MINUTES of a meeting of the Scientific Committee for the Biological Survey of Canada (Terrestrial Arthropods), held at the Best Western Macies Hotel, 1274 Carling Ave., Ottawa, April 21-22, 2005.

PresentR. Baird (CMN)J.M. CummingD.C. CurrieD.J. GibersonJ-F. Landry (ECORC)D.W. LangorR.J. Lamb (ESC)S.A. MarshallD.B. McCorquodaleO. OlfertR.E. RoughleyM. RoyG.G.E. ScudderJ.D. Shorthouse (Chair)J. SweeneyN.N. WinchesterT.A. Wheeler

H.V. Danks (Secretariat)S. Goods (Secretariat)

Regrets:G.E. BallF.A.H. Sperling

GuestsD. Marcogliese, Parasitology Module, Canadian Society of ZoologistsL. Twolan, General Status of Species in Canada, Canadian Wildlife Service

1. Introductory items

1.1 Opening remarks of ChairDr. Joe Shorthouse welcomed the Committee to the 57th meeting of the Scientific

Committee of the Biological Survey of Canada. He noted that Dr. George Ball and Dr. Felix Sperling sent their regrets at not being able to attend this meeting. He welcomed those members who are beginning a new term on the Committee and welcomed back Dr. Hugh Danks who had been in Japan for 4.5 months as a visiting professor. He acknowledged that Dr. David McCorquodale was recently promoted to full professor. Dr. Shorthouse noted that the meeting agenda was full with some new initiatives. He called for a round of introductions.

1

1.2 Minutes of previous meeting (October 2004)The minutes of the October 2004 meeting were accepted as presented.

2. Commentary from organizations

2.1 Canadian Museum of NatureMr. Roger Baird commented that it was a pleasure to be back at this meeting. He reported

that renovation work at the Victoria Memorial Museum Building is progressing on track. All of the west wing has been stripped to the outer shell. By December 2005 the south wing extension should be complete. The renovated fossil gallery is on schedule to be completed in the third quarter of 2006 to coincide with a meeting of the Society of Vertebrate Palaeontology.

Mr. Baird participated in the first conference for the Bar Code of Life initiative. He acknowledged that this initiative is not without controversy but is continuing nonetheless. DNA barcoding under the Consortium of the Bar Code of Life (CBOL) is being promoted as an accurate and reliable tool for scientific research on the taxonomy of plant and animal species; a practical, cost-effective tool for assigning unidentified specimens to their correct species; and a system for expanding interest and activity in taxonomy. The group continues to emphasize that DNA barcoding is not intended to invalidate existing taxonomic practice, is not the enemy of taxonomy, does not equate species identity with a particular sequence and is not intended to duplicate or compete with efforts to resolve phylogenies. The Bar Code of Life is being supported by the Alfred Sloan Foundation. The Secretariat for the consortium is hosted at the Smithsonian Institution. The group brings together museums, taxonomists, and R & D labs that are working in DNA sequencing. It was interesting to hear at the meeting what is the current status, continued barriers, false assumptions, etc. Mr. Baird thought that four of the meeting presentations were of direct interest to the Survey: Miguel Vences (University of Amsterdam) pointed out some of the known deficiencies of counting on Cytochrome Oxidase I as the barcoding marker; Brian Fisher (California Academy of Sciences) had an interesting presentation on a model for a global inventory of ants based on a case study in Madagascar; Dan Janzen (University of Pennsylvania) spoke on Wedding biodiversity inventory of a large complex Lepidoptera fauna with DNA barcoding; and Shelley Ball (formerly at the University of Guelph, now in New Zealand) gave an interesting presentation about Barcodes for biosecurity: evaluation of a standardised method for the identification of quarantine pests. The conference generated a high profile and promoted both taxonomy and bar coding and brought both into the public press. It has focused attention from many disciplines on advancing the technical foundation and accelerating progress, exposing both weaknesses and the potential of this kind of technology. Three initiatives were formally launched at the conference:

-The All Birds Barcoding Initiative is being organized by Harvard University, Rockefeller University, the University of Guelph, and the Smithsonian Institution. DNA barcodes have been determined for most of the bird species of North America. ABBI has set the goal of obtaining DNA barcodes for 10,000 bird species by 2010. -The All Fishes initiative has been undertaken by an international collaboration organized by Paul Hebert at the University of Guelph and Robert Ward of CSIRO. The goal of All Fishes is to determine the DNA barcodes of 12,000 marine fish species by 2010.-An initiative of CBOL and GenBank on the creation of a public database of DNA barcode sequences will look at what the standards need to be to have reliable and consistent data. Needs

2

include the fact that data have to be attached to voucher specimens that have been authoritatively identified.

A preconference workshop, “Library and laboratory – a marriage of research, data and taxonomic literature”, focused on the need to make a massive and reliable source of taxonomic literature more accessible on-line.

Three working committees are looking at DNA extraction protocols and databasing, defining the mission and structure of the consortium. About 42 partners worldwide have signed an agreement of understanding to collaborate in the CBOL. The CMN is one of the partners because it wants to have inside knowledge of what is going on, and the ability to shape and influence things is easier from within an organization. The CMN would like to see the project prove itself in the long run, evolve in a way that is more connected to traditional systematics and become an important resource tool.

A federal science and technology forum was held in January 2005 organized by the Office of the National Science Advisor to the Prime Minister, Dr. Arthur Carty. The session brought together the senior Public Service, primarily Directors-General and Assistant Deputy Ministers of the Science Departments. The tone of many corridor conversations at this forum was reminiscent of Dr. Wheeler’s article on Misinformatics (Wheeler, T.A. 2004. Bioinformatics and misinformatics: the missing links between taxonomic data and taxonomic databases. Newsletter of the Biological Survey of Canada (Terrestrial Arthropods) 23(1): 20-24).

Mr. Baird observed that there were public expressions of personal willingness to work horizontally across Departmental lines, but participants rated their organizations much lower on a scale of readiness/willingness to work in this fashion. This “Knowledge Café” facilitated session was meant to assess individual readiness to work on an issue-based policy agenda rather than an authority-based mandate, and to uncover factors that preclude or prevent horizontality. Discussions pointed to a perceived reticence at the Deputy Minister or ADM levels to function in this manner, with the absence of accountability assessment against this objective likely one of the greatest impediments. Given the territoriality often observed within the senior ranks, some "horizontal projects" seem to succeed by force of will of the individual partners in spite of the systemic bias of these organizational structures. There was greater emphasis at the Forum on technology than on natural sciences. The poster sessions provided some interesting information related to developments within the Departments, with some emphasis on the commercialization of Federal Research and Development efforts.

The CMN is involved in a large number of collaborations with Environment, Agriculture and DFO but Mr. Baird acknowledged that the CMN needs to increase its involvement and presence at the federal level to increase the government’s awareness that the Museum is involved in science. There is strong attention in the federal political agenda towards the prominent needs of Canadians such as health care, food quality, air quality and water quality. Therefore the CMN has to remain attentive to federal directions and look for opportunistic and productive roles for the CMN. The Museum will also keep Dr. Carty updated about the CMN’s activities and how it is trying to work with partners.

Dr. Marcogliese commented that collaboration even within some departments is difficult. Most collaborations that occur happen at the individual research scientist level. Dr. Marcogliese commented that NSERC is now funding bar coding as a network. He and his colleagues are participating by focusing on certain groups of fish parasites. One of the people working on the

3

project is a classical taxonomist / systematist who has learned molecular techniques. The group being studied contains the most common fish parasites in Canada, but their taxonomy is difficult because the larvae cannot be identified morphologically. Good ecological, environmental and applied questions may be answered as a result of this project.

Dr. Danks wondered what resources the partners in CBOL are required to bring. Mr. Baird explained that there are no fees, just a letter of commitment.

2.2 Agriculture and Agri-Food CanadaDr. Jean-Francois Landry reminded the Committee that three insect taxonomists had been

recruited last year and all are developing good active research programs. Dr. Jeff Skevington is connected with the Tree of Life project in the U.S. and has U.S. funding for that. He has set up his molecular lab and has developed expertise in this area. He organized a useful workshop for technicians and others on practical molecular techniques. It included both theoretical sessions and practical lab work. The workshop was presented by Ms. Amanda Roe, a PhD student with Dr. Felix Sperling. Dr. Pat Bouchard has undertaken a massive overhaul of the Coleoptera collection to realign it with the current classification. He is also heading an ad hoc committee (including mycologists and botanists) to establish database standards that will eventually be used to database the collections. The committee hopes to finalize its recommendations in the next few months and implement something by the end of the year. Dr. Andy Bennett is working on rejuvenating the large ichneumonid collection and developing his research project.

Staffing for a nematologist and an acarologist specializing in phytophagous mites is in progress. It is expected to be complete within the next 4 months. Committee members were encouraged to advise potential candidates of this opportunity. The candidates will be expected to have molecular expertise as well as some bioinformatics training in addition to being good systematists.

The reorganization of Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada is largely complete although there are still a number of acting managers. The systematics research program falls under the Environment team and the Environmental Health program. This program includes approximately 700 scientists across Canada. Within the Environmental Health program are a number of themes one of which is Biodiversity. Under the Biodiversity theme are a number of national studies. Systematic entomology, housed at the Neatby Building, is one of the national studies in the Biodiversity theme. People in the former Research branch now fall under one of three different themes, each with its own Assistant Deputy Minister. The ECORC name has no functional significance anymore but remains as a physical address for now.

Agriculture has hired a private consultant to study the requirements for consolidating the collections and a detailed report has been presented. It will require the support of other federal departments to be implemented. One of the ideas is to co-locate with other federal collections, especially the nearby Geological Survey collections. A possible location for a new collection facility is the footprint of the current Carling Building, which is earmarked for demolition by the end of 2007. The basement and foundation will be retained and a new two-storey building could be safely built on the current site. Discussions are ongoing.

The federal government has an invasive alien species strategy in place. A Memorandum to Cabinet was put forward by several federal departments and organizations. Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada participated in the Memorandum but although it is actively involved in providing

4

expertise, collections and facilities associated with invasive alien species, the department received no funding. Most of the funding went to the Canadian Food Inspection Agency and the Canadian Forest Service. However, Agriculture will continue its program on invasive alien species, especially in assisting with identifications. Work is being done to improve protocols for screening biocontrol agents. Some research scientists especially botanists are involved in an interdepartmental program called Ecosystem Effects of Novel Living Organisms (EENLO), i.e. the study of non-target effects of transgenic organisms.

The Systematic Entomology group was asked to make budget submissions under various categories, including equipment, and has received $60,000 for the current year for that purpose.

Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada is the federal government lead on the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF). Dr. Peter Hall was Agriculture’s representative but has moved to London, England. His replacement will be hired very soon. The most visible aspect of GBIF and CBIF has been the development of web portals to mine information on the web about collection specimens. From the CNC the butterflies of Canada have been databased and are accessible. Work is ongoing to database some of the mosquitoes.

Dr. Arthur Carty has called on federal science departments to make suggestions for major science infrastructure investments. Dr. Liane Dwyer submitted an idea about biodiversity, specifically to develop capacity for large-scale molecular and bioinformatics research linked to the collections and to biodiversity issues. The idea has proceeded to the Deputy Minister level and may be submitted to the PMO with many other competing submissions.

Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada has committed some funding towards the NSERC grant for the Bar Coding of Life project. Three scientists are participating as collaborators – 2 mycologists and Dr. Landry for entomology. So far 1650 species of Lepidoptera from northeastern North America have been sequenced, more than 10% of the fauna of North America.

A Collections Manager for entomology is being staffed for the first time. This will be an internal reassignment and someone is expected to be in place by July 2005. Dr. Cumming has taken over the Chair of the Curatorial Committee of the Canadian National Collection.

Dr. Landry spoke about the highly valuable resource of volunteers. In addition to research associates such as Dr. Don Bright (who is moving to Colorado later this year), the main group of volunteers come from landed immigrants who have difficulty finding jobs. Many of these volunteers are highly qualified and make an incredible contribution.

In response to a question from Dr. Roughley, Dr. Landry explained that the handbook series continues as he reported at the last meeting. Submissions to NRC Press continue to be welcome. Dr. Currie asked about reprinting some older volumes that are still in demand. Dr. Landry explained that there have been some problems in finding the original manuscripts and illustrations in order to be able to do this. However, if some publications that are in good condition are found the illustrations may be scanned.

Dr. Marcogliese spoke about a major national initiative on invasive species. It is being led by Dr. Hugh McIsaac and involves mainly aquatic organisms.

Dr. Olfert wondered if biodiversity is being well served with the new science structure at Agriculture. He thought that the changes have benefited IPM, which traditionally had a low priority with Centre Directors. Under the new structure, IPM has a national science director as

5

does Biodiversity. Dr. Landry agreed, saying that biodiversity has not always been a “fashionable” term and the new structure is helping to highlight biodiversity.

