News and Notes

1. Grasslands
The editorial committee for the first grasslands volume has been expanded to include Dr. Joe Shorthouse, Dr. Kevin Floate, and Dr. Rose De Clerck-Floate. Authors should soon receive communication about the project and will have an opportunity to update their chapters.

A list of potential authors for the second volume on Arthropods and Altered Grassland Ecosystems has been compiled and letters of invitation will soon be sent by Dr. Floate. It was suggested that a conservation-oriented chapter would greatly increase the readership of the book.

2. Canadian Journal of Arthropod Identification
Several papers for CJAI have been accepted, submitted, or are in advanced stages of preparation including Mosquitoes of Ontario, Bee genera of eastern Canada, Stratiomyidae species of Ontario, Bombyliidae species of Ontario, Vespidae species of northeastern North America, Tephritidae of Ontario, Clusiidae species of Canada and genera of the world, Psocoptera of Ontario, Syrphidae species of Ontario, and Orthopteroid species of Ontario. More papers, especially from institutions other than University of Guelph, are needed. The CJAI should gather considerable momentum over the next year and have a positive impact on biodiversity studies in Canada as well as on the Survey’s profile.

The CJAI has been offered the opportunity to publish on the University of Alberta library website using the Open Journal System (OJS) and this system is currently being tested for its suitability to the CJAI. There are both advantages and disadvantages, and use of the OJS may be limited to submission and review of PDF files. Preparation and posting of HTML content might have to be done outside the OJS system.

Provision for edited but non-refereed additions to papers in the form of dated subsequent postings by the authors or others are being considered as is a section for editorials and reviews.

3. Terrestrial arthropods of Newfoundland and Labrador
Work continues on the key to the Curculionoidea of Newfoundland and Labrador, a checklist of macromoths, and identification of material from the Memorial University of Newfoundland collection. The full staphylinid key will be completed by mid-2008. Some taxonomists have offered to identify flies including Agromyzidae, Syrphidae, and Sarcophagidae. There is a need for somebody to take on the Hymenoptera. Extraction of Newfoundland species records from literature continues at a good pace. This will result in a comprehensive bibliography of works dealing with NL Entomology, with almost 1000 references already entered.

4. Forest arthropods
The database of forest arthropod biodiversity projects is updated regularly and currently includes about 68 projects. Volume 3 of the Arthropods of Canadian Forests newsletter will be published in early May.

Seven synthesis papers stemming from a BSC-sponsored symposium entitled “Maintaining Arthropods in Northern Forest Ecosystems,” held in 2005, are near completion and should be submitted to The Canadian Entomologist by the end of May.

Previous BioBlitzes, especially at Waterton Lakes and Gros Morne National Parks, continue to yield data. The permit for Waterton Lakes has been extended until the end of 2007 and survey work is continuing there. An impressive database is being built and Parks is very happy to have these data on biodiversity.

Work on the handbook to the Cerambycidae (Coleoptera) of Canada and Alaska continues as a collaboration between the Canadian Forest Service, the US Department of Agriculture Forest Service, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, the University of Cape Breton, and the BSC. A manuscript should be ready for review in about 2.5 years.

5. Insects of the arctic
Dr. Currie plans to visit the Primorya region north of Vladivostok in the summer of 2007 as well as Norman Wells, NT. Dr. Giberson collected along the Dempster highway in conjunction with the COSEWIC arthropod SSC meeting that was held in Whitehorse in 2006. Dr. Giberson and Dr. Steve Burian have completed work on the mayflies of Nunavut as well as the life history of the most common mayfly in Nunavut, Baetis bundyae. Dr. Ken Stewart and Dr. Giberson are beginning to work on the stoneflies of the area not covered by The Stoneflies (Plecoptera) of Alaska and Western Canada by K.W. Stewart and M.W. Oswood. Dr. Giberson’s other northern focus is on material collected from the Mackenzie River in the 1970’s. Dr. Sperling plans to sample along the Dempster Highway in late July depending on whether permits can be obtained.

The subcommittee charged with developing a proposal for a large collaborative northern project is considered the best strategy for how to move forward with the project and will report at the fall meeting.

6. Seasonal adaptations
Dr. Danks reviewed his current work on this project including the status of several papers. Although the subject is linked to the Survey’s goals of understanding the northern fauna, the Committee will review the status of the project after Dr. Danks retires.

