Next Meeting

Meetings are over for the summer. The next meeting is September 22. In the meantime, there are many field trips and insect counts happening over the summer -- see the links on the left side of this page.

 Takes Flight!
Try out www.ebutterfly.ca, a website for entering and displaying butterfly records put together by Maxim Larrivée of the University of Ottawa and launched on April 1. The TEA is one of the sponsoring organizations. All Ontario data will be provided to the TEA seasonal summaries and butterfly atlas project, so “eButterfly” provides an alternative way to store and submit your data. The hope is that this will be easier than entering the data yourself on a spreadsheet, as his site saves each person’s own past butterfly monitoring sites and allows the species observed to be checked off from a provincial species list.

Keep in mind that all records submitted to eButterfly are plotted as exact points on the publicly-accessible eButterfly maps, unless you specifically ask for the data to be recorded as “sensitive” or “confidential.” This may be important if you are submitting records of endangered species or you are reporting data from areas for which there is no public access.

Soon there will be system whereby each person submitting records receives by email a copy of the records submitted.

Pay special note to submitting Red Admiral observations, as the plan is for eButterfly to track their movement north from Pelee "as it happens" -- similar to "Journey North" for monarch butterflies. There was one report of a Red Admiral in Toronto on March 31!

Other Insect Activities and News

In late March 2012 many updates of the online butterfly atlas of Ontario were made. Access the atlas here. A hard copy is in the plans after all seasonal summary data back to 1969 has been included.

Jessica Linton's 42-page report The Butterflies of Waterloo Region was published in January 2012. The price is $5 for members and $7 for non-members, plus postage.

Butterfly Festival, Tommy Thomson Park, Toronto. 2012 date is August 25, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.

"The Butterflies of Toronto", a free 68-page full-colour soft-cover booklet authored by a group including several TEA members,was released in mid-September 2011. Copies are to available from public libraries in Toronto, but as of the time of writing (end of November) this has not yet happened. While stocks last, we will mail copies to members outside Toronto copies for a small mailing charge (inquire here).

For a list of general nature events in Ontario, see Richard Aaron's page.

Read more Ontario insect news: see the December 2011 newsletter of the Entomological Society of Ontario. See especially the article on naturalizing the environmentally damaged areas around the nickel smelters near Sudbury. Also see the December 2011 newsletter of the Entomological Society of Canada.

A noteworthy publication about butterflies and their conservation: Sentinels on the Wing: The Status and Conservation of Butterflies in Canada

Records needed for seasonal summaries

Do you have butterfly and/or odonate (dragonfly and damselfly) records that you would like to submit to the annual provincial summaries? The Toronto Entomologists’ Association (T.E.A.) produces two annual summaries (Ontario Lepidoptera and Ontario Odonata) that serve to compile and summarize the records of these insect groups across the province of Ontario. These publications also serve as a forum for notes and articles on aspects of biology, distribution, behaviour, survey work, etc. Photographs are also welcome, especially of significant records.

The Editors and Compilers of Ontario Lepidoptera are currently soliciting records, notes, articles and photographs from the 2011 season. More information on the summary, how to submit records, and a downloadable records template can be found at this link or by contacting either Colin Jones (colin.jones@ontario.ca Tel 705-755-2166) or Ross Layberry (rosslayberry@yahoo.com). Submissions are being accepted until January 31, 2012.

The Editors and Compilers of Ontario Odonata are currently soliciting records, notes, articles and photographs from the 2006-2011 seasons. The plan is to combine the records from these years into a single volume with a new format. More information on the summary, how to submit records, and a downloadable records template can be found at this link or by contacting Colin Jones (colin.jones@ontario.caTel: 705-755-2166). Submissions are being accepted until January 31, 2012.

The editors and compilers of both summaries are also interested in receiving any and all records from previous years that have not yet been submitted so that they can be added to the atlas databases.

Past Lepidoptera summaries from 1969 to 2006-07 are available for download at this link.

Georeferencing Your Data: If you're browsing Google Maps and want to know the coordinates of a location, just right-click on the map and select "What's here?". The coordinates will automatically pop up in the search box.

News

Raise or collect monarch butterflies or swallowtails? Anyone who is involved in these activities needs a permit. Contact us if you are a TEA member and want to be covered by the club's permit.

When TEA member Nathan Miller was a summer naturalist in Algonquin, he took a keen interest in the local bumble bees, taking photos and making extensive notes and records. All of this information has now been gathered into “The Bumble Bees of Algonquin Provincial Park: A Field Guide,” which was published in November 2010 by the TEA in co-operation with Ontario Parks. This is a handsome work of 24 full-sized 8 ½” by 11” pages, almost all of which carry full-colour illustrations of the different species and their identifying marks. The guide is sold through the TEA and in the Algonquin Park bookstore. The price is $10 at a meeting, and $12 for mailing to Canadian addresses. Member prices are lower. Inquire here.