2.3 Entomological Society of CanadaDr. Robert Lamb reported that the mid-term meeting of the ESC Executive will take place on

April 23. The covers for the Canadian Entomologist and the Bulletin of the Entomological Society of Canada have been redesigned. There will be an annual competition for photographs to be used on the covers.

The Society is undergoing a strategic review. The review is being undertaken not because of any serious problems but because it has been 10 years since the last review. The focus will be on membership, finances and particularly electronic information issues. As in other societies, the ESC membership and subscriptions are declining. However income is rising. In 2004 the journal is paying for itself but this has not always been the case; in previous years it has been subsidized from other revenues. The financial situation is very dependent on currency exchange and in the long term this is not a good way to run the Society finances. Dr. Lamb’s goal is to make the various aspects of the Society (e.g. the journal, the bulletin and scholarships) self sufficient. 98% of membership fees go towards publishing the Bulletin. The electronic publishing aspect of the review is inseparable from the membership and financial aspect of the review but Dr. Lamb emphasized that he does not want savings of money to drive certain decisions. However, more electronic publishing might create opportunities to save money. He sees some links between that initiative and what the Survey is doing. He thinks that the electronic version of the Canadian Entomologist needs to be made more popular. He pointed out that an advantage of publishing electronically is the lower cost of colour illustrations. To print colour plates means very high page charges for authors, which not all authors can afford. One idea had been to drop page charges but this brings in about $35,000 per year so it may not be financially feasible.

Dr. Lamb also noted that Dr. Richard Ring has been the new editor of the Canadian Entomologist for over a year now. Dr. Lamb asked the Committee whether they thought that the journal is serving faunistic entomology the way it should be. He had seen some recent correspondence suggesting that there should be more focus on Canadian rather than international faunistics and taxonomic issues. Dr. Giberson explained that there had been concerns in the past and many people are waiting to see if a new editor changes the situation.

Dr. Lamb hoped that the BSC’s initiatives to publish its own ejournal was not the result of dissatisfaction with the Canadian Entomologist.

Dr. Danks explained that the Committee had summarized its earlier concerns about the journal in a letter to the Society a couple of years ago. He cautioned about making changes to the page charges. Some years ago page charges had been reduced to encourage publication but therefore membership fees had to be increased. The net result was a drop in membership. Often page charges are paid for by institutions but membership fees are paid by individuals. An article had been published pointing out the relationship.

Dr. Danks inquired what the procedure had been to redesign the publication covers. Dr. Lamb explained that the overall design was created by a professional designer through NRC Press but supplemented by photographs received in a competition. The competition is organized by Alan Carroll and should be part of the annual meeting.

6

Dr. Wheeler noted that for many years systematics and faunistics was a mainstay of the Canadian Entomologist. Only in recent years has that community been driven away by editorial practices. The systematics community was annoyed by some heavy handed editorial conventions. The faunistics community was frustrated that manuscripts with major contributions to the knowledge of the Canadian fauna were not even being sent out for review because they were deemed to be inappropriate. This may have been why there was a shift in the systematic content of the journal. Authors have been frustrated at having to publish their works documenting Canada’s insect fauna in foreign journals. He thought that the community is now cautiously optimistic although the new editorial structure has only been in place for a year. He thought that systematics is not an issue. On the faunistic side he worried that what some might see as essential baseline data on a particular habitat or region to document faunal change might not be perceived as important by others. The struggle will be to gain acceptance of documenting Canada’s fauna as a valid contribution to the Canadian Entomologist. He added that what the BSC is proposing to do in terms of publication is not in any way a conflict with the ESC. The vehicles have different but complementary goals.

Dr. Winchester passed on some comments from Dr. Richard Ring. Dr. Ring has requested feedback on the new cover design. He also noted that there have been changes in the instructions to authors. References now follow the NRC standard. Dr. Winchester believes that Dr. Ring is fully supportive of a movement towards more systematics and faunistics publications.

Dr. Wheeler pointed out that the English and French instructions to authors are still inconsistent with regards to depositing voucher specimens. The English instructions encourage authors to deposit voucher specimens in recognized institutions whereas the French instructions encourage authors to deposit type specimens of new species in recognized institutions. Dr. Lamb advised writing to the editor and the Publications Committee.

Dr. Danks commented that problems with apparently suitable manuscripts being rejected by the journal had not been confined to faunistics. He knew of 3 independent examples from ecologists who had similar concerns. He is hopeful that the change in editor will be favourable for faunistics and other subjects. Dr. Danks wondered whether the time is right for the Committee to write a letter to the editor explaining Dr. Wheeler’s concerns about faunistics papers. Dr. Wheeler and Dr. Danks agreed to draft such a letter for Dr. Shorthouse’s signature.

Dr. Roughley was glad to see a new cover but he thought that the design is very busy and broken up. He pointed out that the images are quite small. Dr. Lamb pointed out that many magazines follow this sort of style, especially on the inside. Dr. Marshall thought it would be more useful and interesting to have one large photograph on the front cover. A number of other Committee members concurred with Dr. Roughley and Dr. Marshall. Dr. Lamb thought that the Society could not afford to change the photograph for every issue and therefore only one member’s photograph would be highlighted for a year. Dr. Marshall explained that it is the design that is costly whereas it should not cost more to insert a different photograph in each issue.

Dr. Lamb had received a letter from the International Trust for Zoological Nomenclature. Income from grants and donations has fallen to an unprecedented low of £3,000 and the Trust is appealing to the ESC and other societies for a financial contribution. Dr. Lamb had solicited advice from the ESC Executive and they thought that the government should be funding the Trust. Dr. Lamb requested the Committee’s advice as to whether he should encourage the ESC to

7

donate some money to this organization. Dr. Scudder wondered if the Canadian Society of Zoologists was supporting the Trust and at what level. A number of Committee members agreed that the Trust should be supported. Dr. Marshall thought that the Trust or ESC should lobby the well-funded informatics groups as well because it is the mandate of these organizations. Dr. Lamb would welcome a list of names and addresses of the appropriate organizations that he could write to. Dr. Wheeler thought that the International Trust is an essential body that needs to be supported because it controls the rules governing the names in the databases behind the various portals. It covers all of zoological nomenclature not just entomology. He agreed that this is the logical sort of thing that government organizations that cross branches and that are part of international organizations such as the Federal Biodiversity Information Partnership or the Canadian Biodiversity Information Facility should be putting their money into. He maintained that a small investment of Canadian biodiversity money would yield a major return. Mr. Baird suggested the possibility of adding a check box on the ESC membership renewal form to allow members to donate extra money to support the International Trust. Dr. Roughley added that he strongly supports any contribution from the ESC. As a systematist who tries to follow the rules, the Code is essential to his work. Dr. Cumming concurred and added that even a one-time infusion of any amount would be helpful. Dr. Giberson agreed and thought that the organization is also critical to ecologists. She added that it has become a global initiative to database and it is critical to have the correct names in these databases. This emphasizes the need for global biodiversity groups to support the International Trust for Zoological Nomenclature. Mr. Baird also suggested that another simple way to accumulate funds would be to add a dollar per page to the page charge for publications. Dr. Scudder noted that not all page charges are paid from institutions; some come from individual grants which means that less money is then available for supported students or other items.

Dr. Lamb thanked the Committee for all the suggestions and encouraged continued feedback via email.

2.4 General Status Program, Canadian Wildlife ServiceMs. Lisa Twolan explained that she coordinates the General Status Program which attempts

to establish rankings not just for species at risk but for all species within a given taxon. The first report was released in 2000 – Wild Species 2000. The working group tried to target relatively well known taxa for that report including vertebrates, ferns and orchids and butterflies. The working group is now leading up to a second report. By March 2006 it is hoped to have a report that will include rankings for dragonflies and damselflies and possibly general status ranks for tiger beetles. Those groups were chosen primarily because that it was thought that enough information is available.

Beyond 2005 the program would like to be able to consider rankings for other arthropods. However, the three federal partners in this program, Environment Canada, DFO and Parks Canada do not have the expertise in these groups. Ms. Twolan hopes to be able to take some information back to the working group as to how best to go about taking on rankings for these taxa. For the dragonflies, the provinces and territories generated rankings for dragonflies for their region last year and then reached out for other expertise. This seemed to work well and a side benefit has been the list of odonate experts which has been passed on to the COSEWIC Arthropod Species Specialist Committee. The Arthropod SSC is chaired by Dr. Paul Catling and Dr. Theresa Aniskowicz. They have formulated a draft candidate list for arthropods. The General

8

Status Program is working closely with them to learn what species groups they may be looking at next in order to complement what they are doing. For some of the lesser known groups for which Environment Canada does not have a lot of expertise this works well. Ms. Twolan summarized that she wanted to update the Committee in the hope of getting feedback or assistance.

Dr. Danks asked what use the information is put to apart from the rare species. Ms. Twolan explained that the program was designed to target all wild species in Canada and was initiated because there was a recognition that even though there is a focus on species at risk, there is a dire need to have a general overview of how all species are doing. The program is now starting to make closer links with the Biodiversity Convention Office and has also been approached by the Alien Species Strategy group to explore how better links with that group might be achieved. As well they have been approached by various biodiversity indicator initiatives to see how the rankings could be used as measures of biodiversity health within Canada. The project was set up with the knowledge that it would be a huge task to do rankings for all species. They started with groups that are relatively well known and will do update ranks in 2005. Dr. Danks asked how many rankings there are. Ms. Twolan explained that one category called “At risk” is reserved for anything listed as endangered or threatened by COSEWIC. Under that, species listed as “immediate risk” or “sensitive” are flagged to COSEWIC for consideration. Other species are included as “secure”. Good provincial lists are available from the provinces or territories.

Dr. McCorquodale wondered if the data are coming from provincial Conservation Data Centres and pointed out that very few of those centres have arthropod specialists. Ms. Twolan agreed, but noted that some are starting to hire arthropod specialists. Two members of the Working Group have MSc’s in entomology. Dr. Scudder pointed out that some of the provinces have arthropods on their listing and have attempted to do some S-rankings (provincial rarity). There is a problem though because many do not have G-rankings (global rarity). In British Columbia a biodiversity assessment was recently finished for which S-ranking was done on virtually everything. However, although G-rankings were possible for all vascular plants, vertebrates, butterflies and dragonflies, they could not be done for the other arthropods. Ms. Twolan confirmed that the General Status Program does not address G-rankings.

Dr. Marshall commented that the Natural Heritage Information Centre (NHIC) in Peterborough recently had small contracts with the University of Guelph to do G-rank and S-rank databases for some taxa. They have done or will be doing Heteroptera and Orthoptera. Ontario is moving towards assessing as many arthropod groups as possible.

2.5 Canadian Forest ServiceDr. Langor provided an update from the Canadian Forest Service which has also been

reorganizing. CFS had been organized along 10 then 5 theme networks, including biodiversity. Now CFS is being organized along business lines. The new ADM had discovered that Forestry was not on the agenda of central agencies in Canada largely because what they do was not perceived to be linked to the requirements of government policy. The reorganization is part of an attempt to improve that situation. Some of the new business lines are relevant to biodiversity such as sustainable forests and climate change. Other lines include strong communities (sociological and economic) and competitiveness (based in Ottawa). Biodiversity is seen as something that cuts across all lines of business but will be prominent especially in the area of criteria and indicators. Dr. Langor did not foresee any drastic changes in the actual work in the

9

near future. He anticipates carrying on with 80% of the current work. Budgets for most centres this year are being withheld until they have become realigned with the new priorities.

On a positive note, CFS received $1.6 to 1.8 million as part of the Alien Species Strategy. Much of the funding will be used to provide science support to CFIA but some will go towards established invasives. CFS research centres are being strongly encouraged to develop stronger links with other forest research organizations. In Edmonton a new institute called Innovative Forest Opportunities Research (IFOR) is being formed, which is a partnership between departments of renewable resources – Northern Forestry Centre, CFS; Dept. of Forestry and Dept. of Rural Economy at the University of Alberta. The new structure will enable some joint strategic planning and joint staffing, and some new sources of funding for forest research to be pursued. It is an opportunity to become more supportive and collaborative rather than competitive of each other’s efforts.

The Alberta Forest Research Institute (AFRI) has substantial funding for forest research, e.g. $2 million this year and $10 million next, and biodiversity figures highly in their priorities.

2.6 Parasitology module, Canadian Society of ZoologistsDr. Marcogliese reported that the Stickleback project continues to recruit new members and

gather new data. Environment Canada has signed 5-year agreement with La Mauricie National Park of Canada to use parasites to monitor ecological integrity in five-spine stickleback. Dr. Marcogliese considers this as official recognition for the stickleback project so he can use some of his resources and funding. He will manage the database in his laboratory and it will become permanently archived at Environment Canada. Over the next year the project will start to enter data that have been accumulated.

