Nouvelles
By Rebecca Hallett, ESC First Vice-President
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A year ago, an exciting new collaboration was initiated between the ESC and the Royal Canadian Mint. This collaboration grew from a letter sent by then President, Michel Cusson, and myself as chair of the Scientific Policy and Education committee, to the Mint commending them for the inclusion of insects on Canadian coins and offering the services of the ESC as a resource for the development of future insect coins. The response from the Mint was very warm and they immediately invited the ESC to be involved in the Animal Architects coin series.
The Animal Architects coin series celebrates the “exceptional architects of Canada’s animal world and their unique constructions”. I was thrilled to see that the first coin in this new series has recently been released, depicting an iconic insect architect, the honeybee, with its hive.
View the sale sheet here for the 2012 $3 FINE SILVER COIN – ANIMAL ARCHITECTS: BEE & HIVE
The Mint also decided to recognize the involvement of the ESC in this series and, in 2013, to commemorate the Sesquicentennial of the ESC on the certificates of authenticity that accompany the coins.
The Bee & Hive coin has proven to be extremely popular and is selling rapidly. The depiction of insects on coins helps to increase appreciation for nature in general, and insects in particular, among the Canadian and coin-collecting public. I hope you will consider supporting this endeavour by treating yourself or a loved one to one or all of the coins in this series.
Coins can be ordered from the Royal Mint website:
http://www.mint.ca/store/coin/14-oz-fine-silver-coin-animal-architects-bee–hive-2013-prod1670011
Or obtained through one of the Mint’s dealers:
http://www.mint.ca/store/mint/customer-service/dealer-locator-1400026
I’ve got my Bee & Hive coin reserved and am rushing off to Toronto tomorrow to collect it!
Keep your eyes open in the fall for the next Animal Architects coin to emerge…
By David McCorquodale, Dean of Science and Technology, Cape Breton University
There is a perception that Nova Scotia and Cape Breton (where I live) may be subject to an invasion of cicadas. The perception seems to stem from the mass emergence of cicadas in the northeastern USA this spring and summer. What an opportunity to build suspense and stress! Consider this headline from Design and Trend on 09 May 2013: CICADAPOCALYPSE: Mass Exodus from the Ground. A Google search revealed dozens of similar, but admittedly not as sensationalist, headlines from news outlets in the northeastern US and a few in Canada.
In my 35 years as an entomologist in Canada I have seen, heard and collected many cicadas. The delightful Dog Day Cicada (Tibicen canicularis) sings from the White Birch trees near my house every summer. It is the species I have seen and heard most frequently. Cicadas are big (some more than 30 mm long, all at least 20 mm long), loud (at least to those who have not lost their high end hearing) and widely distributed across southern Canada. Sound production is fascinating. Males have tymbals under their wings. Tymbals have taut membranes across an echo chamber. The membranes vibrate to produce the high pitched, incessant, droning calls on hot summer days.
Tibicen canicularis. Photo by Denis Doucet
However I suspect many people have never seen or knowingly heard cicadas. Why? Probably because most of their life is spent as larvae underground sucking liquids out of roots so they can grow, mature and emerge as adults. Males sing from tree tops, mate with females who then lay eggs on twigs, when the eggs hatch the larvae fall to the ground and burrow to feed on roots. The larvae burrow down among the roots, not to be seem until they emerge as adults.
How can we reconcile these disparate pieces of information: i) cicadas are common and widespread where Canadians live, ii) most people have never seen them and iii) WARNING mass invasion of cicadas this summer!
We cannot because there will not be a mass emergence in Nova Scotia or indeed in eastern Canada. There will be about the same number of adult cicadas in eastern Canada as in any other year. No one will be able to detect a difference in the number of cicadas in 2013 compared to previous years. Perhaps there will be more attention on cicadas — that is a good thing.
How can I say this and go against all the headlines? The first step is to consider what species of cicadas occur in eastern Canada and compare that to which species of cicadas have mass emergences. In Nova Scotia there are three species of cicadas. All three are ‘annual’ cicadas. That is adults emerge each year, mate, lay eggs, larvae develop and then the adults emerge the next year. There are not dramatic differences in the number of adults from year to year. Males sing form the treetops every year and most year most people are blissfully ignorant they are there.
However in the eastern USA there are several species of cicadas (Periodical Cicadas, Magicacada spp.) with a different life cycle. These cicadas also have males who sing, females who mate and then lay eggs on twigs and larvae who feed on roots. But the next step is different, they keep feeding and do not emerge as adults for 13 or 17 years. The adults that emerge are ‘teenagers’, not one year olds. Some periodical cicadas emerge every year, but some years, including 2013 in the eastern USA, there are enormous cohorts of adults that emerge. The timing, evolution and distribution of these periodical cicadas are fascinating (see Magicicada Mapping Project Homepage http://www.magicicada.org/map_project/maps.php, A National Geographic Project).
Legitimately, these intriguing insects are attracting lots of attention. Because many people have a fear (unrealistic in my opinion) of such a large insects there has been undue media attention to the mass emergence, the sensationalist headlines and unfounded stress in some people.
