ESC-SEC Blog

By David McCorquodale, Dean of Science and Technology, Cape Breton University There is a perception that Nova Scotia and Cape Breton (where I live) may be subject to an invasion of cicadas.  The perception seems to stem from the mass emergence of cicadas in the northeastern USA this spring and summer.  What an opportunity to […]

Français We are pleased to announce that we will be co-locating our 2016 annual meeting with the International Congress of Entomology (ICE) hosted by the Entomological Society of America (ESA) in Orlando, Florida (see http://ice2016orlando.org/)! The ESC Governing Board has voted to accept the ESA’s invitation to join them and other national entomological societies at […]

Written by Chris Buddle and Paul Manning. Spending time talking to kids about Entomology is ALWAYS worth it. If ever invited to speak at an elementary school about insects, always say “yes”, and in this post, we’ll expand on why it’s worth your time. In a second post on this topic, we’ll provide some tips on […]

By Scott Meers, Insect Management Specialist, Alberta Agriculture and Rural Development. ———————— My role as an entomologist with Alberta Agriculture and Rural Development consists largely of counting insects. We monitor the populations of seven different species on a provincial scale and several more on either an ad hoc or regional basis. We also carry out surveillance for potential new […]

By Chris Buddle, editor of The Canadian Entomologist —————————- The Canadian Entomologists’ latest issue is devoted to Arctic Entomology, with guest editors Derek Sikes and Toke T. Høye putting together an excellent suite of papers on this topic.  This is a very timely issue – there is an incredible amount of Arctic entomology happening around […]

by Christopher Buddle, McGill University ————– As the Editor-in-Chief of The Canadian Entomologist, I have the pleasure of seeing all papers move through the publication process, from first submission to approval of the final proof.  This places me in a position to fully appreciate the incredible entomological research occurring around the world.  As one way […]

By Chris MacQuarrie, Natural Resources Canada Canadian Forest Service (Sault Ste. Marie, ON) ——————- Opa Opa Citation Style! * I recently switched over to the Mendeley citation manager after many years of being a loyal EndNote user. I’m liking Mendeley, but one thing I lost in the switch was the collection of custom citation styles I […]

By Julia Mlynarek, PhD Candidate (Carleton University) ————— Well it’s a New Year! 2013! I’m writing a post on behalf of the Student Affairs Committee (SAC). Many people, especially students, don’t really know who we are and what the Student Affairs Committee actually does. So I figured I’d try to clear it up… Who are […]

By Christopher Cloutier, Naturalist (Morgan Arboretum, McGill University) and Teacher (Vanier College) As a kid, growing up in the big city, wildlife was a rarity to say the least. Gray squirrels, starlings and house sparrows made up the “wild” critters around my childhood stomping grounds, but one group of organisms that never seemed to disappoint were the […]

Par/by Guillaume Dury _______________ Chaque année, la Société d’Entomologie du Québec organise un concours photos, afin de trouver les couvertures du bulletin de la société, intitulé Antennae. Pour aller avec le thème de la conférence de cette année “Entomologie et agriculture biologique; de l’écologie à la pratique”, j’ai choisi le thème “formidable prédateurs à l’action”. […]

By Sean McCann, PhD Canidate in Biological Sciences at Simon Fraser University At this stage of the long dark Canadian winter, thoughts of tropical fieldwork should be going through the heads of all sensible entomologists…If you find yourself longing for the moist and insect-filled paradise of the Neotropics, or even if that is what your research […]

By Dr. Staffan Lindgren, University of Northern British Columbia ———————— When teaching Invertebrate zoology, entomology or forest entomology, I am regularly asked by students if they can use common names. Mostly this request is precipitated by the perceived difficulty of memorizing, let alone pronouncing, Latin names. I am fairly relaxed about these things, particularly with […]

The ESC Blog was launched on June 1, 2012. We didn’t entirely know what to expect in terms of the readership, reach and submissions, but it’s clear that we’re off to a great start! For those who like numbers (we do!), here are some stats.  In the past seven months we’ve had: about 10,000 page […]

This memorial for Dr. Richard (Dick) Vockeroth is from Dr. Jeff Skevington & Dr. Jeff Cumming of the Diptera Unit at the Canadian National Collection of Insects, Ottawa, Ontario. ————————— The Diptera community has suffered a great loss — Dick Vockeroth passed away on the morning of November 16th 2012, at the age of 84. […]

Today’s post is by Dr. Staffan Lindgren, University of Northern British Columbia, and Second Vice-President of the Entomological Society of Canada. ———————————— I have just returned from the Entomological Society of America conference in Knoxville, Tennessee, and thought that this would make a suitable topic for my first ever blog. As I attended the ESC-ESA […]

It’s that magical time of year again, when entomologists from across Canada converge to talk about insects, share their science, and make new friends. That’s right, the Entomological Society of Canada Joint Annual Meeting takes place this Sunday and runs until Wednesday afternoon! This year’s meeting is being held in Edmonton, Alberta in association with […]

By Matthias Buck, Royal Alberta Museum, Edmonton —————————————— For many of us who are working as taxonomists, describing new species has become somewhat of a routine. Sometimes it can even become a burdensome chore: I am thinking about those of us who work on hyperdiverse groups of insects in the tropics where almost every species […]

The results of the Eighth Annual ESC Photo Contest have been announced!  Judges Kirk Hillier, Kenna MacKenzie, and Rick West faced a difficult task, selecting the winners from among 67 high-quality entries. The top seven selection will be printed on the cover of all issues of Volume 145 (2013) of The Canadian Entomologist.  The photos […]