Dr. Marcogliese circulated the 2003 annual report of the Science Advocacy group of the Canadian Society of Zoologists. The annual CSZ meeting will be held May 10-14 in Kingston and will include over 300 presentations.

Environment Canada is undergoing organizational changes. The Deputy Minister, Mr. Samy Watson, wants to make science the driving force in the Department. The main themes in research will be conservation, protection of environment, the evaluation of sustainable ecosystems, climate change and meteorological and environmental services. Much of the type of research that Dr. Marcogliese does will fall under evaluation of sustainable ecosystems, especially under the directions of biodiversity, water, air and climate modelling and forecasting. Research at the St. Lawrence Centre is being centralized under one program – Anthropological impacts on diversity and productivity in aquatic ecoystems. On a national level the Deputy Minister is pushing to make environment part of the agenda of every government department.

Work on the National Wildlife Disease Strategy continues, including a call for input from professionals and others. The National Agro-environmental Standards Initiative, to develop standards for impacts of agriculture on the environment, has a biodiversity initiative. The final mandate dictates that it will be habitat based, using existing data.

Dr. Al Shostak at the University of Alberta is now a Faculty Service Officer and is Director of the Parasite Collection. There is a new journal called Collections. Dr. Pierre Brunelle’s organization is trying to find homes for orphan collections in Quebec, some of which are temporarily housed at Environment Canada.

10

Dr. Marcogliese distributed a number of documents on various topics including the following.

The National Science and Technology Council issued a report last fall recognizing the importance of systematics and collections.

Sweden is inventorying all its flora and fauna. There will be both scientific public components.

The Gallon Environment Letter has distributed a list of people in Parliament who are friendly towards environmental issues.

Germany has an interesting program on naming species for dollars. The position of Director of Science and Conservation is available at Ontario Nature. Bioscience contained an interesting article “Desperately seeking charisma: improving

the status of invertebrates”. Dr. Dan McLaughlin, Concordia University, had taught a course on parasite taxonomy,

probably the only course taught in the country. Dr. Marcogliese noted that Dr. Patrick Colgan, formerly at the CMN, passed away last year. He added that Dr. Colgan had provided more tangible financial support to the parasitology module than anyone else at the CMN.

3. Survey publications Dr. Danks circulated the most recent newsletters that had been produced and distributed:

[Newsletter of the Biological Survey of Canada (Terrestrial Arthropods) 24(1): 1–36, 2005], [Arthropods of Canadian Grasslands No. 11, 29 pp., 2005] and [Arthropods of Canadian Forests No. 1, 29 pp., 2005].

4. Biological Survey Foundation 4.1 Introduction

Dr. Danks explained that the Foundation is a charitable organization recognized by the Canada Revenue Agency which is designed to take in and disburse funds for the preparation and publication of Survey-related items. The Foundation is run by 5 directors. Dr. Shorthouse is the President of the Foundation and Dr. Danks is the Secretary-Treasurer. Members of the Foundation are the members of the Scientific Committee for the Biological Survey. Dr. Danks explained that by law the Foundation is required to meet once per year.

4.2 Minutes of the previous Annual General Meeting (Scientific Committee April 2004, agenda item #4).

The minutes of the previous meeting were approved as circulated.

4.3 Treasurer’s reportDr. Danks drew the Committee’s attention to the financial statement. Pending publication of

the next major volume – Volume 1 of the Grasslands project – the financial situation remains similar to last year. Sales of the Yukon book and other publications have declined as would be expected. Investment interest has continued. About $70,000 in cash or equivalent is now available for use in supporting subsequent publications. Dr. Danks explained that he had hoped by this time to know the size of the grasslands publication so that costs could be planned. However this is not yet the case. He reminded the Committee that at the 2003 Directors’ meeting

11

the Directors had authorized the Secretary-Treasurer to make suitable arrangements for the financing of that volume.

4.4 Appointment of Auditor for 2005Following the Directors= recommendation, Dr. Wheeler moved “that Dr E.E. Lindquist be

appointed auditor of the Biological Survey Foundation for 2005”. Seconded by Dr. Giberson. Motion carried unanimously.

5. Matters arising from the last meeting and not transferred elsewhere

5.1 Correspondence with Blair Pardy of Parks CanadaDr. Danks reminded the Committee that Mr. Blair Pardy had hoped to attend the last

Committee meeting in Charlottetown to discuss regional issues in Parks but had not been able to receive authorization to do so. The Committee therefore undertook to write him a letter thanking him for his interest and expressing its desire to continue regional cooperation. This had been done. Dr. McCorquodale confirmed that he is still in contact with Mr. Pardy.

5.2. Commentary to the Biodiversity Convention OfficeDr. Wheeler reminded the Committee that this item had arisen from Dr. Ole Hendrickson’s

attendance at last year’s meeting and discussion about the Canadian Biodiversity Monitoring Program concept. Dr. Wheeler had started to expand on the Survey’s response that any sort of biodiversity monitoring program needs to be science-based and not management-based. One stakeholder group noticeably absent in the document was the university community. Dr. Wheeler explained that he was not able to complete the response.

Dr. Danks added that he had spent some time contemplating how to handle the response and had concluded that the original proposal had so many flaws and was so diametrically opposed to past Survey recommendations that he could not see how the Survey could provide a helpful response. He concluded that what the Survey could say that would be useful would be too long and intricate. Dr. Wheeler agreed and added that he could only come up with restatements of past messages from the Survey.

Dr. Danks said that the Survey had wanted to follow up because at least there is a willingness to take some initiative related to biodiversity and perhaps secure some funding, and it would be good to encourage that attitude. Unfortunately, the Survey’s initial draft response simply encouraged the attitude but as a result came across as approving the details; and it had proved impossible to write something reasonably concise that approved the concept but not the details.

Dr. Langor thought that in any case attempts to influence Environment Canada in this area would not likely pay off in the long run. He thought that any influence the Survey could bring to bear would be at the grassroots level in those areas where attempts are being made to develop biodiversity monitoring programs.

Dr. Marcogliese mentioned an Environment Canada think tank meeting on directions in biodiversity. A schedule for the next 50 years was outlined and he offered to provide a copy of that.

12

Dr. Shorthouse and Dr. Danks concluded that the Survey’s time and effort would be better spent in other directions, and the task of providing a commentary will be dropped for now.

5.3 Possible article about regulation of classical biocontrol agentsDr. Danks reminded the Committee that Dr. Peter Mason had spoken to the Committee about

regulation of classical biocontrol agents. Dr. Mason has agreed to prepare an article summarizing that information for the fall issue of the Biological Survey newsletter. Dr. Scudder and Dr. Roughley expressed particular concern about introducing aliens to control native species. Dr. Danks suggested that in due course it might be appropriate to prepare an opinion piece for the newsletter to express those concerns.

5.4 Membership of the Scientific Committee Dr. Shorthouse reiterated that recommendations for future members of the Scientific

Committee are always appreciated. Individuals who retired by rotation last year – Drs. Giberson, McCorquodale, Roy and Scudder – have all agreed to renew their terms for another three years. Dr. Danks added that this is the first time that no new members have been appointed, but because of involvement with various projects it was deemed to be the best thing to do. A number of names and interest areas were put forward by the Committee for future consideration. Dr. Danks reminded the Committee that the idea of actively adding non-Committee people to subcommittees had been discussed previously although that had not been done much so far. Dr. Wheeler pointed out that external subcommittee members then interact only on that one project and may not get a chance to see what is happening in other areas. Dr. Shorthouse thought it is also important to get younger people involved early in their careers. Dr. Giberson wondered if external subcommittee members could be invited to sit in as observers, for example when meetings are held in conjunction with ESC annual meetings.

6. Scientific priorities of the Biological Survey of Canada (Terrestrial Arthropods)

6.1 Scientific projects

6.1.1 GrasslandsDr. Wheeler announced that 8 chapters have been submitted for the first grasslands volume

on ecology and interactions in grasslands habitats. The review process for these chapters has started. Another chapter is with a co-author for some final editing. Dr. Wheeler encouraged submission of the remaining chapters so that the book can be produced in a timely fashion. Dr. Kevin Floate is coordinating volume 2 on arthropods in altered grasslands and has a good list of potential authors. Invitations for that volume should be sent soon. Dr. Cumming and Dr. Sperling are coordinating the third volume on faunistics. Dr. Cumming said that there had been some discussion about sending out a formal letter of invitation to potential authors, pending progress on volume 1.

Dr. Danks commented that this year’s issue of the grasslands newsletter was difficult to produce for a variety of reasons – one long-promised article was not submitted and other articles were delayed. The newsletter is printed in-house to save money and is very labour-intensive. Given the labour and cost, the difficulty in finding articles in a timely fashion and the fact that the first book should be appearing soon, he proposed that the newsletter in its current form has

13

served its course and effort would be better spent elsewhere. For example, the newsletter could become a black and white pdf of news unless there are good reasons to continue with full colour production. The newsletter has stimulated the community enough to ensure development of the first and subsequent books.

Dr. Wheeler agreed that if production of the newsletter is taking a lot of time it should be ramped down. The Arthropods of Canadian Forests will become the new specific flagship newsletter from the Survey. Dr. Giberson pointed out that she found an effective way of using colour pictures for a previous article on the arctic was to post them on the Survey website associated with the newsletter. She wondered if that would be a possibility. Dr. Danks agreed that if people send material it is possible; the more difficult issue is trying to get the material. Dr. Langor asked for some clarification on what the revised product would be like. He suggested eliminating the newsletter altogether and sending email notifications when something new is posted on the website. Dr. Danks thought that was a possibility although project pages on the web are not always updated on a regular basis. Dr. Cumming thought that the newsletter should be continued even if it is scaled down or up depending on the interval between publication of the books. Dr. Scudder thought that something is still needed to promote the grasslands books and that the newsletter would be the appropriate vehicle. Dr. Roughley thought that one of the useful functions of the newsletter has been to find out who is actually doing grasslands work and that could continue to be a useful role leading up to the second and third volumes. He hoped that there would be a way to reduce the workload but keep the information available regularly.

Dr. Giberson stated that she will follow up references to a web site more readily in a paper newsletter than from an email. Ms. Twolan noted that paper newsletters are circulated more widely in her office, including the BSC newsletter. Dr. Danks agreed, and said that there is no intention of reducing the main BSC newsletter, only the Grasslands one. Dr. Marcogliese noted that in the American Society of Parasitologist’s newsletter a senior scientist was reported as saying that he would not look at newsletters unless he had a hard copy. He concluded that making the newsletter electronic only would decrease impact and readership.

Dr. Wheeler said that the annual grasslands field trip has been successful for several years. This year the trip will be the Bioblitz at Waterton Lakes National Park which Dr. Langor is coordinating in conjunction with the forest arthropods project. Dr. Langor pointed out that an article has appeared in all three of the Survey’s newsletters. Planning is well in hand and there have been a number of expressions of interest. He requested that anyone planning to attend or knowing anyone interested should advise him before the end of June so that he can arrange the logistics.

Dr. Langor and Dr. Wheeler have been discussing the idea of holding the 2006 Bioblitz in western Newfoundland, perhaps in Gros Morne National Park where there are interesting habitats. This idea also ties in well with the Arthropods of Newfoundland project and the Arthropods of the Gulf of St. Lawrence Islands project. Dr. Langor has been in contact with people in Newfoundland who are interested in having a bioblitz in Newfoundland. Dr. Danks thought that would be an excellent opportunity especially because many of the previous trips have been in western Canada.

14

6.1.2 Arthropods of Canada – a BSC ejournalDr. Marshall described the type of work and publications that research scientists are currently

doing towards building the book of life. He sees bar coding as a proposal for developing an index for that book. He suggested that the BSC e-journal proposal that was circulated prior to the meeting is akin to a table of contents for the book of life. As such he doesn’t see the e-journal as competition for other types of work. Dr. Marshall believes that, as outlined in the proposal, the community is now in a good position to deliver this sort of product. He hoped to get feedback from the Committee on how to proceed with the project. He posed several specific questions to the Committee:

1. Format. Dr. Marshall had initially thought that there should be a common look and feel and had a student, Mr. Dave Cheung, develop a model html template that was used to produce the computer key to the Mecoptera / scorpionflies of Ontario. However the template is complicated and although it is a good product that will be useful, Dr. Marshall now feels that forcing contributors to use a common template is not a good idea. He now hopes to put out a call for products to meet the basic criteria already agreed – i.e. the product provides a useful, richly illustrated key to a significant group of Canadian taxa. He added that every product should be printable.

2. What are the minimal standards that will be required before sending the products out to reviewers?

3. Procedure. Presumably contributors will send their submissions to Dr. Marshall who will send them out to division editors who will in turn send them out for review. The reviewed products will be returned to Dr. Marshall, set-up at the University of Guelph in an appropriate format and then sent to the BSC Secretariat for posting on the BSC web site.