7. Invasions and reductions
The proceedings of the symposium on Ecological Impacts of Non-Native Insects and Fungi on Terrestrial Ecosystems, held at the 2006 ESC Joint Annual Meeting, will be published by Springer in the journal Biological Invasions with the addition of two additional papers on fungi. The final reviewed manuscripts will be submitted to the journal editor by the beginning of November.

Progress on capturing data for the coccinellid project continues. Help is needed to database more specimens from Ontario and Quebec. An attempt is being made to get AAFC to lead the way in bringing the data together and posting them on the CBIF web site, as has been done already with the butterflies. Work continues on the comprehensive list of non-native terrestrial arthropods, which now includes approximately 1880 species. A synthesis of the data should be published in about a year. The component dealing with species on trees is complete and will be published as part of the aforementioned symposium proceedings as well as being incorporated into a CFS/CFIA invasive alien species web site.

Reports from the now discontinued Forest and Insect Disease Survey (FIDS) have been scanned and will be available in pdf format on the CFS web site.

Other scientific priorities

1. Arthropods and fire
The Journal of Insect Conservation had tentatively agreed to host a series of papers on the topic of arthropod conservation and fire from BSC symposium. However, only six titles have been confirmed so the taxonomic or geographic coverage is limited. The delay in publication is a potential problem for authors. Publishing a short series of papers devoted to the topic (i.e., 4-6) could be considered instead of a full issue but would not have the profile of a full-length issue. Dr. Buddle will seek commitments from authors once more over the next couple of months, and then will advise the journal accordingly.

2. BioBlitzes
The 2007 BioBlitz will be held in Riding Mountain National Park, July 16-20, 2007. There is some interest in having the 2008 BioBlitz in Bruce Peninsula National Park.

The International Institute for Sustainable Development had invited Dr. Roughley to participate in a pilot project to discuss the BioBlitz method and its prospects as a scientific and public policy tool.

A proposal to organize a series of Collection Blitzes to assess material and give particular curatorial attention to chosen collections was discussed. The possibility of organizing one in Saskatoon in conjunction with the joint annual meeting of the ESS and the ESC will be investigated.

3. Faunal analysis
There was little progress to report on this project. The subcommittee had agreed to simplify the protocols and define the objectives more clearly so that the work can proceed.

4. Arthropods of the Gulf of St. Lawrence Islands
The focus of the project for the short term is to visit approximately 20 small collections in the Maritimes that have tens of thousands of unidentified specimens, although well maintained in many cases. The plan is to have undergraduate students start the study of some specific taxa, and attract graduate students for broader groups. The goal is to leave these small collections with curated material, get the material into a database, start some synthetic work on the arthropods of the area, and answer some interesting questions.

5. Databasing
The BSC database of collecting localities should soon be ready for posting on the BSC web site.

6. Survey web site
The BSC web site continues to be updated on a regular basis when new information is received. For April 1, 2006 to March 31, 2007 there were 61,403 unique visitors.

7. Endangered species
A proposal for a publication dealing with endangered species in Canada is being considered. It is very timely to proceed with a Survey synthesis given current interest and funding in endangered species legislation.

8. Biodiversity sampling brief
Interest is insufficient to prepare a revision of the Survey’s 1994 biodiversity brief on planning a study and recommended sampling techniques. However, a reference list giving the various new sources for techniques would be useful and is being considered.

9. Monitoring of continuing priorities
Several other ongoing interests of the Survey were reviewed. At the University of Alberta a 3-year study will look at the effects of change in temperature and precipitation on rangeland communities including plants, bacteria, and soil invertebrates. The research will take place at 3 locations in grasslands.

For arthropods of aquatic habitats it was noted that the Rivers Institute (affiliated with Environment Canada) has people interested in species-level work who have decided to join the Barcode of Life initiative. The taxonomic certification program through the North American Benthological Society has been very successful. The Society is trying to certify taxonomists in aquatic groups to certain levels through testing procedures. This will allow people who hire consulting firms to check whether consultant staff have taken the tests. Apparently this certification process is already enhancing quality control.

