Affiliated Organizations
A non-profit organization with the same general objects as the Society may apply for affiliation with the Society. Applications approved by the Governing Board shall be voted on by the Active Members.
The Biological Survey of Canada
The Biological Survey of Canada (BSC) is an organization that helps to coordinate scientific research among specialists on the Canadian biota. Membership in the BSC is free, and members form a network of scientists who collaborate on projects to acquire and disseminate information about Canada’s flora and fauna. The concept of the BSC arose from discussions within the ESC in the 1970s that led to a series of contracts from the federal government of Canada. In 1980, the BSC gained a home in the National Museum of Natural Sciences (later renamed the Canadian Museum of Nature) which, from 1982, funded the BSC’s secretariat. This arrangement ceased in 2010, and in anticipation BSC assumed its current guise of a not-for profit organization with its own board of directors.
Although the BSC has a broader mandate than arthropods, arthropods have been a focus throughout its existence, and ESC and members of the Society have been involved in BSC activities. The BSC holds its annual meeting in conjunction with the ESC, and ESC and BSC together are the publishers of the Canadian Journal of Arthropod Identification, for which ESC has editorial responsibility. Among the most significant of BSC recent achievements is the 2019 publication of The Biota of Canada: Terrestrial Arthropods, which provides an invaluable update on the BSC’s 1979 publication, Canada and its insect fauna, allowing comparisons of biodiversity knowledge over an interval of 40 years. Another recent BSC product, also with heavy involvement of ESC members, is the four volume set, Arthropods of Canadian Grasslands.
For details of these and other publications, including more information about the history of BSC, visit the BSC website.
This post is also available in: Français
© Copyright – Entomological Society of Canada