4. Guidelines for the reviewers will be needed and Dr. Marshall would like some feedback on these guidelines. For example, there has to be a key and not just photographs, the treatment of the taxon has to be complete at some level, and it has to be demonstrably useful for Canadian faunistics.

5. Editorial structure. Should it follow the model of the Canadian Entomologist, for example.

6. Action plan / schedule. Dr. Marshall proposes to start prompting people to submit keys by the end of this year. A newsletter article can be prepared for the Fall issue, launching and announcing the product. The first few products should be posted at that time.

7. Funding. Suggestions for funding would also be useful to help pay for such things as designing the web aspects.

Dr. Roughley confirmed that this product will not compete with the Canadian Entomologist. It therefore should not be a place for things like descriptions of new taxa. However, Dr. Roughley saw the need for an electronic repository for specimen data. Dr. Marshall thought that databases should be housed and maintained by their owners, although links could be provided on the Survey site.

Dr. Wheeler encouraged the project to proceed and agreed that overlap with other publications is not an issue because this is a way of getting identification tools out to the users. In terms of the format, guidelines should not be too wide open, or submissions will range from completely formatted keys to word-processing documents with minimal information. The author guidelines need to make the transition to electronic format easy at the technical/editing end but

15

not so restrictive that potential contributors are discouraged. Dr. Wheeler suggested that taxon editors would be better than regional editors. He cautioned against having too much editing and reviewing. He suggested clearly delineating the roles of the chief editor, taxon editors and reviewers. He pointed out that while there is a core of people ready to submit the first products, it is also critical to have a second wave to keep the momentum going.

Dr. Giberson wondered if the Biological Survey Foundation could fund such an endeavour. Dr. Danks explained that the Foundation guidelines refer to publications and do not specify paper or electronic. There is also provision for funding preparation work as well as actual publication. Therefore the Directors can authorize a range of things that they think are in the best interests of the Foundation. Normally the Foundation likes to fund products and get money back from sales. With web publications this financial return is not likely, but this would not stop the Directors from approving expenditures that serve the Foundation’s objectives. However, more accurate proposals and costings will be needed. Once Dr. Marshall has settled some of the aforementioned issues he will be able to provide a more definitive plan.

Mr. Baird pointed out the online Discover Life keys for citizen based science. Dr. Marshall explained that the link to the ID Nature Guides (http://pick1.pick.uga.edu/cgi-bin/20q) was included in his proposal as a good model.

Dr. Scudder inquired whether the BSC site would have sufficient capacity to store the products. Dr. Danks thought that this would not be a constraint given the arrangement with the University of Alberta. Dr. Danks expressed concern about the diversity of material and platforms that might be received for posting and therefore the implications for maintaining the site. For example, would a variety of software be needed on the site. Dr. Marshall did not think that would be a problem as long as contributors do not want programming changes within their submission, and difficulties of this sort can be avoided by requiring complete new submissions.

Dr. Danks emphasized that establishing the ejournal will require some investment of resources but that it is an important goal that the Survey must undertake.

Dr. Marshall admitted that he is not a web expert and while he does not mind handling the editing and the taxonomic overview, he needs help with the web aspects of the project. Dr. Danks added that it may be necessary to hire somebody to finalize the product once it is reviewed and approved. Dr. Cumming pointed out that the product needs to be in electronic format before it goes out for review so that the functionality can be tested.

Dr. Marshall again requested ideas for funding, for example to hire Mr. Cheung. Dr. Danks felt that in the future the Survey budget might be able to support such ongoing activities. First, the product needs to be developed and launched so that a product will be available to help sell the idea to granting agencies. However, some cost estimates will be needed to fund the development work. If it is as valuable as the Committee thinks it is then sufficient funds should be found.

Mr. Baird mentioned that the Canadian Memories Fund is part of a program for funding web content projects in federal organizations. As well, the Virtual Museum of Canada under the Canadian Heritage Information Network has been struggling for a few years to find content that can be targeted towards the general public. They do not want to do things like databases for the scientific community but there might be opportunities for funding if there is some payoff for citizen-based science. In response to a question from Dr. Danks, he explained that the program

16

funds exterior-based projects and does not control the content. Mr. Baird offered to make further inquiries about this possibility.

Dr. Currie commented that one of the advantages of publishing on the web is the ability to keep products up to date. He hoped that a mechanism could be found to update modules rather than resubmitting entire entries. Dr. Cumming suggested that replacing the entire file is a simple way to do this. Dr. Marshall said that he had discussed this with his colleagues and one of the suggestions was that these things should be maintained regionally and the central web site is the gateway to the regional sites. Another suggestion was to have the information on the central site (access to which would be controlled) as first proposed but linked to mirror versions on the author’s home site which could be updated. The reasons to suggest that would be the necessity of maintaining the integrity of a reviewed and published version of something at the same time as people are working on updated versions. Dr. Danks noted that anything posted on the web has to be locked and therefore corrections to the “locked” version would need to be annotated not revamped. Dr. Giberson said that then there would have to be a notation that changes had occurred on the mirror site. Dr. Danks thought that a procedure could be devised so that the author could submit minor changes but major changes would need to be re-reviewed.

Dr. Cumming thought that mirror sites are unnecessary but some notation should be made on the site when modifications are made. He agreed that there may be a point where a new review might be needed. Dr. Danks concluded that this can be handled by the editor(s) as long as the procedure is clear. Dr. Lamb added that he did not see the point of having mirror sites. Having information change on other sites conflicts with the idea of having a central reviewed site especially if editorial decisions for changes are made and postable material is made available. Dr. Marshall thought that it would onerous for the editor to have to deal with many changes although Dr. Danks did not foresee that changes would be that frequent.

Dr. Giberson concluded by thanking Dr. Marshall for his effort in bringing this initiative forward. Dr. Marshall responded that it is now critical for Committee members to prepare expert submissions. He will draft a newsletter article and circulate it for comments.

6.1.2.1 Existing family key projectDr. Scudder explained that the Insect families of BC (apterygotes and exopterygotes) will be

published this fiscal year. The manuscript will be submitted by the end of October. Dr. Scudder then plans to adapt the material for use on the BSC ejournal site. He hopes to be able to do this in about 18 months. The BC publication starts with a key to all of the insect orders and then treats the apterygotes and exopterygotes.

Dr. Danks wondered if it might be possible to prepare a pdf version of the Myriapod key as another contribution to the ejournal. Dr. Scudder will look for the original files, noting that the myriapod key was a small enough publication that it could be scanned. Dr. Marshall noted a nice Myriapod web site by Rowland Shelley (http://www.myriapoda.org/).

.6.1.3 Terrestrial arthropods of Newfoundland and Labrador

Dr. Langor reported that some progress had been made in preparing illustrated keys and it is hoped that these will be an early contribution to the ejournal. Dr. Larson is currently working on the Hemiptera keys. The check list of the spiders of Newfoundland has been submitted by Drs. Pickavance and Dondale to the Canadian Field Naturalist. A database of entomological literature

17

dealing with Newfoundland and Labrador records continues to be built. Eventually this could be put on the web. Dr. Larson continues to maintain a database of Newfoundland and Labrador taxa and collection localities. Dr. Langor has been extracting Coleoptera records from the CNC. Mr. Chris Majka has been working on the lathridiids of the Maritime provinces and Dr. Langor has added information from Newfoundland. Some sort of product will be produced in the future although no keys are yet available.

NRC Press is interested in a multi volume publication on the project. Dr. Langor continues to welcome participation in the project; not necessarily in producing keys but at least in preparing checklists. A lot of material from collections in Newfoundland has come to light recently and the residual material will be added to the collections. Dr. Jade Savage will be collecting in the Torngat Mountains in Labrador, which should add valuable material to the project.

Dr. Langor agreed that it would be worthwhile to add an entry requesting Newfoundland material in the list of requests found in the Survey’s newsletter and on the web site.

6.1.4 Forest arthropodsDr. Langor reported that the English version of the Forest arthropods newsletter has been

produced and distributed. The translation for the French version is done and will be distributed as soon as the layout is complete. Both will also be posted on the BSC and CFS web sites. Dr. Langor has received good feedback on the newsletter.

Planning is underway for the 2005 BSC-sponsored symposium planned for the ESC-ESA joint annual meeting. Six speakers will speak on maintaining arthropods in northern forest ecosystems. The symposium will be taking a taxon approach with synthesis papers that will review the Canadian and northern U.S. literature, and to some extent European literature, on Lepidoptera, carabids, staphylinids, aquatic species, saproxylic arthropods, and spiders. These multi-authored papers should be published in the Canadian Entomologist.

The database of forest arthropod biodiversity projects has been updated. The 2005 Bioblitz was discussed under agenda item 6.1.1.

The Cerambycidae of Canada and Alaska is a project that started recently building on the efforts of Dr. McCorquodale and Mr. Serge Laplante and is being funded by the Canadian Forest Service and the U.S. Forest Service. The final product may be in the form of a handbook but this is not yet finalized. Mr. Laplante has been functionally seconded to the project for at least 10 months. He is actively involved in some systematics projects on various genera, including Tetropium which is of importance to forestry and needs the most work. The project also involves databasing all the major and minor but interesting Cerambycid collections across Canada.

Dr. Scudder added that he and Dr. Foottit continue to build a database for the project on sucking insects on Jack Pine and Lodgepole Pine.

Dr. Giberson noted that she was delighted at the idea of the BioBlitz being in Newfoundland but wondered whether the bioblitzes are evolving into a new type of project rather than being associated with the Grasslands project. Dr. Langor agreed that there is not a lot of grassland habitat in Newfoundland. Dr. Lamb suggested putting notices in the ESC Bulletin in the future.

18

6.1.5 Insects of the arcticThe symposium at the 2004 ESC annual meeting was well received and Dr. Giberson

received a number of email comments afterwards. It remains to be seen whether or not that interest will translate to any northern work. More recently there has been interest and activity centred in Norman Wells. The NWT government is considering declaring the Horton River a special protected area and learned of the collecting work done by Dr. Currie and Dr. Giberson. Mr. Alasdair M. Veitch (Supervisor, Wildlife Management - Sahtu Region, Dept. of Resources, Wildlife & Economic Development, P.O. Box 130, Norman Wells, NT Canada X0E 0V0, Ph: 867-587-2786; Fx: 867-587-2359, email: Alasdair_Veitch@gov.nt.ca ) is willing to collect anything. He is currently collecting Lepidoptera and Odonata. He travels to the Mackenzie Mountains frequently for other reasons but is keen to collaborate.

Dr Giberson, Dr. Jade Savage and Dr. Steve Burian will be in Rankin Inlet in July. They have the use of the Nunavut Arctic College cabin which is located about 10 km from Rankin Inlet with river and lake habitat close by. Dr. Giberson has been contacted by the BBC who want to film a segment on the arctic woolly bear caterpillar and hope that Dr. Giberson will be able to help them find specimens to film. Dr. Danks had also spoken to the BBC personnel and learned that they are planning to go to Pond Inlet.

Dr. Currie collected 39 new species of black flies in western Alaska last year. The previous year in Nunavut he had only added 1 black fly species. He plans to go to Norman Wells to renew a multiyear initiative in the Sahtu Region of the Northwest Territories. Dr. Currie will be collaborating with Dr. Susan Kutz, a parasitologist. She has developed primers for blood parasites but does not know what the insect vectors are. They hope to collaborate by taking the blood meals out of the black flies to learn the vertebrate hosts and using the primers to learn what parasites might be carried. Dr. Currie encouraged anyone with interest in any particular groups to contact Mr. Veitch.

Dr. Wheeler commented that he was surprised at the species richness in the Diptera material from the past Arctic collecting trips. His laboratory continues to work up that material and eventually hopes to have a complete database of important baseline data. The list of Canadian Diptera known from the Canadian arctic has expanded as a result of these trips.

Dr. Currie noted that there are a lot of interesting range extensions of insects, and the Inuit are noticing these. It is important to get baseline data so that the changes felt acutely in the arctic can be measured.

6.1.6 Seasonal adaptationsDr. Danks reminded the Committee that his symposium paper from the International

Congress of Entomology on “How similar are daily and seasonal biological clocks?” was submitted near the end of last year and is now in press in the Journal of Insect Physiology, and will be published together with some other papers from the symposium.

18 months after submission, he has had no journal feedback about his paper on “Insect adaptations to cold and changing environments”, part of the Richard Ring symposium at the 2003 ESC/ ESBC meeting, apparently because the symposium issue of the Canadian Entomologist is being delayed by a number of tardy authors. Dr. Danks’ long paper on “Short life cycles in insects and mites”, submitted a year ago, likewise is somewhere in the system.