For arthropod ectoparasites of vertebrates, it was noted that Mr. Wayne Knee is finishing his MSc degree on nasal mites of birds from Alberta and Manitoba and will submit a Lucid key to CJAI. Dr. Proctor has just posted a list of feather mites and their alien hosts, with 12,000 records, on her website. The Ticks of Canada book, coordinated by Dr. Galloway, should be submitted soon.

Collecting done in the Yukon recently included a study of the phylogeography of western cordilleran black flies, spiders, and beetles collected along the Dempster highway, and microlepidoptera in Whitehorse last year.

Liaison and exchange of information

1. Canadian Museum of Nature
Mr. Roger Baird, Director, Collection Services, reported on the competition for the one-year position as Head of the Biological Survey. The Museum forecasts a $750,000 deficit operational budget for the 2007/08 fiscal year. The priorities for the Museum are to continue with the renovation of the Victoria Memorial Museum Building, to continue fundraising and revenue generation, and to continue with the CMN’s national service role. The BSC is considered part of that role. Strategic planning for the next five years will begin this year. Ms. Joanne DiCosimo has received a renewed five-year term as the President and CEO of the Canadian Museum of Nature.

2. Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada
Dr. Lianne Dwyer is now the Science Director for the Biodiversity Theme of the national Environmental Health Program at Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada. A new research project structure has been implemented whereby project proposals receive external peer-reviews and, if approved, obtain guaranteed A-base financing for up to 4 years. The “Invertebrate Biodiversity” proposal involving all of the systematic entomologists at the CNC was approved without amendments with a four-year budget.

Databasing of selected CNC specimens began in early January and is proceeding very well, with six casual employees doing the data entry and one part-time programmer maintaining the system and providing technical assistance.

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) has hired four insect taxonomists (Dr. Vasily Grebennikov, Dr. Chris Schmidt, Dr. Brad Sinclair, Dr. Hume Douglas) to supplement its national diagnostic services that have long been located at ECORC in close proximity to CNC resources and taxonomic expertise. They will greatly enhance the critical mass of expertise associated with the CNC.

3. Entomological Society of Canada
Dr. Peggy Dixon, President of the Entomological Society of Canada reported that Society’s finances and membership are more-or-less stable. Dr. Robb Bennett is the new editor of The Canadian Entomologist. Dr. Kevin Floate is now the editor of the Bulletin. The new ESC Office Manager is Ms. Derna Lisi. The Society undertook a strategic review in 2005 and has been slowly implementing some of its recommendations. Two of the new initiatives are overhauling the web site and developing an online submission and review system for The Canadian Entomologist.

The next Joint Annual Meeting will be in Saskatoon, September 30 to October 3, 2007.

4. Natural Resources Canada, Canadian Forest Service
Mr. Christian Malouin, Biologist, Forest Science Division, Natural Resources Canada, reported that in October 2006 the Deputy Minister started the development of a national integrated natural resources policy framework; the goal being to integrate the various activities related to management of natural resources not only across centres within NRCan but also between federal and provincial governments. In 2004 the innovation management concept was introduced to the Canadian Forest Service. The department is now working around 5 strategic directions. Biodiversity is captured under Inter-forest sustainability. Some of the short-term actions around this strategic direction include developing a national forest pest management strategy, designing a forest research agenda on climate change impacts and adaptation, identifying threats to healthy forests and mitigating risk, and developing a boreal forest strategy.

The biodiversity outcomes framework, which is an action plan to implement the Canadian biodiversity strategy, has been developed by the federal-provincial biodiversity working group. One of the first activities will be to develop an ecosystem status and trend assessment for Canada. The working groups determined that the reporting unit will be the ecozone. The working group will look for all the data available on biodiversity at the ecosystem level and develop a national assessment of ecosystems.

A forest biodiversity information gateway is being developed with the National Forest Information System in Victoria. The goal is to develop a one-stop shop for forest biodiversity information in Canada. The pilot stage is in progress and hopefully a demonstration will be ready for the Canadian Council of Forest Ministers meeting. The project continues to look for sets of data on various levels that could be shared.

