The Alberta Lepidopterists' Guild

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About Us

The Alberta Lepidopterists' Guild was formally inaugurated on October 16, 1999 at Olds College, Alberta. Gary Anweiler, who sowed the seeds for ALG, was our founding president. The initial group of 16 people comprised a mixture of amateur and professional entomologists with a particular interest in Lepidoptera, or with a willingness to encourage and support those of us who do. Since that time the group has almost tripled in size, including members from adjacent areas. Our membership includes all the authors of the popular guidebooks "Alberta Butterflies" and “Butterflies of Alberta". Most active members of ALG are concentrating on the Alberta moth fauna, which is poorly known in comparison to the butterflies. New technology such as mini-generators, low-cost ultraviolet and mercury vapor bulbs, flatbed scanners and the internet, has fueled a resurgence of interest in the moth fauna by making it much easier to collect and identify specimens.

Provincial government personnel (several of whom are members of the group) have been very co-operative in granting permission to collect in provincial parks and other protected areas in return for reports on the Lepidoptera found there and for the use of the report findings in the ANHIC "tracking list". This co-operation has culminated in members of ALG being invited to join a multi-year survey of newly established Provincial Parks in extreme northeastern Alberta [Boreal Shield Inventory Project]. Besides survey and inventory work, members are involved in research on Lepidoptera systematics, Lepidoptera pests of agricultural and forested lands, and the use of Lepidoptera as biodiversity indicators. Members of the group have also been invited to give talks or put on demonstrations, complete with light sheets and traps, for a number of Natural History and Conservation groups. ALG Members also participate in or organize many of the record number of butterfly counts that are done in Alberta each season. Perhaps most importantly, we have done a lot of collecting all over the province, adding a significant number of new species to the Alberta list. The most ambitious project in our short history was hosting the 2003 Annual Meeting of the Lepidopterists' Society at Olds College. This event drew researchers and collectors from all over the world, to share their knowledge.