19

The Encyclopedia of the Arctic was finally published, and includes short entries on Insects, Insect larvae, and Mosquitoes. [Danks, H.V. 2005. “Insect Larvae” pp. 978-979 “Insects,” pp. 979-980; “Mosquitoes” pp. 1322-1323 In M. Nuttall (Ed.), Encyclopedia of the Arctic. Routledge, New York, 3 vols.].

Dr. Karel Spitzer (Czech Republic) and Dr. Danks completed and submitted a review on “Insect biodiversity in boreal peat bogs” for the Annual Review of Entomology.

During his time in Japan, as a visiting professor at the Research Institute for Bioresources of Okayama University, Dr. Danks prepared two review papers, one on key themes in patterns of insect cold-hardiness, and one on key themes in patterns of insect life cycles, for Applied Entomology and Zoology. The first of these papers has already been accepted for publication in the May issue.

6.1.7 Invasions and reductions

6.1.7.1 SymposiumDr. Langor reminded the Committee that discussions at Scientific Comittee meetings, and

discussions with scientists and pertinent government departments (CFS, AAFC, EC-BCO, and CFIA) over the last year showed unanimous agreement that there is need for an event to focus on science issues concerning non-native biota. However, there was no consensus on the scope or structure of such an event. Drawing upon these discussions and opinions, the subcommittee proposed that the BSC co-host (with CFS, others?) a 1-day symposium on non-native arthropods (possibly fungi too) preceding the 2006 entomological societies’ joint annual meeting in Quebec. Dr. Wheeler has also suggested broadening the focus into aquatic systems. This symposium will serve to focus on science related to the environmental consequences of invasion. A series of presentations will provide background on the biological invasion of Canada, focus on some key science questions, and set the stage for some synthesis products. This event will provide the focus and generate the necessary interest to produce a State of the Science report, developing a set of specific recommendations that will help provide the detail needed to underpin the Canadian Invasive Alien Species Strategic Plan.

Presentations will be solicited to provide, reviews, summaries and syntheses of specific topics rather than focusing on specific problems and case studies. Some initial ideas for talks are:

• A history of biological invasion in Canada: patterns and pathways.• The ecology of successful invasion.• Managing invasives: solutions and pitfalls.• Non-target impacts of biocontrol (synthesis).• Impacts of invasives on biodiversity (synthesis).• Invasive species and information management.• What is needed (from a science policy perspective).

Dr. Cumming suggested that CFIA might be able to sponsor the symposium using some of the funds recently received for the invasive alien species strategy. Dr. Langor agreed noting that Ms. Lesley Cree had been very supportive in early discussions. CFS also received funding for the strategy and some money has already been budgeted for the symposium.

20

Dr. Roughley agreed that aquatic systems should be included as work in this area is more advanced than in terrestrial systems. Dr. Scudder wondered whether or not there are sufficient data on aquatic insects to include this topic in the workshop. Dr. Wheeler thought there is information on invasive freshwater aquatic arthropods although not necessarily on insects. He likes the aquatic/terrestrial interaction because the potential issues apply equally well to both terrestrial and freshwater aquatic arthropod invasions. Dr. Wheeler thought that the aquatic researchers would stand to gain information on how to deal with the effects of invasive aquatic species on biodiversity and on ecological interactions by getting into more of the terrestrial literature. If the workshop is limited to effects on biodiversity and species interactions, and avoids the economic aspects, it could show an interesting set of connections. Dr. Giberson ventured that whether or not there are invasive aquatics is largely unknown because the fauna is not well enough known. She thought it would be worthwhile at least to raise the awareness of the possibility of invasive aquatic insects.

Dr. Scudder pointed out that many invasive insects are associated with alien plants and there could be an alien plant consideration at the workshop. Dr. Lamb said that there are also connections between fungi and invasive insects. Dr. Currie noted that Dr. Fiona Hunter’s group has recorded many new mosquito species for Canada although it is not known whether that reflects a lack of previous knowledge or range extensions.

Dr. Roughley noted that he was involved in a workshop on invasive species in November 2004 at York University. Contributors are being encouraged to develop their abstracts so that they may be published in Ecology in Society, an online journal. He also noted that a database of Canadian non-indigenous species (NIS) is lacking. The Canadian Forest Service has started to establish a database of alien species.

Dr. Langor drew the Committee’s attention to the second part of his report about a database of Canadian non-native arthropods. In 2005, the Canadian Forest Service commenced a new national project on established alien species. As part of this project, Dr. Langor undertook to develop a list of the non-native tree-feeding arthropods and fungi of Canada, and this activity soon ‘mutated’ into a list of all non-native terrestrial arthropods. Through literature searches, mining of on-line databases, and input from numerous faunal experts, this list has grown to about 1600 species to date. Some other data associated with this list are: common name, distribution (province and territory), origin, key references, hosts and notes on date and point of entry. A selected bibliography is also being compiled. Dr. Langor expects this work to be sufficiently complete to disseminate via a web interface by this fall. The CFS plans to develop a web site that is the first-stop-shop for information about exotic tree-inhabiting arthropods and fungi in Canada, but the outlet for the broader database is yet uncertain. Dr. Langor asked what should happen to the rest of the data, which seems to be a natural fit to the Survey’s project on invasions and reductions.

Another related activity is the capture of label data associated with archived specimens of non-native arthropod fauna and fungal flora on trees. Funding (ca. $30K) was provided by FBIP to capture label data associated with ca. 100 species in CFS collections and the CNCI and national fungus collection. A data standard was developed in the CFS and will be used for this exercise. It is hoped that more resources will be leveraged in the next 3 years (through funds from the Alien Species Strategy) to increase this databasing exercise by adding more species and collections.

21

6.1.7.2 Coccinellid projectProgress on the Coccinellid project was reported. Work is largely complete for the maritime

provinces. There is a good understanding for Ontario although the data are out of date. Dr. Winchester will be looking after British Columbia. The priorities then are the Yukon, the Northwest Territories and Nunavut. Dr. Roy reported that work in Quebec continues and although progress is slow they expect to complete the local collections by the end of May and then move on to the CNC. Dr. Wheeler noted that there are over 1500 records at the Lyman Museum.

Another aspect of the project is to determine the structure needed for project databases. Dr. Danks read part of an email from Dr. Sperling on the topic of setting up a database of coccinellid specimen data on the BSC website. “At one level this is very simple, and I think the immediate decisions are clear, given the circumstances. I have had communications with Dave McCorquodale and Steve Marshall, and had spoken to Rob Roughley and Dave Langor about it earlier. We should: a) make all such data fully compatible with GBIF (right now Darwin Core2) standards in terms of fields, 2) we should on the short term put up the data as a simple, downloadable Excel file on the BSC site, and 3) each record should refer to a single preserved specimen, and the specimen should be identified. For the last point, the Ladybug survey done a couple of years ago by the nature federation did not provide a way of confirming identifications, and there is no sense repeating what they have done.”

“On the longer term, it is best for each institution that holds specimens to set up a DiGR site which is designed to allow a distributed search of all data (as is already well underway with CBIF and GBIF). This will take time, and of course some institutions might choose not to set up their own site, and so we should go with the simple option for data dissemination for now.” Dr Sperling had added that he had not received data with which to move forward on the task.

Dr. McCorquodale speculated that the number of available fields in Darwin Core might be an intimidating factor for some people. Dr. Landry pointed out that only a small number of the fields are mandatory and some don’t apply and can be ignored.

Dr. McCorquodale suggested taking the available data and sending them to Dr. Sperling to download into a Darwin Core database. Mr. Baird noted that FBIP is trying to expand the network of DiGR servers across the country. In addition to Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, the CMN and the New Brunswick Museum, they have funded machines that will be going to Nova Scotia Museum, Royal Saskatchewan Museum and Royal British Columbia Museum. They hope to expand the network across the country.

Dr. Langor wondered if standards had been established by those working on the coccinellid databases. This will need to be resolved before combining databases, which is where the Darwin Core standards would be useful. Dr. Danks suggested that the subcommittee and Dr. Sperling consult to determine how to proceed before something can be posted on the BSC web site.

[The following items took place on Friday, April 22.]

22

6.2 Other scientific priorities

6.2.1 Arthropods of the Gulf of St. Lawrence IslandsDr. Giberson reported that there has been some collecting on Prince Edward Island and

specimens have been sent to various people for identification. Dr. Giberson is hoping to have a graduate student look at some small islands off Nova Scotia. Dr. Wheeler added that Ms. Stephanie Boucher and Mr. Vincent Dion spent 11 days on the Magdalen Islands last summer collecting primarily Diptera which are being sorted and processed. Some students may be collecting this summer and both Ms. Boucher and Dr. Marjolaine Giroux are planning a more extensive trip to some additional islands for 2006.

6.2.2 Faunal analysisDr. Roughley reminded the Committee that there is a need to realign the families for the

faunal analysis, many of which have changed. Some progress has been made but none of the data are yet ready for posting. Developing updates will be the next step.

6.2.3 Arthropods and fireDr. Roughley reported that he has confirmed three presentations for the symposium in

Canmore and he will be more active in planning this event now that the school term is over. In response to a question from Dr. Danks, Dr. Langor said that 3.5 hours is allotted for the symposium. Anyone who might have data on arthropods and fire could still be accommodated. Dr. Langor mentioned that there is much work on this topic in Dr. John Spence’s laboratory. Dr. Wheeler added that Dr. Buddle’s PhD student, Mr. Michel Saint-Germain, has done research in Quebec on the ecological effects of fire on Coleoptera.

6.2.4 Databasing Dr. Roughley commented that one of his concerns is that people are using different fields and

in different ways, e.g. different formats for dates. He hopes to have a document by the fall meeting that standardizes the fields to be used and how to use them. Dr. McCorquodale said that he, Dr. Roy and Dr. Winchester have been discussing this topic and he offered to disseminate this information more widely. Dr. Scudder suggested finding out what approach the CNC is taking. Dr. Langor agreed that coming up with a standard would be beneficial and easy. Dr. Landry reiterated that there need not be any new standard devised because Darwin Core version 2 has been well thought out internationally and he recommended adopting that standard. It comprises a large number of fields but only a few are mandatory core fields that would be needed to trace anything back to a voucher specimen. Dr. Landry cautioned against confusing two issues - data structure and computer/software support that holds the data. Which software package is used for data entry is a secondary issue. Dr. Langor supported that idea.

Dr. Roughley reported that some work has been done on the database of localities and he has found some interesting problems so far. There are 10-15 localities for which the locality data are wrong. Some other data entry problems have been encountered and will need to be resolved before sending the data for posting. Dr. Danks pointed out that Dr. Sperling had written that he had sent his data to Dr. Roughley. Dr. Roughley had not yet received this material and will communicate with Dr. Sperling. In addition, Dr. Scudder and others also have some locality data

23

to contribute. Dr. Roughley agreed to continue to coordinate the project. He will receive the data, assimilate it and try to resolve outstanding issues before it is sent for loading on the web.

Dr. Wheeler confirmed that the scope of this project was to compile important historic collecting locations Canada-wide. He noted that there is a list of Quebec locations in Mr. Louis Handfield’s guide to Lepidoptera.

Dr. Danks suggested that Dr. Roughley list what he currently has and then send a memo with this information to each member of the Committee to see what other information might be available.

6.2.5 Survey web siteDr. Danks reported that updates continue to be made to the web site. An index of all

newsletter article titles has been added. Selected articles from earlier issues (Vol. 1, No. 1 to Vol. 16, No. 1) are now available in pdf format. Pdf (Adobe Acrobat) versions of whole issues of the Newsletter of the Biological Survey of Canada (Terrestrial Arthropods) from Volume 18, No. 1(1999) to present are now available as are pdfs of Arctic Insect News (previously vol. 9-11 only). Insects of the Arctic reports were converted to pdf format as Dr. Giberson had requested at the last meeting. The Forest arthropods project page has been updated with recent developments, i.e. symposium, newsletter, Bioblitz, The Cerambycidae of Canada and Alaska. As well the Forest Arthropod Biodiversity projects database was updated. On the Grasslands page some information on the Bioblitz was posted as was updated information on restoration of the Criddle laboratory. The Grasslands and spring BSC newsletters were also posted. Ongoing maintenance includes updates to the List of workers as information is received, the What’s new and Site map, and one species addition in the Faunal Analysis project (Neuroptera, Ascalaphidae).

In the last 5 months the site has received 20,393 unique visitors (equivalent to about 50,000 per year); returning visitors are about 7% of the total. Dr. Danks mentioned that Mr. Alasdair Veitch, Dr. Currie’s and Dr. Giberson’s contact from Norman Wells, had found them through the BSC web site.

Some interesting web sites that provide a link to the BSC site include:

- Science and Technology for Canadians (http://science.gc.ca) (alphabetical index)- Iowa State Entomology Index of Internet Resources (http://www.ent.iastate.edu/list/directory/154)- current contents link (http://www.isinet.com/products/cap/ccc/cwc/), a value-added section of Current Contents Connect™.

