With four oral presentations and two posters, the lab was well-represented at the virtual annual meeting of the Quebec entomology society this year (25 November 2021).

Élisée Emmanuel Dabré (PhD student) presented the results of his experiments, examining the effects of bacterial and fungal root inoculation on the soybean aphid and its natural enemies.

Malek Kalboussi (MSc student) presented on her progress developing low-cost high-throughput insect DNA barcoding methods, particularly in the choice of DNA extraction protocols and mini barcode primers.

Mehdi Ouazzani Touhami (MSc intern) presented the results from his study of scuttle fly diversity at the Laurentian Biology Research Station.

Gaspard Tanguay-Labrosse (BSc student) presented the circadian rhythm of the ensemble of parasitoid wasp diversity in a forested landscape.

Amélie Quésnel‘s (BSc student) poster described some of that parasitoid diversity studied by Gaspard and the interactive identification key she has developed. The key, not destined for publication, is critical for our research so that lab members can classify future samples into the same groups.

Catherine Hébert‘s (BSc student) poster presented the results of 48-hour bioblitz that took place in an urban park this past summer. Her study focussed on bee diversity in particular. For her fine work, Catherine was awarded the best student poster award: bravo Catherine!

During the virtual banquet following the first day of presentations, Étienne Normandin (collection manager) was awarded the Léon Provancher prize for outstanding contributions to Quebec entomology, not least of which is his magnificent field guide. Many congratulations, Étienne!

Three undergraduate students presented excellent posters at the annual meeting of the Entomological Society of Quebec.

Boasting the largest assembly of entomologists the world had ever seen, The International Congress of Entomology was held in Orlando, Florida, USA, during the last week in September 2017. During the symposium, Colin and hosted and he and Thomas Théry presented at the Synthesis in Sternorrhyncha Systematics symposium. Auxiliary meetings were held in conjunction with the ICE, and Colin presented at the meetings of the International Aphid Genomics Consortium and the Entomological Collections Network.

The full program for the symposium, Synthesis in Sternorrhyncha Systematics, has now been approved! The symposium will take place at the International Congress of Entomology in Orlando, Florida, the afternoon of September 29. It will bring together systematists working at all different levels (fossils, morphology, phylogenetics, speciation, and more) on all four groups of Sternorrhyncha (aphids, psyllids, scale insects, whiteflies).

OBJECTIVES and DESCRIPTION Various Sternorrhyncha taxa are important research models for speciation and host-parasite-associated evolution (both plant-insect and insect-endosymbiont), display interesting biological phenomena such as host alternation and polyphenism, and are among the most important crop pests, especially as vectors of plant diseases. Many insect systematists associate at the ordinal or other higher taxonomic level, e.g., the International Society of Hymenopterists, the International Heteropterists’ Society, and the North American Dipterists’ Society. In contrast, systematists working on Sternorrhyncha have tended to aggregate at lower taxonomic levels: e.g., the International Symposium on Aphids and the International Symposium on Scale Insect Studies. The proposed symposium seeks to assemble systematists to share the latest scientific developments in the four major Sternorrhyncha taxa. We will cross the taxonomic borders of our respective groups, exchange ideas, and develop synergies for addressing evolutionary and systematic questions that encompass all the Sternorrhyncha. An explicit aim of the symposium will be to publish a review paper describing the past, present, and future of Sternorrhyncha systematics.

Keynote talks bracketing the symposium will present the systematics, evolution, and fossil history of the Sternorrhyncha. Other oral presentations will highlight the current systematic knowledge of the four major Sternorrhyncha taxa, aphids, psyllids, scale insects, and whiteflies, including their evolution, phylogeny, and classification. Posters will present more focused topics.

The Joint Annual Meeting took place in Montreal the 8th to the 11th of November. Four lab members presented their work.

Pedro Paulo Castro-Grillo, an undergraduate student in his last year, presented a poster on his work on hickory Phylloxera. You can view his poster on line: Poster_Phylloxera_Jam_2015.

Thomas Théry presented the results of the first chapter of his PhD thesis: Multiple introductions of the Monterey pine aphid, Essigella california (Essig, 1909).

Étienne Normandin, Manager of the Ouellet-Robert Entomological Collection, presented recent work in the collection, especially regarding a specimen inventory and a quantitative conservation profile of the collection. He also took the opportunity to present other activities, including his work on a new guide to the insects of Quebec: Thinking differently for insect collections: Profiling data, inventory, and outreach projects.

Colin Favret helped with the organization of the meeting, participating on the scientific committee, and co-organizing a symposium, “Arthropodod biodiversity informatics in the Anthropocene”. During the symposium, he presented his work on machine vision insect identification:Increased taxon sample and dataset size in automated insect identification.