Photos Needed for "Butterflies of Ontario"

The Royal Ontario Museum is preparing a field guide to the Butterflies of Ontario. It is seeking images of adult butterflies, chrysalyses and caterpillars for each species recorded from Ontario (see April 2011 list). Images of specimens in their natural habitat are preferred. 

You must have copyright of any images that you submit and photographers will be credited appropriately if an image is used in this field guide. Submission of images does not guarantee that they will be used. Please indicate if remuneration for use of your image(s) is required.

If you have images that you would like to submit for consideration, please contact Brad Hubley at bradh@rom.on.ca or at 416-586-5764.

Spiders of Ontario Talk is Online

Metro Zoo curator Tom Mason's powerpoint presentation "Spiders of Ontario" from our November 2009 meeting is now available. See this link.

Help Insect Artists, Researchers and Authors

Volunteers needed: We are seeking to build a network of volunteers to help us survey butterflies in 13 regions that our previous research is predicting will be most impacted by global changes. The goal is to develop long term monitoring of these 13 regions and build a website through which Canadian lepidopterists share and view their observations. Contact Maxim Larrivée of the Department of Biology of the University of Ottawa at mlarrive@uottawa.ca or (613) 562-5800 x2594.

Do you have an old insect collection you are not using? Amy Swartz of Toronto is looking for dead insects, including pinned ones, that she can make into works of art. She has a Master of Fine Art degree and teaches at the Toronto School of Art. She has done 64 insect pieces so far (see picture below) and she would like to do more. She will pay for shipment costs.

larger version

Tiger moth study. Specimens, data and photos of the Spotted tussock moth (L. maculata) are sought by Ken Strothkamp, Lewis & Clark College, Oregon.

Be a pollinator observer: Pollination Canada is looking for people who will record pollinator types and numbers repeatedly at a specific location. Observations can be for as little as 10 minutes at a time. TEA members would be a great fit for this research task.

DNA barcoding: Paul Hebert of the University of Guelph is leading a research group which is attempting to identify all lepidoptera species through a segment of their DNA. For this purpose, he needs to obtain up to 5 specimens of each species. For details on the species needed, see the Excel spreadsheet, which is derived from Paul Hebert's Barcode of Life site.

Other News

Alan Hanks writes: I am reducing my entomological library. Many fine books available at good prices. For a list by printed copy or Excel file, email me or write me at Alan J. Hanks, 34 Seaton Drive, Aurora, Ontario L4G 2K1.

Book by member Colin Jones: Field Guide to the Dragonflies and Damselflies of Algonquin Provincial Park, released October 2008.

Many older TEA publications are now available for free download on our publications page. This includes all back issues of our annual seasonal summary other than the two most recent issues -- over 2,000 pages of observations spanning more than 30 years. Copies of our Ontario Insects newsjournal from 1994 to 2005 are also available.

Our Latest Publications

Ontario Lepidoptera 2009 appeared in print in November 2010: the latest of our butterfly summaries; moths are also included in years when a volunteer is available.

The Bumble Bees of Algonquin Provincial Park: A Field Guide -- also new November 2010.

Checklist of the Butterflies of the Toronto Region, 3rd edition, 2007. Inlcudes flight seasons. Compiled by Barry Harrison. Available as a free download.

See the publications page for details.

Our Association

The Toronto Entomologists' Association (T.E.A.) welcomes everyone who is interested in the insects of Ontario. We are an association of mostly amateur entomologists. Although our meetings are held in Toronto, we extend far beyond that in our field trips, our membership, and our seasonal summaries. Come to our meetings, join us on our field trips, purchase our publications, apply for the research grant, join us! The T.E.A. is a registered charity and a non-profit educational and scientific organization formed to promote interest in insects, to encourage co-operation among amateur and professional entomologists, to educate and inform non-entomologists about insects, entomology and related fields, to aid in the preservation of insects and their habitats and to issue publications in support of these objectives.

Membership in the TEA

Anyone with an interest in insects is encouraged to join the Toronto Entomologists' Association. Please see our Membership Page for more details.

Did You Know?

TEA member Don Davis holds the Guiness Record for documenting the "longest migration of a butterfly." A monarch he tagged and released at Presqu'ile Provincial Park near Brighton, Ontario in September 1986 was recovered alive the following April at Austin, Texas, having spent the winter in Mexico at the overwintering sites.

Stay in Touch!

We can send you regular emails about coming activities -- join the list. You will be informed of meetings, insect counts, and field trips.