Dr. Danks explained that changes to organization and in particular to the menu structure of the web site are still planned.

6.2.6 Endangered speciesDr. Marshall reported that he recently attended a meeting of the Committee on Species at

Risk in Ontario (COSARO). The Province of Ontario is moving towards assessing a number of arthropod species, in some cases following COSEWIC. COSEWIC has just established an arthropod subcommittee and recently put out a call for contracts to do status reports for a species of tiger beetle and some Lepidoptera. Dr. Marshall was quite surprised to hear about the initiatives described by Ms. Twolan because he has had contracts from the NHIC for the last few

24

years to do the same sort of rankings for Ontario. He recently submitted a report on Rare and potentially rare Ontario Heteroptera that ranked 407 Ontario species. From that list he was able to select 6 species that need to be tracked provincially including a couple of endangered species. Dr. Marshall thinks that this activity links to the ejournal proposal because the trend over the last few years has been that as groups become accessible to the greater conservation / biology community and naturalists are better able to do identifications they fall under scrutiny for threatened or endangered species. Just as butterflies and dragonflies have received attention other groups will start to receive attention, especially as useful identification products are made available on the BSC web site.

Dr. Marshall reminded the Committee of an older Survey initiative to prepare a multi-authored book on potentially rare insects in Canada. That project was dropped because of resistance in the entomological community but Dr. Marshall believes that resistance has largely disappeared. He also believes that such a project is going to happen anyway and he believes that the Survey needs to revisit its original proposal. If the Biological Survey does not put together a multi-authored, authoritative treatment of potentially rare insects it will be done by others who may not be as qualified.

Dr. Danks suggested that Dr. Marshall put together a proposal and subcommittee for the next meeting. He thought it is important to recognize the distinction between active hands-on work that Dr. Marshall and others do and the sort of thing that some government departments are interested in. For example, the mission of the General Status Program is to list information that other people provide. The program itself has no resources or ability to generate the data. Dr. Marshall said that the Species at Risk Act allows funding for some work. Dr. Danks thought that there is generally only funding for the rare or endangered species. Dr. Roughley believed that the knowledge of both habitat and taxa has matured to the point where the Survey can better develop this sort of project.

Dr. Scudder noted that the listing for potentially endangered species in British Columbia was published in 1994. A number of those species have now been put on the provincial red (endangered) and blue (threatened) list. The province of British Columbia has appointed an endangered invertebrate species specialist – Ms. Jennifer Heron. Because of provincial responsibilities with respect to the Species at Risk Act, they have Recovery plans for species that occur only in the province. Dr. Scudder is on 15 Recovery teams. The approach has been to toward multi-species recovery efforts, for example the Garry Oak ecosystem (which includes butterflies and plants) and the south Okanagan (which includes birds, snakes and some invertebrates such as Behr’s hairstreak). More listings are sought but Dr. Scudder pointed out that provincial listings carry no legal obligations. The difficulty comes when there is overlap with COSEWIC listed species. For example, one proposal is to consider ground-dwelling mantids in the South Okanagan. If that happens then entomologists will be prevented from running pitfall traps because they would also trap ground-dwelling mantids. He wondered if the new COSEWIC arthropod committee is considering how they will handle the research side that will allow blanket exclusions. Dr. Giberson is now a member of the Arthropod SSC and she plans to take some of these concerns to that group.

Dr. Scudder added that the listing of Behr’s hairstreak was very useful. He reminded the Committee about the fire in the south Okanagan Mountain Park and subsequently the antelope brush habitat (see minutes of October 2004 meeting, item 7.1). The habitat was saved from a new power station because the invertebrate species subcommittee was able to demonstrate that

25

the habitat needed to be preserved for the endangered Behr’s hairstreak. As mitigation the power station was reduced from 100 to 12 hectares and $800,000 provided to buy alternate antelope brush habitat. Dr. Scudder recounted taking Board members of the Nature Trust to that area during a Behr’s hairstreak count. Many of these businessmen were enthusiastic about trying to see and photograph this endangered species.

Dr. Danks reminded the Committee that Ms. Twolan had invited the Committee to stay in touch with her group and he therefore prompted the Committee to consider useful ways to do this.

Dr. Scudder commented that people on some Recovery teams, such as the Garry Oak team, want to prepare a status report on every species that might be endangered. This is a waste of money because if habitat conservation can be achieved using one species then status reports for all others are unnecessary. Dr. Marshall agreed and noted that the cost would be prohibitive if recovery plans had to be developed for every endangered insect species. In Ontario the value of ecosystem recovery teams is being recognized. Dr. Wheeler also agreed, adding that listing all species adds unnecessary expense but also takes too much time. By the time the proposals work their way through SSC and COSEWIC, there is a risk that the arthropod work will be trivialized.

From a different perspective, Dr. Marshall noted that there is a proposal to relieve some of the border-crossing bottleneck in Windsor by putting a new expressway through the Ojibway prairie. This habitat has recognized endangered species and a paper to be published in the Grassland volume establishes that there are another 100 species, formerly unrecognized, that are probably threatened or endangered. He thought that recognizing those additional 100 species will go a long way towards helping to save the habitat.

6.2.7 Survey publicityDr. Shorthouse reported that he continues to take photographs of entomologists, especially

working in the field, and requested that others do so.

Dr. Giberson commented that she received positive comments about Dr. Shorthouse’s introduction to the arctic symposium at the 2004 ESC annual meeting. She emphasized that those who are planning symposia for future meetings should make it clear to the ESC Science Committee that the Biological Survey of Canada needs to be part of the name of the symposium. She contacted Dr. Terry Shore about including a note about BSC symposia in the ESC annual meeting guidelines. He is more than willing to do so and welcomed a draft of such guidelines.

In response to a question from Dr. Langor, Dr. Danks reminded the Committee that the Survey poster is available to be downloaded from the Survey website (see http://www.biology.ualberta.ca/bsc/english/scinfo.htm).

Dr. Roughley and Dr. Currie suggested that it would be useful to have a flag with the BSC logo that could be taken to various field sites across the country as a means of advertising the Survey. Hopefully photographs would be taken on site with the flag. Subsequently, the Directors of the Biological Survey Foundation met and approved the use of the logo for that purpose. Dr. Roughley will investigate having such a flag made.

26

6.2.8 BSC awardDr. Giberson noted that the first BSC postgraduate scholarship was awarded at the 2004 ESC

meeting to Ms. Zoë Lindo who is currently working on mites with Dr. Winchester. A notice was also put in the BSC newsletter to solicit more donations. The option of contributing is also on the ESC membership renewal form. She encouraged Committee members to make donations. Dr. Winchester said that Ms. Lindo had asked him to relay her thanks to the Survey. He added that she will acknowledge that support on a future poster presentation. Dr. Giberson thanked the ESC subcommittee that agreed to add the task of reviewing applications for this award to their mandate. The members of the subcommittee are Dr. Currie, Dr. Wheeler and Dr. David Larson. Dr. Wheeler added that he continues to be surprised that few students apply for the awards. He asked Committee members to encourage students to apply for the awards that they are qualified for and also to encourage them to take some care in preparing the applications.

Dr. Giberson also pointed out that most of the funding for the BSC scholarship had come from Dr. Danks’ trust fund.

6.2.9 Biodiversity sampling briefDr. Giberson reported that she had written to various people who expressed an interest in

preparing a chapter for an edited volume serving to revise the Survey’s sampling brief. She hopes to put together a proposal before contacting Dr. Patrice Bouchard about the possibility of including this as part of a revised handbook.

6.2.10 Naturalist publications and the Biological SurveyDr. Marshall commented that, as indicated on the agenda, the e-journal is now really the

heart of this item. The book that he has been working on is in progress and hopefully will be published by the end of the year. The working title is Insects of Northeastern North America, published by Firefly Press.

Dr. Currie explained that the Royal Ontario Museum would still like to do a guide book on insects. One of the obstacles is to find somebody with the interest, expertise and time to take on such a project. He commented on an attractive publication on damselflies that was recently published (Lam, E. 2004. Damselflies of the northeast: a guide to the species of eastern Canada and the northeastern United States. Biodiversity Books, Forest Hills, NY. 96 pp.). Dr. Marshall commented that there are a number of Odonate publications, including an atlas, several newsletters and regional guides including a guide by Mr. Ian Carmichael who recently died. Mr. Carmichael was the author of several illustrated guides. A photo-rich web site on the Syrphidae of Ontario should soon be complete.

Dr. Glen Wiggins recently published a book called Caddisflies: The Underwater Architects, co-published with The University of Toronto Press, the Royal Ontario Museum and NRC Press. It has been receiving positive reviews.

Dr. Winchester commented that Dr. Rob Canning’s book on dragonflies of B.C. and the Yukon, which was published in 2002, sold 2500 copies and has recently undergone a second printing.

27

6.3 Monitoring of continuing priorities for work on Canadian faunas

6.3.1 Arthropod fauna of soilsDr. McCorquodale is working on a project on dairy pastures and a graduate student at

Dalhousie University, Mr. Aaron Mills, is looking at microarthopods in the soil. His focus is on the ecology of functional groups but Dr. McCorquodale is encouraging him to get proper identifications. Dr. Winchester’s work in ancient red cedar forests compares the soil and the canopy; the bulk of the diversity is in the soil. He has initiated extensive sampling programs to cover all the groups that are there. Dr. Giberson noted that at the Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada station in Charlottetown there is ongoing work on soil arthropods in agroecosystems, particularly comparing the effects on the soil fauna of different levels of agricultural intensity, such as integrated pest management fields vs. conventionally managed fields. They are collaborating with Dr. Behan-Pelletier to ensure proper identifications.

Dr. Olfert described a regional project involving arthropod fauna of soils associated with agroecosystems. This is an extension of the long-term alternate cropping study that is following the soil arthropods, comparing the populations found in the cropping systems to those in grasslands. Over the last number of years provincial governments have been promoting a green cover program where they pay farmers to put marginal land back to grasslands. There are four different succession types of grasslands – 15 years old, 40 years old, 70 year old and native. The succession of arthropods in these grasslands is being examined, in collaboration with plant ecologists who are characterizing the vegetation of each type.

Dr. Roy reported on two projects. One deals with turf grass, including different methods for sampling. New species of Collembola have been found there by a PhD student. Another student is working on Tipulidae who needs some assistance with identifications.

Dr. Danks noted that Dr. Behan-Pelletier had sent some information. The 56th annual Ohio State Acarology Summer Program will be conducted on the campus of the Ohio State University from June 20 to July 8, 2005. It will include a 2-week workshop on Introductory Acarology (June 20-June 25) and a 2-week workshop on Agricultural Acarology (June 27- July 8). Details of the program for 2005 and for future years (including 2006, 2007 and 2008) are posted at: http://www.biosci.ohio-state.edu/~acarolog/sum2k1.htm. The 12th International Congress of Acarology will be held in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, on 21-26 August 2006. See http://www.science.uva.nl/ibed/ica2006.

6.3.2 Arthropods of aquatic habitatsDr. Currie announced that the 4th edition of Merritt and Cummins’ Aquatic Insects of North

America is underway. Some Canadian researchers such as Dr. Andy Bennett, Dr. Roughley and Dr. Currie are contributing chapters. Dr. Marshall commented that the NHIC has recently contracted with Dr. Pat McCafferty to process 100,000 vials of mayflies currently housed at the Royal Ontario Museum.

6.3.3 Arthropods of the Queen Charlotte Islands (Haida Gwaii)

Dr. Winchester has been working with the species at risk biologist to try to do some sampling in this area. A first proposal was rejected because not enough species of concern were listed in the proposal. The project will be pursued, however, especially given the possibility of oil and gas

28

exploration there in the future. Some broad-based inventories along the coast might also be possible.

Dr. Scudder mentioned that Parks Canada had rejected Dr. Sylvan Allombert’s idea of doing a survey on the Queen Charlotte Islands but retains some interest.

6.3.4 Arthropod ectoparasites of vertebratesDr. Currie will have a new student looking at host parasite co-evolution using black flies as

the model. He will use a technique developed in Sweden to examine blood meals in adults and use DNA sequence data to identify the blood hosts. What black flies feed on in nature is known for less than a quarter of the species. Dr. Currie’s student will also be looking at primers for various blood parasites.

6.3.5 Arthropods of the YukonDr. Wheeler explained that Dr. Murray Humphries, a mammologist at McGill University, has

been studying the Yukon red squirrel. He now has a masters student, Mr. Troy Pretzlaw, who is looking at patterns of distribution in mammals at the northern limit of their range in the Yukon, and is sampling at closely spaced stations along a transect from south of Dawson north to the tundra. He is now also interested in the insect distribution patterns in the Yukon. This summer his assistant (who has also worked for Dr. Wheeler and Dr. Buddle) will run pitfall traps along that transect for most of the summer. Dr. Wheeler hopes that this will be the first year of a multi-year sampling program. Dr. Roughley noted the value of collecting some nest material for ectoparasite sampling.

