J. Bosch
• Bees and plants in a subtropical desert. C. Vergara
• Pollinator communities, diversity and abundance, for measuring ecosystematic stress. P. Kevan, C. Greco and S. Belaoussoff
• Yucatan’s native bees: pollination, diversity, and economic benefits. V. Melendez-Ramirez
• The importance of native bees for lowbush blueberry production. S. Javorek
• Floral visitors of stone fruit trees and weeds in the Mexican plateau. C. Vergara
• Conserving honeybees in the face of threats from parasitic mite diseases: breading and medicament. M. Narr
• Plant interactions for pollinator visits: A test of the magnet species effect in Trillium grandiflorum. T. Laverty
• Parasitoids and flower relations. J. Patt
• Getting the message to the public: pollination interpretation at the Toronto Metro Zoo. J. Ambrose

Heritage lecture

Dr. George Ball, the Chair of the Biological Survey project for a number of years after its inception, presented an account of the early background to, and the development of, the Biological Survey of Canada (Terrestrial Arthropods). This lecture in the ESC Heritage series was entitled: “Pursuit of insect biodiversity, Canadian style.” The text will be published in the ESC Bulletin.

Papers on systematics and related themes

The following titles included some of the papers of faunal interest that were presented in various scientific sessions, including posters, in addition to the symposium and workshop papers. (Interesting treatments on a range of other subjects such as biological control, pest management, host resistance, behaviour, physiology and species interactions also were presented at the meeting.)

• Spider diversity and abundance in aspen-mixedwood stands originating from harvest and wildfire. C. Buddle
• Fire skips as biotic storehouses of old-growth beetles in pyrogenic forest stands of western Alberta. K. Gandhi
• The biodiversity of cursorial spiders on nickel/copper mine tailings near Sudbury, Ontario. D. Shorthouse
• Oribatid mite fauna of central British Columbia: Impact of harvesting and soil compaction on abundance and diversity. J. Battigelli
• Insects of alvar habitats. P. Bouchard
• Conservation of arthropod biodiversity: Evaluation of the Centinelan extinctions concept. N.Winchester
• Biodiversity of arthropod nest fauna of passerine birds. C. Riley
• Gene flow and dispersal among populations of an alpine butterfly. N. Keyghobadi
• Stand density influences the abundance and diversity of eastern hemlock looper natural enemies. S. Pardy
• Ultrastructure of first instar Oestrus ovis (Diptera: Oestridae). D. Colwell and F. Leggett
• Regional variation in epigaeic beetle assemblages. D. Langor, G. Pohl, J. Spence and J. Hammond
• The oribatid community of beech and spruce stands in Germany: Relation to biotic and abiotic habitat characteristics. S. Migge
• Insects in the canopy of a temperate rainforest: Unique opportunities for studies in conservation biology. R. Ring and N. Winchester
• Boreal beetles in harvest- and fire-origin stands. J. Spence, J. Hammond, C. Buddle and D. Langor
• Mixed or pure? The effect of pure and mixed stands of Douglas fir and paper birch on microarthropods. S. Welke
• An index to analyze environmental impacts: Btk and lepidopteran populations in boreal wetlands. M. Williamson
• Identification and pest management of flies affecting livestock in Canada: on line dissemination of biosystematic information. J. Cumming
• Zoogeography of Diptera in southern Yukon grasslands. S. Boucher
• Seasonal morphometric variation in sexual and asexual, North American and Australian, populations of the aphid, Acyrthosiphon pisum. M. Smith, R. MacKay and R. Lamb
• The identity and origin of Bohemanella frigida (Boheman) (Orthoptera: Acrididae). S. Skareas
• Body size, sexual dimorphism, and confusion: systematics of the strobi-group of Pissodes (Coleoptera: Curculionidae). D. Williams
• Mitochondrial DNA variation among populations of the hemlock looper, Lambdina fiscellaria (Gn.). F. Sperling
• Ground beetles of Canada, their diversity and significance as bioindicators. H. Goulet
• Boreal beetles in harvest- and fire-origin stands. J. Hammond
• Time of submergence using aquatic insect succession. N. MacDonnel
• Using biodiversity of central Asia to find specialized parasitoids for biological control of apple pests in Canada. U. Kuhlmann

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