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January 1, 2009

Toronto Entomologists’ Association
Toronto, Ontario Canada

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Next Meeting

Saturday November 28, 2009 Room 206 Victoria College
SPIDERS OF ONTARIO

Tom Mason
Tom is the Curator of Invertebrates and Birds at the Toronto Zoo. He has led our annual spider outing at Blackwater now for several years, a true test of his enthusiasm for the subject. The few spider identification resources assume the researcher will be dissecting the spider to identify it. Tom, however, will give us a general overview of arachnids and some guidelines on how to identify them without bothering them.

All our meetings are open to the public. public. Except as noted below, they are held at 1:15 p.m. on the 4th Saturday of the month in Room 206 of Victoria College. This is across Queen's Park Crescent from the ROM -- see building "VC" on the University of Toronto map. If you are arriving by subway, get off at the Museum subway stop and cross the street. Please join us!

Non-TEA Activities and News

New (2009) publication about butterfies and their conservation: Sentinels on the Wing: The Status and Conservation of Butterflies in Canada

Summer 2010: 6th International Conference on the Biology of Butterflies is coming to the University of Alberta.

Help Insect Artists, Researchers and Authors

Involved in insect/spider conservation?: if so, please answer these survey questions from TEA member R. Harvey Lemelin of Lakehead University.

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.

 

Moth data needed : TEA member Dave Beadle seeks observations of moth species, even from our backyards, to help him prepare a new Peterson field guide to the moths of northeastern North America.

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 All-Leps site.

Send in Your Latest Records

To keep our Seasonal Summaries coming, we need your records. Previous years' records that have not yet been submitted are also welcome, so that they can be added to the provincial level atlas databases.

Lepidoptera: Colin Jones and Ross Layberry, Editors and Compilers of Ontario Lepidoptera, solicit records, notes, articles and photographs. See this link for more information on the summary and how to submit records, and here is a downloadable records template.

Odonata: Colin Jones and Paul Catling, Editors and Compilers of Ontario Odonata, seek records, notes, articles and photographs. For more information on the summary, how to submit records, and a downloadable records template, see this link or contact.

News

Adrienne Brewster is the new executive director of the Wings of Paradise butterfly conservatory in Cambridge, taking over from Doug Wilson. See the newspaper report.

Daniel Antwi-Amoabeng of Brock University is the recipient of the TEA's John Eberlie Research Travel Award for 2009.

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.

New 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 2003 are also available.

Our Latest Publications

Ontario Lepidoptera 2008 is to be published in November 2009: the latest of our butterfly and moth summaries.

Ontario Odonata Volume 7 (2005), 226 pages, published November 2007: our dragonfly and damselfly summary.

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.