Dr. Scudder mentioned that Mr. Syd Cannings has been trying to get data sets for arthropods in the Yukon. Drs. Krebs and Sinclair have studied the snowshoe hare cycle in Kluane for many years. One of the offshoots of that work is that a botanist is doing fertilization experiments with some of the ground flora, and pitfall trapping is associated with those experiments. Dr. Scudder is having the samples sorted to see if the changes in vegetation are mirrored in any of the ground-dwelling arthropods.

6.3.6 Arthropods of special habitatsDr. Giberson reported that work in salt marshes of Prince Edward Island is increasing again

with interest from the national park. The higher flies from earlier sampling are now at the CNC which will complete the identifications from the earlier study.

Dr. Sweeney noted that Dr. Reggie Webster will be surveying in all the salt marshes of New Brunswick for the endangered Maritime ringlet, the bog fritillary, the cobblestone tiger beetle and non-target beetles and Lepidoptera. Last year Dr. Webster did some sampling in fens where he found over 46 species of beetles and many staphylinids new to the province.

Dr. Winchester mentioned that he and Dr. Behan-Pelletier will be trying to organize a symposium on mites of special habitats for the 2006 International Congress of Acarology.

6.3.7 Small regional projectsDr. Wheeler reported that both he and Dr. Buddle are trying to accelerate work to document

arthropod diversity at the Mont St. Hilaire Biosphere Reserve. An article in the Forest

29

Arthropods newsletter reports some of Dr. Buddle’s work on beetles, spiders and ants. To date half of all ant species known from Quebec have been recorded from Mont St. Hilaire. As well Dr. Wheeler’s database of Diptera species now contains about 583 species from the reserve with many yet to be added. This site will continue to be a focus for faunistic and ecological work. Some of the faunistics work has been published in Fabreries. The ant list will be published in the Canadian Field-Naturalist.

6.3.8 AgroecosystemsDr. Olfert reported that the first year of a 3-year study, funded by the Prairie Farm

Rehabilitation Administration, to look at the impact of wood lots and shelter belts on agroecosystems recently finished. Five groups are involved, studying potato fields (PEI), blueberries (NS), soybean fields (ON), alfalfa (ON) and canola (SK). The same protocols are involved for each ecosystem.

Dr. Roughley’s students are doing grazing studies on plant diversity and arthropod diversity on the Yellow Quill Prairie. The historical use of this Nature Conservancy land has been grazing. Some of the systems are native prairie and others are agroecosystems.

Dr. Roy reported on two agroecosystems in Quebec where there has been no insecticide treatment and there are now two invasive species – the canola seedpod weevil and the soybean aphid. Provincial funding has been received to study some applied research aspects of these two pests as well as predators, parasitoids and other components of those ecosystems. Dr. Lloyd Dosdall will help set up the canola seed pod weevil work. Dr. Bob Vernon has a large study looking at the monitoring of cutworms and Dr. Charles Vincent and Dr. Roy will be monitoring these cutworms in Quebec. Another ongoing project on cutworms in vegetable crops aims to develop a diagnostic tool for people in the field. The pest diagnostic lab is doing a lot of identification work related to indigenous small fruit species now under cultivation.

7. Reports on regional developments of potential interest

7.1 British ColumbiaDr. Scudder reported that the University of British Columbia received an $8 million gift from

UBC alumni Ross and Trisha Beaty toward a biodiversity research centre that will include a museum of natural history to look after its collections. This enabled the University to keep the money received from the Canada Foundation for Innovation and the province. Mr. Beaty is insisting that all the collections must be publicly available, and therefore the plans are to have everything on display for the public. This will create serious problems for insect and other collections. Neither Dr. Scudder, who is the curator of the insect collection, nor the head of the fish collection, nor the head of the herbarium are on the organizing committee. Dr. Scudder has threatened to withdraw all of his material from the museum if these plans proceed. The museum is expected to open in the fall of 2007.

The conservation community (Ducks Unlimited, Nature Trust, Nature Conservancy and the Land Conservancy) has received $8 million as a result of some lobbying. Some of the funds ($360,000 per year) will be used to develop a provincial biodiversity strategy. Dr. Scudder is trying to get them to think about the fact that the current protected areas are not in the right place and may not be any use in the future. Dr. Scudder circulated maps of climate change scenarios

30

developed by the provincial forest genetics group, showing how the province will change. Dr. Scudder maintains that planning for the future is necessary to achieve biodiversity conservation.

The provincial government has put together a biodiversity status report in which all the species and threats have been mapped. Dr. Scudder provided data for that and ranked irreplaceability based on S-rankings and G-rankings. The maps will be connected to ranges using the Australian ANUCLIM. This program was run for the butterflies and predicts the current range potential for every butterfly and host plant.

The first edition of beetle families of British Columbia has been completed. The auditors of the research are Price Waterhouse Coopers and if requirements for the current fiscal year are satisfied funding may be received to do Diptera, Lepidoptera and endopterygotes.

E-Flora BC is an online atlas for all the BC vascular plants with descriptions, distributions, photos, etc. It has been decided to expand to an e-fauna and the first group to be treated will be dragonflies. Dr. Cannings has just finished work to map all the dragonflies in the province.

Dr. Scudder just finished the checklist and distribution for Heteroptera of the Northwest Territories and Nunavut, separating data previously combined for these two areas under NWT.

Burns Bog is the southernmost raised bog in the world. The provincial government, the federal government, Greater Vancouver and Delta contributed funds to purchase it from the private owners. There is a scientific advisory committee for Burns Bog restoration, and a conservation covenant on the bog states that it is to be restored to a functioning bog. The covenant is held by the federal government but the province has other plans such as putting a road through the top corner. There is an effort to raise the water table to prevent the bog from drying out. Research is predicting that future Vancouver climate will be wetter in the winter and drier in the summer. A variety of vegetation monitoring is planned and some animals such as corixids and dragonflies may be monitored as well. If the bog is restored to its original state some species will disappear. It is not publicly acceptable to remove trees, but these may die naturally. Dr. Scudder added that he met with a hydro official about the Burns bog. That official expressed concern about the impending crisis for hydro power when – as is predicted – all houses in Vancouver will have two computers as well as air conditioning.

The EMAN meeting in Penticton in November will include a CFS-sponsored symposium on alien species.

Dr. Winchester reiterated Dr. Richard Ring’s request for feedback about the new design, format and instructions to authors for the Canadian Entomologist. Dr. Winchester promised to pass on Dr. Wheeler’s comments about the inconsistency in the instructions to authors about voucher specimens.

At the University of Victoria only one entomology course is being offered. A proposal for a fourth-year course on aquatics and forest insects was turned down. Dr. Winchester continues his work from his time in Panama. There has been $100 million in federal funding related to the mountain pine beetle in B.C. There is a new professorship in conservation and restoration ecology at the University of Victoria in the faculty of social sciences. The Entomological Society of British Columbia is thriving and has a healthy budget, and a number of new graduate students have joined the Society. Dr. Rob Cannings, Royal British Columbia Museum, is now a member of the Arthropod SSC of COSEWIC, which is dealing mainly with dragonflies and tiger beetles as well as continuing on with butterflies and moths.

31

Mr. John Simaika, an honours student with Dr. Winchester and Dr. Cannings, has finished his thesis on the dragonflies Lestes disjunctus and L. forcipatus at Hamilton Marsh and a paper was published in the Journal of the Entomological Society of British Columbia. Dr. Cannings continues his survey of the Odonata of northern BC. Recently, updated and digitized distribution maps of BC dragonfly species were produced. A major report to the BC Habitat Conservation Trust Fund was submitted; the HCTF helped fund the survey over the past four years. Dr. Cannings and colleagues are going into the field this summer to survey the Nass Valley and Prince Rupert-Terrace-Kitimat regions. Along with Dr. Paul Catling and Mr. Paul Brunelle an annotated checklist of Odonata of Canada has been published. The list includes a presence/absence table of 208 Canadian species in each province and territory and gives conservation status ranks for each species in each jurisdiction (International Journal of Odonatology Vol. 9, 2005). Dr. Cannings is still involved with Dr. Scudder in writing the three-volume Insect families of British Columbia. Part 1 may be published this year.

The Royal British Columbia Museum has opened a new exhibit on climate change that includes computer models of potential biological changes resulting from different temperature changes.

Dr. Scudder reported that Okanagan University College will evolve into two new institutions, UBC Okanagan and Okanagan College, effective September 1, 2005. Apparently the academic courses, staff and faculty will migrate to UBC Okanagan and the technical courses will go to Okanagan College. The former University College of the Cariboo in Kamloops is now Thompson Rivers University.

7.2 PrairiesDr. Olfert reported that Saskatchewan and Alberta are celebrating their centennial this year.

The Entomological Society of Saskatchewan put together an historical perspective of the Society, which was circulated. Dr. Bob Randell who taught economic entomology at the University of Saskatchewan retired a year ago and has volunteered to curate the collections at the University and the holdings at Agriculture Canada’s Saskatoon station.

Dr. Roughley reported that activities at the Entomological Society of Manitoba continue unabated with enthusiasm for various projects. At the Manitoba Museum a curator responsible for both vertebrates and invertebrates has been hired. The University of Winnipeg has two entomologists now and over the last few years the University of Manitoba has lost two entomologists. The entomologist Mr. Bill Gallaway is a technician at Brandon University. A report on the Aweme Bioblitz was published in the grasslands newsletter.

Dr. Roughley has 2 new graduate students doing grasslands projects. Ms. Anita Stjernberg will study carabid and spider biodiversity in relation to grazing rotation. She will be looking at disturbance in both spring/summer- and summer-grazed sites in the Yellow Quill mixed grass prairie near Aweme. Ms. Andrea Patenaude will be studying bees at the same sites as well as in tall grass prairie in the same area.

Dr. Roughley is on the scientific advisory committee for the Nature Conservancy, providing a good connection for the grassland project. Dr. Roughley is also on the advisory committee of the St. Charles Rifle Range. This site has been turned over to the World Wildlife Fund for stewardship.

32

Dr. Langor announced that plans for the joint Entomological Society of Canada / Entomological Society of Alberta meeting , November 2-5, are on track. Dr. David Larson will be giving the heritage lecture. Dr. Chris Majerus will be the plenary speaker. Dr. Derek Sikes, University of Calgary, may be leaving Canada for another position. Dr. Sperling and Dr. Proctor continue to be busy with many new students. At the Canadian Forest Service Dr. Langor continues his work on Pissodes weevils. Mr. Greg Pohl has nearly completed his list of the Lepidoptera of Alberta. Mr. Scott Digweed is working on leaf and twig gall makers on burr oak across the prairie provinces. Databasing work continues for invasive species. A database for the collection of bryophytes and lichens at the Northern Forestry Centre will be online in a few months. The database of the scolytids is nearly complete. Many biodiversity projects are ongoing. Dr. Spence has new students: Mr. Dan Jensen will be working on saproxylic species at the EMEND site and Ms. Esther Kamunya will be working on Lepidoptera. The funding environment for biodiversity work in Alberta has improved over the last two years.

7.3 OntarioDr. Currie reported that at the Royal Ontario Museum all the science departments have been

amalgamated into one department called the Department of Natural History. The renovations and addition to the ROM are proceeding. Cladding will start this summer. Some galleries are due to open later this year. As part of the Renaissance ROM project the old planetarium site on the south end of the building will be redeveloped. A 36-storey building will be erected with luxury condominiums on the upper levels. There have recently been competitions for five new curatorships, two of which are in the Department of Natural History. One competition is for an invertebrate zoologist and another is for an invertebrate palaeontologist. Ms. Charmaine Condy successfully defended her masters thesis in January and may return in a year to work on a PhD. A new student, Mr. Julio Rivera, is working on biting flies. Mr. Mike Spiranello successfully defended his thesis proposal and is working on phylogeography of black flies.

The University of Toronto is also undergoing reorganization. The Department of Zoology probably will split into two or three departments. Dr. James Thomson, an aphid ecologist, has finished his tenure as chair of the department. Dr. Rob Baker, also an entomologist, has taken over that position.

Dr. Marshall commented that despite drastic budget cuts at the University of Guelph, expansion of the insect collection is continuing. Several new students will start next winter. An Ontario Biodiversity Strategy was released this past winter. There were two meetings and a complex web site was set up for reviewers. Dr. Marshall spent much time posting comments about the need to incorporate inventory and systematics in the strategy, only to find that the comments disappeared from the web site with no response. Dr. Marshall found the system frustrating and like some other reviewers soon gave up on it. The draft biodiversity strategy was released and is posted on the web (see http://www.obs-sbo.ca/). The strategy includes some comments about supporting taxonomy, but does not say that in the five-year strategy there will be an all-species inventory in Ontario. Dr. Marshall’s various survey projects in places such as Rondeau Provincial Park, dune grasslands, Point Pelee, and Bruce Peninsula continue even though none is being funded. A project on rare Orthoptera is ongoing and another on rare Hemiptera was just completed. Several taxonomic revisions are being done.