5. Canadian Wildlife Service
Ms. Lisa Twolan, Scientific Project Coordinator, General Status of Species in Canada reminded the Committee that the 2005 Wild Species report included tiger beetles and dragonflies because the working group felt they were relatively feasible insect groups. A work plan for the 2010 report is being developed and comments on the draft plan are welcome. Currently groups are being considered such as spiders, macro moths, mosquitoes, black flies, horse flies, deer flies, some wasps, mayflies, ladybird beetles, carrion beetles, water beetles, robber flies, and grasshoppers. Lists for Canada are still needed for the groups mentioned, after which species can be ranked. There is some value in just seeing whether a list can be assembled. Some groups may only have a list with no ranks and be flagged as needing more information. She pointed out that even this achievement is of high value considering who receives the reports, because it can play a useful role in pointing out the data gaps.

Dr. Giberson pointed out that many students would like to do inventory work that would assist this process, but getting funding for inventory work continues to be a problem because the major granting agencies are not keen on acquiring lists of species. It is also difficult to find places to publish basic inventory work. She hoped that part of the species at risk process would be an acknowledgement that funds are needed for inventory work.

Dr. Giberson also encouraged the working group to use the common names recommended by the Entomological Society of Canada, in conjunction with the Entomological Society of America.

Dr. Marshall emphasized the importance of regional or national reviews prior to considering a taxon. He noted that some groups, such as water beetles, are well studied and documented and therefore lists can be generated, but this is not the case with many other groups. For example, at least one third of the species of robber flies from Ontario in the University of Guelph collection are not yet officially recorded from Canada because the family has not been reviewed; and therefore listing them is not possible. The BSC’s Canadian Journal of Arthropod Identification is an ideal outlet for such reviews, including regional ones.

6. Parasitology module, Canadian Society of Zoologists
Dr. Marcogliese commented that there has been no progress with formalizing a parasitology module. Dr. Marcogliese’s work on the national stickleback parasite project has moved ahead. Some progress has been made with the EMAN protocols for parasites.

The advocacy report from the Canadian Society of Zoologists was published in that society’s bulletin. The last meeting was in Edmonton. The upcoming meeting will be May 21 – 25 in Montreal and includes a symposium on forest Lepidoptera. The Wardle medal is being awarded to Dr. Robert Poulin, the first time a Canadian working abroad has received the award.

7. Pollination Canada
The Pollination Canada Monitoring Program had requested the participation of the Biological Survey of Canada in their citizen science initiative being run in conjunction with EMAN. The Committee agreed that it is important to get the general public interested in pollinators and their roles; however, they had some concerns about the scientific aspects of the program. The Committee noted that without proper verification of the identifications, the program could end up being similar to the earlier CNF ladybird beetle survey, which was a very good public relations tool but were not scientifically sound and an impediment to current research. The Committee agreed to send a carefully balanced letter to the organization on behalf of the BSC.

Ms. Breau added that in Canada there has been a desire to have an organization similar to the North American Protection Pollinator Campaign, a tri-lateral organization that includes Canada, U.S.A., and Mexico. NAPPC is led in Washington, D.C by an NGO, the Coevolution Foundation. The first Canadian meeting was held in January in Ottawa, attended by 80 participants. It was an introductory meeting and resulted in no action plan, although there is some hope to have another meeting and to get more people interested in the initiative.

Other items

1. Regional developments
Information of potential interest from different regions was reported, including work being carried out by graduate students and others (not noted in detail here), and the following examples.

In British Columbia construction for the new Beaty Museum at the University of British Columbia has begun. There is concern about the safekeeping of the collections that are to be housed there. Some parks have shown renewed interest in doing insect surveys, including the Gulf Islands National Park. The formation of a south Okanagan national park is being planned but there is some local opposition. The group of NGO’s charged by the province to prepare a biodiversity conservation initiative are starting to purchase land for preservation because the cost of land is rising so quickly. The background information for the biodiversity conservation strategy has been done and public hearings will be held in September. An atlas of biodiversity of British Columbia will be published.

In Alberta, the Royal Alberta Museum has plans to expand but rising construction costs have put plans partly on hold. The University of Alberta is moving forward to build a new well-equipped facility to house collections and for curatorial research. The insect pests that caused the greatest economic damage in Alberta in 2006 were the cabbage seedpod weevil, wheat stem sawfly, bertha armyworm, and pea leaf weevil. The two pests of concern for 2007 are expected to be wheat midge and bertha army worm. The grasshopper forecast for 2007 looks good, with low populations predicted. Mr. Scott Meers, Integrated Crop Management Specialist with Alberta Agriculture, Food and Rural Development would like to initiate a project as part of the Prairie Pest Monitoring Network, involving insect taxonomists in the identification of insects found in common crops. He sees the survey work as an important way to detect new pest species that may be arriving on the prairie from elsewhere.

