Nouvelles
Just a reminder…Summer does not last long here in Canada, so if there are any insects you have missed so far this year, now is the time to get out and find them!
Spiders may not bite, but that doesn’t mean you can’t get them to drink your blood! All you need is a sunset at the beach, hordes of mosquitoes, a spider, and some frustration to take out.
The other night, I was unwinding with an evening of wasp and bee photography at Iona beach, but the flight conditions were great for mosquitoes. They kept interrupting my shots of this lovely Tetragnatha laboriosa, so I decided to share the wealth.
Trapping the mosquito against my skin, I released it in the sweet spot of the web.
You can see the movement of the wrapping action, as I was also dragging the shutter to get some light in the darkening sky.
I was looking forward to a great splash of blood as the spider bit in!
This is about as good as it got however, but I am sure the spider will appreciate the extra protein already in liquid form.
This one is pretty cool too…
The mozzies kept biting, so I kept tossing them into the web.
I kept the spider busy wrapping up her gifts for quite a while.
When we both had had enough, I headed home, feeling itchy, but satisfied that I had at least achieved the fattening up of a cool tetragnathid.
The Editorial Board of The Canadian Entomologist (TCE) welcomes the comments that we receive from readers and authors. We take these comments seriously and implement appropriate changes when possible. We are pleased to announce three such changes that will further improve the speed, quality and flexibility of the service provided by TCE.
- Simplified submission requirement. Authors previously were required to submit papers with abstracts in both French and in English. Although they can still do so, authors now need only submit an abstract in the language of the submitted paper; i.e., French or English. This change eliminates delays associated with having abstracts translated, which will accelerate manuscript publication.
- New open access option. Although TCE has no page charges, there has always been a subscription fee. As of 2014, authors now have the option of paying a one-time open access (OA) fee. Payment of the OA fee makes articles freely available as soon as they are published online to anyone with internet access.
- More content. Elimination of page charges has increased submissions to the journal, with a consequence increase in the number of papers being accepted for publication. In response, TCE is expanding its content by 10%. This equates to an annual increase of 72 pages, or approximately 1-2 additional papers per issue.
In addition to the above changes, there are several other items that may be of interest. ‘Instructions to Authors’ were revised in March of this year. Revisions include instructions for the submission of ‘Supplementary Material’ and a link to third-party services that specialize in language editing.
You also may wish to read “Open access, predatory publishers, The Canadian Entomologist, and you”. This article appears in the Bulletin of the ESC (Sept. 2013, p. 131), and examines issues that should be interest to anyone publishing in scientific journals.
In closing, we note that Dr. Chris Buddle (McGill University, Montreal, QC) will be completing his tenure as Editor-in-Chief this fall. Dr. Kevin Floate (Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Lethbridge, AB) is the incoming Editor-in-Chief.
We thank you, the authors and readers, for making TCE an ongoing success.
Chris Buddle
Kevin Floate
Last night I went for a ramble at Iona Beach in Richmond BC, looking for insects and inspiration in the sand dunes. I knew the sunset would be pretty, as there was a bit of light wispy cloud in the west, so I hurried out to the end of the beach where restoration efforts hadn’t ripped up the ground.
I found my subjects attaching themselves to twigs and vegetation, bedding down for the night.
Coelioxys spp. (Megachilidae) preparing to attach to a dead, dried flowerhead. Next time you go for a sunset beach stroll, have a look for these and other sleeping insects!
If you are a photographer, the combination of the setting sun and your flash can do wonderful things to highlight your subjects.
An Ammophila wasp (Sphecidae), shot without flash, is but a silhouette against the darkening sky.
I am not sure, but I think I may have gone overboard with this session! It seems like it could be an ad for a tropical beach vacation for insects.
This slender and elegant caterpillar hunter is fast and nervous in the day, but wonderfully calm in the evening.
As the light was failing, so were my flash batteries, but this unplanned blur of a cluster of male Colletes males is still cool!
There are so many bees on this flower that it sags to the ground!
The Colletes cluster against the darkening sky of night.
Next time you go for an evening stroll on a sandy beach, head up to the dune vegetation, and have a look for these wonderful sleeping wasps and bees!
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