Newsletter of the Biological Survey of Canada (Terrestrial Arthropods)

Index to Taxa

Terry A. Wheeler
Department of Natural Resource Sciences, McGill University, Macdonald Campus, Ste-Anne-de-Bellevue, QC, H9X 3V9

The last project update on the Grasslands Project in the Fall, 1999 Biological Survey of Canada Newsletter (Vol. 18 (2): 57-59) provided a brief history of the project and an outline of the objectives. Since that time, the project has gathered momentum on several fronts.

Conference Presentations

An Informal Conference entitled "Arthropods of Grasslands: Current Status and Future Directions" was held at the Joint Annual Meeting of the Entomological Societies of America / Canada / Quebec in Montreal in December 2000. Four invited papers on grassland arthropod research were presented: 

• Canada’s Grasslands (Kevin Floate, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Lethbridge, Alberta)
• The use of fire as a biodiversity and conservation tool in tallgrass prairies (Rob Roughley, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Manitoba)
• Diversity of Meromyza (Diptera: Chloropidae) in Canadian native grasslands (Terry Wheeler, McGill University, Ste-Anne-de-Bellevue, Quebec)
• Endemism and dispersal of short-horned bugs (Homoptera: Auchenorrhyncha) in Pacific Northwest intermontane grasslands (Andy Hamilton, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Ottawa, Ontario)

The 2000 Annual Meeting of the Entomological Collections Network was held in Montreal in conjunction with the Joint Annual Meeting. Terry Wheeler gave a presentation at the ECN meeting entitled "Arthropods of Canadian Grasslands: A Biological Survey of Canada Megaproject"

Other Publicity

The grasslands project web page [http://www.biology.ualberta.ca/bsc/english/grasslands.htm] has been added to the Biological Survey of Canada website. The web page contains information on the objectives of the project, a summary of research projects in grasslands and on-line copies of all issues of the Grasslands Newsletter. Other information will be added on a regular basis.

Research

A list of recent and ongoing research projects in Canadian grasslands is maintained on the Project web page.

Field research by individual collaborators continues on several taxa, in grassland sites across the west. As samples from such studies accumulate, residues and collections will become an increasingly valuable source of specimens. One way to take advantage of this material is the establishment of a residue sorting network. A preliminary discussion of this network appears in the 2001 issue of the Arthropods of Grasslands Newsletter. It may also be helpful to establish a database of the ever-expanding holdings of grassland arthropods in research collections. One of the anticipated products of the grasslands project is the compilation of electronic databases of material housed in collections; this will facilitate future research and exchange of material.

Although individual fieldwork will continue at several sites, a more ambitious effort is being coordinated by Rob Roughley (University of Manitoba) to assemble a team of collectors for a field meeting based in Onefour, Alberta during late June or early July 2001. The location will provide access to a diverse range of grassland habitats from the dry prairie and badlands around Onefour and the Milk River Valley to the considerably more boreal habitats of the Cypress Hills. Those interested in participating in this field meeting should contact Rob Roughley (rob_roughley@umanitoba.ca).

Funding

Funding is a major concern for a project of this scope. Although traditional research grants will support the activities of individual collaborators, support for more collaborative endeavours as well as publication and dissemination costs will require a more imaginative approach. A funding group headed by Kevin Floate has been exploring avenues of support for the project.

Upcoming Priorities

A formal symposium on Ecology of Arthropods in Canadian Grasslands is planned for the 2002 Entomological Society of Canada Annual Meeting in Winnipeg. The focus of the symposium will be ecological and habitat based studies on selected grasslands or taxa. We envision that the papers presented at the symposium will form the core chapters of a published volume on ecology of grassland arthropods to be published as soon as possible after the symposium. Although some symposium contributors and chapter authors have already been approached, additional authors and chapter titles are still welcome. Anyone with additional suggestions for titles, or requiring more information, should contact the symposium organizer, Terry Wheeler.