Today’s post is by Kate Bassett of Memorial University. If you’d like more information about her work, she encourages you to contact her. ——————————- Hi, I’m a graduate student at Memorial University (MUN, St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador), nearing the end of my masters…hopefully . My research project is focused on a wildlife issue. Snowshoe […]

Another field season has come and gone (mostly, I bet there are some field crop entomologists still out collecting data), and the entomology conference season will soon be upon us. But before you wrap yourself up in a nice warm cocoon of fresh data in preparation for the coming winter, we’d love to hear how […]

Talk about a close vote! The votes from Photo 2 resulted in a tie for first and third places! That means Paul Manning and Colin each get 5 points, while Sam Droege and Greg each get a single point. Here are the finalists for Photo 3: And here’s Photo 4, all quiet and lonely and […]

Many of us appreciate insects, spiders and other arthropods for more than just their scientific, biological or ecological value: they also have an aesthetic that some of us find irresistible, inspiring us to capture them in photographs or in paintings rather than sweep nets or aspirators. For this special feature, we interviewed Elizabeth Goluch, a […]

Jeffrey Higgins has enjoyed the same 2 mile stretch of the Thames River in London, Ontario for ~50 years. He traded his fishing rod for a camera about 5 years ago to celebrates the natural world, and enjoys sharing his photos on his website and on Facebook. Jeffrey submitted the following photos and asked for suggestions about […]

The votes are in, and the winning caption for photo 1 was “Think, think, what would a mantid do in this situation?” by Sam Droege! 5 points go to Sam, while Brian Cutting and Matt each get 3 for a 2nd place tie. Here are the finalists for Photo 2: And here’s Photo 3 (courtesy […]

A few weeks ago, Rose De Clerke-Floate wrote a post about her experiences as the Chair of the ESC Achievement Awards Committee and announced the recipients of the Gold Medal and the C. Gordon Hewitt Award. Today, she announces additional honours bestowed upon more of our valued members. _________________________________________ We applaud the following worthy members […]

By Sheila Dumesh, entomology research assistant at York University. ——————————– My interest in bees was ignited in 2007, when I took a biodiversity course in my last year as an undergraduate student at York University in Toronto.  The course instructor was the well-known melittologist, Laurence Packer, and, although I had not met him before, I […]

By Adam Jewiss-Gaines,  a research assistant at Brock University. ——————— When people ask me what the heck a calliphorid is (often after I have mentioned the family name and am being gawked at as if I’m crazy), I usually remark “You know those shiny flies you often see flying around in the spring and summer?”  […]

We had a great response to last week’s photo, so thank you to everyone who played along. We’ve got an all new photo for you to caption today, but first we need you to vote for your favourite Photo 1 caption. We’ll post the results and award some points next week. Now, onto this week’s […]

By Laura Timms, Postdoctoral Researcher (McGill University), Chair of ESC Common Names Committee _____________________________________ I’ve just come back from a weekend at my parents’ house, celebrating my Dad’s birthday and enjoying the beautiful early summer weather.  My parents live on the Oak Ridges Moraine in Ontario – they have a gorgeous piece of property they’ve […]

Scientists are taught to remain objective about their study organisms and not anthropomorphize behaviours or biology. Sure, this might be useful for preventing bias in results, but it can suck the fun right out of day to day work! Here’s your chance to act less like a scientist and have some fun with the insect world. […]

By Ian Maton,  Member of the The Alberta Lepidopterists’ Guild and the Altaleps discussion list, BugGuide editor and contributor to the Moths Photographers Group (MPG) __________________________________ My journey into live moth trapping started a relatively short time ago towards the end of 2007.  My brother, who lives in the UK and has been live moth […]

Happy Canada Day! To celebrate, Crystal & I thought we would highlight Canada’s official insect, because a country with the rich entomological heritage that Canada has must have one. As we began researching further however, we were dismayed to discover that Canada doesn’t have an official insect! In fact, the only province or territory to […]

(Note: the English version follows) Guillaume Dury, Étudiant à la maîtrise, Université McGill _______________________________ Le 7 avril 2012, l’article du jour sur Wikipédia était Chrysiridia rhipheus. C’était un grand jour pour moi : j’ai écrit la majorité de l’article. Ce n’est pas pour autant mon article; dire cela irait à l’encontre de l’étiquette de Wikipédia. […]

By Rose De Clerck-Floate, Chair of the ESC Achievement Awards Committee ______________________________________ On June 4 I was on a high despite it being the end of a long work day, and a Monday no less. This is because I had the pleasure of informing two distinguished Canadian entomologists that they will be this year’s recipients […]

Physiology Friday is a monthly column by UWO PhD candidate Katie Marshall and will feature new Canadian research on insect physiology. —————— Nitric oxide (NO) is usually overshadowed in fame by its more famous cousin laughing gas, but it’s difficult to think of many simple molecules that have such a variety of important biological functions.  […]

By Christopher Cloutier, Naturalist, Morgan Arboretum ___________________________________ The Morgan Arboretum of McGill University, with its 245 ha of forest and interspersed field habitats, is home to nearly 50 species of butterflies. Over the past two years I have tried to document all species occurring within the Arboretum and made note of the date of their […]

My name is Chris Buddle – I’m an Associate Professor at McGill University, in Quebec, Canada, and the Editor-in-Chief for The Canadian Entomologist. I have worked at McGill University, in the Department of Natural Resource Sciences, for about 10 years. As a Professor, my work involves all three aspects of academia – teaching, research, and […]

By Michel Cusson, ESC President ______________________________ For my first blog post, you’d probably expect me to talk about some hot issue pertaining to the ESC. However, I chose otherwise (at least this time) and I’ll save Society-related topics for my “Up Front” column, which you can read in the online version of the Bulletin. Instead, […]