In Manitoba, a successful joint meeting North Central branch of the Entomological Society of America and the Entomological Society of Manitoba was held in Winnipeg.

In Ontario, the first phase of the Royal Ontario Museum renovation will open on June 2, 2007. There have been several recent hirings in the science area – a vertebrate paleontologist, a mineralogist, an invertebrate zoologist, and a freshwater ichthyologist. Negotiations are underway for a “Butterflies of Ontario” volume in the ROM field guide series. The insect collection at the University of Guelph is being expanded. There is much activity at the Biodiversity Institute at the University of Guelph. Graduate students are being sought by Dr. Shorthouse (Laurentian University) and Dr. Jeff Skevington (AAFC).

In Quebec the journal Fabreries has not been able to find a new editor and this peer-reviewed publication is in limbo. Forest entomology and biodiversity work is going strong in Quebec, especially with Dr. Tim Work’s program at l’Université du Québec à Montréal and with programs at McGill University. The curatorial position at l’Université de Montréal is still unfilled.

The annual meeting of the Acadian Entomological Society will be held on 10-12 June at Saint Mary’s University, Halifax. Dr. Tom Chapman has been hired at Memorial University of Newfoundland. He is currently working on the population dynamics of gall-forming thrips. There is concern about lack of resources to curate of some of the collections in Newfoundland.

For the arctic, Dr. Currie noted that he will be going to Norman Wells, NWT, in June. A group at York University including Mr. Andrew Medeiros is doing work at Rankin and Iqaluit, including some sampling. An undergraduate student from l’Université du Québec à Rimouski collected some interesting material from Bylot Island in 2006 and will collect again in 2007.

2. BSC Transition
The Museum had decided to fill the position of the Head of the Biological Survey for a one-year period following the retirement of Hugh Danks in August, and pending the completion of the Museum’s 5-year strategic plan. Mr. Baird gave an update on the status of the competition. As this was the final meeting of the Scientific Committee that Dr. Danks will attend he presented a few general comments from a 30-year perspective that he hoped would help the Survey.

By way of background, he noted that changes over the past many years include the facts that the Canadian scientific community has fewer entomologists in the country, and less general time is allowed by employers, so there are fewer supplementary contributors to the BSC. However, the main core members of the Scientific Committee continue to contribute significantly. The Secretariat has no longer been taking on every slow project because the number of projects has increased and other research and responsibilities are in place. There have been many good BSC accomplishments over the years, especially compared to other organizations, but some projects have not moved forward as quickly as might be hoped. The next person to occupy the position of Head of the Secretariat will have to take an active role in ensuring that projects move forward.

Therefore, Dr. Danks presented the following recommendations for the future:
The Scientific Committee and its subcommittees and individual members have to stay especially keen and active. Although this is apparent at the Committee meetings, sometimes other pressures interfere and progress between meetings is not always as rapid as desired. Therefore, members should prepare for and participate in Scientific Committee meetings as much as possible; and they should also check project responsibilities, take action between meetings, and prepare reports or discussion papers. Dr. Danks added that Committee members are much-appreciated volunteers, but hopefully they also get something back from being on the Committee, as well as participating in larger synthetic research projects.

The Secretariat entomologist has to keep involved in each dossier. Dr. Danks supposed that this might need an aggressive stance for prompting people, including membership of the secretariat entomologist on every subcommittee. Moreover, the new Head should also personally adopt some specific active scientific roles (e.g. in the grasslands books), even beyond personal research interests.

3. Other matters
The Committee briefly discussed other matters such as a proposal to help entomologists with knowledge transfer, the annual report to the CMN, general operations of the Biological Survey Secretariat, communications with the new editor of The Canadian Entomologist, the BSC scholarship, arthropods of the Queen Charlotte Islands, and arthropods of special habitats. The Annual Meeting of the Biological Survey Foundation was also held.

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Newsletter of the Biological Survey of Canada (Terrestrial Arthropods)

Volume 26 No. 2, Fall 2007