33

Dr. Giberson announced that Dr. Currie’s book on the Black Flies of North America won the Association of American Publishers Award for best single-volume reference in the sciences for 2004.

Dr. Shorthouse reported that at Laurentian University Dr. Yves Alarie continues his study of larvae of dytiscids, especially on Manitoulin Island and islands in the St. Lawrence River. Dr. Alarie’s PhD student will be working in Cuba. Dr. Shorthouse’s graduate student recently completed work on cynipid galls. Mr. Mike Bodnar is doing an MSc with an Northern Science Training Program grant. He will be going to Fort Albany to study gall formers in the northern rivers where large rafts of vegetation are carried north to areas where they would not normally grow. A diamond mine is creating much interest in the Hudson Bay lowlands because there is talk of building a highway from Timmins to that area. The area has been opened up already because there are now more flights there. Laurentian University was appraised for a PhD program in boreal ecology last March. Over the last 3 years the department has been able to hire nine new faculty members. There had been concern that new hires in the Biology Department would be medically oriented. Dr. Shorthouse takes over as department chair in July and will continue to support whole organism biology.

7.4 QuebecDr. Roy reported that the Joint Meeting of the International Organization for Biological

Control – Nearctic Regional Section (IOBC-NRS) and the Biocontrol Network of Canada will be held in Magog, Quebec, May 8-11, 2005. The conference will be followed by a summer school intended for graduate students and postdoctoral fellows interested in biological control. The topic this year will be trophic and guild interactions in biological control. It is being organized by Dr. Jacques Brodeur and Dr. Guy Boivin. Dr. Roy explained that her first graduate student has just completed her masters degree. She worked on soybean aphids and was recently hired by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency in Montreal. The Plant Protection Diagnostic laboratory now has a web site and it has received 66,000 hits over the first year. Apparently the web site has resulted in an increase of requests for identifications. 700 people have subscribed to a feature that advises when new material is posted on that web site. Fact sheets to diagnose biology and monitoring techniques for agricultural insects have been produced. Dr. Jacques Brodeur is leaving Laval University for a position at l’Université de Montréal. His position at Laval will not be filled. The departures of Dr. Brodeur and Dr. Jeremy McNeil and the impending retirement of Dr. Conrad Cloutier mean that there will be no more agricultural entomologists at l’Université Laval. However, there is some pressure to have at least one entomologist hired in the Agriculture Department.

Dr. Wheeler reported that at the Lyman Museum, Ms. Stephanie Boucher is on maternity leave. Ms. Hirondelle Varady-Szabo has been hired as acting curator while Ms. Boucher is on leave. Ms. Marjolaine Giroux continues to work on sarcophagids and will be working in Copenhagen this summer. Mr. Duncan Selby is finishing his masters on cecidomyiid gall midges at Mont St. Hilaire. Dr. Wheeler and Dr. Robert Anderson are co-supervising Ms. Beth Reichert who is working on weevils as potential biocontrol agents of vines in Hawaii. This past year seven undergraduate students volunteered to work in the Lyman Museum doing curation and databasing work. Dr. Chris Buddle has about 6 graduate students doing forest arthropod biodiversity work, especially in the Abitibi region and also at McGill field stations at Mont St. Hilaire and the Molson Reserve and Arboretum. The connections between that insect ecology lab

34

and the Lyman are quite fruitful. The Lyman archival scanning project continues with digitizing old published entomological taxonomic literature. Ms. Boucher had been receiving inquiries to give advice to the Morin Heights Black Fly Festival (north of Montreal). This event includes such events as a biting tolerance contest. In curriculum-based developments, the Department of Natural Resource Sciences in collaboration with the McGill-United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) has a newly approved graduate program in environmental assessment. This non-thesis masters program is aimed at giving policy people some science courses. There is also a new graduate program in entomology in the neotropical environments program offered jointly between the McGill School of Environment and the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI) in Panama. The Department of Natural Resource Sciences teaches an introductory entomology course in the fall at the downtown campus of McGill and has had a request from the Biology Department to add a second section of that course in the winter because so many students have enrolled in the course.

The Université de Montréal again advertised a position in systematic entomology but was unable to hire anyone. At Université du Québec à Montréal, Dr. Tim Work is working on forest arthropod biodiversity projects, including some collaborations with McGill, Laval and the Laurentian Forestry Centre. At Bishops University, Dr. Jade Savage has completed her first year of teaching and is setting up her laboratory. Early planning is underway for the ESC-SEQ joint meeting in Montreal in 2006. Dr. Charles Vincent is taking the lead in organizing the meeting and Dr. Wheeler is the program chair.

Dr. Landry announced that the next issue of Fabreries will contain a faunistic revision of the beetle family Cleridae for Quebec with colour plates. The current editor, Mr. François Génier has indicated he may not keep that position beyond this year.

Dr. Landry reminded the Committee that a group gathered last fall at Mont St. Hilaire with the intention of identifying as many specimens of mainly microlepidoptera as possible towards a volume 2 of the Lepidoptera of Quebec. A publisher has already agreed to publish such a volume. It is hoped that this might happen within 5 years. Another meeting in mid-November included about 30 people from Quebec as well as Dr. Landry and Dr. Don Lafontaine, and many specimens were identified. The group is very active in trying to survey Lepidoptera in Quebec especially microlepidoptera.

7.5 Newfoundland and Labrador and MaritimesDr. Giberson reported that she is co-supervising with Dr. Christine Noronha a student

working on the European corn borer, which has become a potato pest on Prince Edward Island. Another student may soon start aquatic studies in Nova Scotia. Dr. Sandy Walde, Dalhousie University, is a former aquatic entomologist who subsequently went on to other things but is now returning to entomology. She is supervising a PhD student doing work on stoneflies. There are two students in aquatic entomology at the University of New Brunswick in Fredericton, working with Dr. Joseph Culp at the Rivers Institute. One is studying Odonata, the other is working on streams across the region.

The joint ESC/AES meeting last fall was a success; 235 people were registered. Dr. Giberson expressed her gratitude to all the people who took the old reference books that she set out at that meeting. The 2005 Acadian Entomological Society meeting will be held June 19-21 in Fredericton. Dr. Giberson circulated some information from the AES web site. Dr. Giberson

35

credits Dr. Rick West for improving that site. The AES includes entomologists from the state of Maine, which is holding a Coleoptera blitz on July 16-17. The online journal of the AES is officially running and accepting papers although nothing has yet been published/posted. The journal will focus on regional papers. Mr. Chris Majka, Nova Scotia Museum, has been working with Dr. McCorquodale to identify the beetles of the Atlantic provinces – see http://www.chebucto.ns.ca/Environment/NHR/atlantic_coleoptera.html.

Dr. McCorquodale reported that Mr. Majka has applied for funding for a project with Ms. Zoe Lucas to look at insects on Sable Island. Mr. Majka has contributed chapters to an EMAN book on Atlantic Maritime Ecozones. Dr. McCorquodale is a co-author. The publication will also have a dytiscid chapter as well a Hemiptera chapter by Dr. Scudder. Mr. Majka is also working with Dr. Tatiana Rossolimo at Dalhousie University running pitfall traps for carabids. Some collecting is being done in Halifax as well as in Kejimkujik National Park. The black-headed budworm has become an issue on the Cape Breton Highlands. It is eating balsam fir trees and because of the economic impact has received media attention. The Canadian Forest Service will be doing some Bacillus thuringiensis trials and looking at some of the ecological effects.

Dr. Sweeney mentioned that white marked tussock moth and hemlock looper are also potential pest problems in the Maritimes. Some funds have been received to continue work for control of the balsam fir sawfly in Newfoundland. Dr. Dan Quiring has a number of graduate students working on population ecology in sawflies and aspen gallers. A new entomologist in Newfoundland, Dr. Krista Ryall, will be doing some work in the highlands. Dr. Sweeney continues his work on the red spruce longhorn beetle. This year some of the staphylinids and carabids sampled five years after the harvest will be processed. Drs. Georgette Smith, Ed Hurley and Ken Harrison have started an exotic bark beetle survey in different Maritime locations, generating new provincial records for some cerambycids and a new Canadian record for a scolytid.

7.6 Arctic Dr. Currie reported that last year he and Dr. Peter Adler went to the westernmost tip of

Alaska – areas near Nome and Bethel. Western Alaska is far more rich in blackflies than previously supposed. Dr. Currie and Dr. Adler plan to visit Chukotka in 2005. The logistics for the trip are proving difficult. Dr. Currie will visit Norman Wells for a short period to start what is hoped to be a multi-year initiative to survey the biting flies in the Sahtu land claims area, which stretches from Norman Wells to the Beaufort Sea.

Dr. Giberson reported that she had put a query in the last issue of the Biological Survey newsletter asking people to contact her if they were doing work in the Arctic. The goal was to prepare a short article on who is doing what in the Arctic. No response has been received. However, a contact from Nunavut sent Dr. Giberson a copy of a permit application from Ms. Julie Turgeon for molecular systematics work on chironomids of ponds on Bylot Island. Dr. Giberson speculated that a way to learn about northern research would be to contact the northern research institutes. Anybody who gets NSERC funding needs permits, another source of information. This year’s Criddle Award winner is a Lepidopterist who works on arctic Lepidoptera. Dr. Jade Savage has funding to do work in northern Quebec and in Nunavut.

Dr. Wheeler explained that the NSERC northern supplement has been reinstated and can be applied for along with a discovery grant.

36

Dr. John Small won the Herzberg medal for his work in the arctic on paleoecology as it applies to global climate change.

8. General operations of the Biological Survey Secretariat Dr. Danks reported that before he went to Japan he completed his tour of western Canada and

gave a number of seminars.

A report to the Executive Council of the Entomological Society of Canada was recently prepared and submitted. A copy was circulated.

Dr. Danks explained that he had worked for 4.3 months in Japan at the Research Institute for Bioresources in Kurashiki. With more time to concentrate on research he was able to finish some manuscripts in progress, as well as to prepare two new reviews on seasonal adaptations. He had originally hoped to develop a laboratory project but this did not prove possible for several reasons, including the level of English (which prevented detailed discussions), the short period of time, and the fact that it was winter. Therefore, he spent time also visiting other institutions to give lectures and hold discussions, as well as making a symposium presentation at a meeting in Tokyo. The meeting was in Japanese but he was able to hold many discussions in English outside the formal talks. A colleague in Kyoto had recently received a major grant for a centre of excellence in entomology. Dr. Danks was invited to be an International Advisor for that initiative. Another spin off occurred in the Education faculty in Kochi where Dr. Danks and his colleague tested the effectiveness of slow lectures in English to graduate students, as well as lectures with simultaneous translation to senior and junior level undergraduates. This successful system was submitted for an innovative teaching award and although it did not win that submission increased the profile of the work within the University. Dr. Danks summarized his conclusion that the trip was an informative and interesting experience.

Dr. Danks explained that because of the renewal of the VMMB all budgets at the Museum have been reduced. The Survey’s budget is less than half the usual amount. Usually more than half of the Survey’s budget is used to fund the two Scientific Committee meetings, and therefore the BSC will not be able to fund a meeting in conjunction with the ESC annual meeting in Canmore. Dr. Danks wondered if some sort of meeting or subcommittee meetings could be held in Canmore nevertheless for those members who will be there anyway. There was general consensus among the Committee members present that those who are planning to attend the ESC meeting would be able to stay an extra night at their own expense to attend a BSC meeting. Dr. Danks thought that the abbreviated meeting would be feasible if the agenda was kept to a minimum. Dr. Langor confirmed that the ESC/ESA could assist by providing a meeting room. Dr. Wheeler noted that many people who teach would need to leave as soon as possible, and he reminded Committee members that they have to drive from Canmore to Calgary to get flights. He suggested dealing only with current priorities and holding the entire meeting on the last afternoon. Dr. Giberson suggested that subcommittees could meet at lunch prior to the Scientific Committee meeting. Dr. Shorthouse concluded that the proposed meeting in Canmore is feasible and would be beneficial to the Committee’s operations.

9. Liaison with other organizationsThere was no further information to report.

37

10. Annual report to the CMNThe Committee agreed that the draft annual report (distributed with the agenda) should be

updated appropriately by the Secretariat and submitted to the Museum through the Entomological Society of Canada.

11. Date of next meetingAs discussed in item 8, the next meeting will be held the afternoon (and perhaps the evening

too) of Saturday, November 5 in Canmore, Alberta.

12. AdjournmentThe meeting was adjourned at 2:50 p.m.

38