In Nova Scotia there are no reasonable ground to be concerned about a mass emergence of cicadas this summer. The three species of cicadas in Nova Scotia all have an annual life cycle. Numbers of adults that emerge each year are similar. We will not be able to see any difference in populations of adults this year compared to other years.
Despite being able to ally the concerns of Nova Scotians, I feel I am missing a spectacular natural phenomenon. Perhaps this is a reason to relocate from my Cape Breton home? A good one, but there are lots of good entomological reasons to stay.
For more information on cicadas, check out www.bugguide.org (search for cicada) and a paper published earlier in 2013: Biogeography of the Cicadas (Hemiptera: Cicadidae) of North America, North of Mexico by Allen F. Sanborn and Polly K. Phillips in Diversity 5: 166-239; doi:10.3390/d5020166.
Last week, Chris Buddle and Paul Manning posted the first of a two-part series on outreach activities in elementary schools. That post focused on the ‘why’ – this one (also written by Chris and Paul) is about the ‘how’.
How to talk to kids about bugs:
First thing about talking to elementary school kids is stay calm and don’t worry! If you have any University-level training in Entomology, you are qualified – Now, this doesn’t mean you have to be able to speak about all aspects of entomology: play to your strengths! If you are a taxonomists working on Syrphidae flies, bring in your flies and talk about them these magnificent animals. If your experience is broader and less specialized, browse some notes, look on-line, or peek at a textbook: do a short overview of the main Orders of insects and their characteristics. Although most kids get some entomology in elementary schools, it’s not usually very much (although ALL kids do seem to learn about monarch butterflies!).
One great way to speak to kids about bugs is to make the session thematic. In addition to bringing in a drawer or two of insects, link the specimens to biology. For example, one of us (Paul) has recently used ‘metamorphosis’ as a focal point for discussion. The transition from larvae to adult is a biological wonder, and acts as an excellent focal point for discussion. It brings together different facets of biology, from hormones, to physiological development, behavioural adaptations, through to discussion about life history strategies. Paul brought galls into the classroom, and demonstrated that there were larvae living inside. The students screamed with excitement when they saw the larvae living within the gall. One student described it as a ‘cute white blob‘. Several students asked if they could bring the larvae home (wouldn’t Mom and Dad just LOVE that!).
Kids like bugs. And they like to draw them.
Don’t be afraid to say “I don’t know”. In fact, kids find it refreshing to hear that an ‘expert’ doesn’t know all the answers. Turn it around to illustrate that the world of entomology is so vast that there are a lot of unknowns out there, and many questions still to be answered.
Have patience. With younger grades, asking kids questions, or having them answer questions, can quickly turn into ‘stories’ from young, enthusiastic students. For example:
Q: Does anyone know what kind of insect a ladybug is?
[Hand shoots into the air…]
A (from a 6 year old): Um, yes, I know a lot about those things. Once, when I was 4, I remember that I saw a beautiful bug flying by my garden – it was really big and black and I think it was a ladybug and my granddad told me about how ones like that eat trees and kill the trees and that makes me sad because we have a big tree in our front yard that I really like but sometimes my little bratty brother hides behind it and scares me when I am walking by. But I really like all bugs especially ladybug ones that are red but they smell funny sometimes and my mom said they can bite – will they bite me if I play with them? why do they smell funny? why are there so many spots on them? do their spots get bigger when they grow….
Give kids a chance to tell you these stories, but know that it will take patience…. but heck, if bugs get them talking and excited, that can’t be a bad thing!
(as an aside, most elementary school teachers will typically coach students so that they will ask/answer question instead of tell stories)
Bring a few props: If you can do an event outdoors, try to bring a few sweep nets and vials. We will often bring extra vials from the lab and give students the vials to keep (heck, plastic vials cost very little!). For MONTHS afterwards, parents will often tell us about how their child packed that vial full of insects and carried it around obsessively for weeks. That’s a great way to inspire entomology.
Beetle galleries are easily found in wood, and can be a great prop to bring to an entomology session with school kids.
If you are doing an indoor talk, make sure to have a lot of photographs of interesting insects, and whenever possible, discuss/show or use examples from your local fauna – this will allow kids to connect to things they have seen on the playground or in their own yards – this connection between the content you are discussing and the insects they are seeing on their own, is very powerful. With a smaller group, you can certainly bring in a few drawers of insects – if you don’t have any, this becomes a great excuse to make a little synoptic collection of your own to use for educational purposes. Or, ask your local entomology museum, or local naturalist club, about borrowing some specimens.
Whenever possible, bring a few ‘real’ field guides. One of us (CB) ran a biodiversity challenge at an elementary school and managed to convince the school to buy a couple of sets of field guides. The kids LOVE the look and feel of real field guides and will thumb through them with delight. Part of our own passion about natural history can be traced back to field guides in our houses when we were young.
A field guide to insects – suitable for all ages!
Don’t dumb down the material: Too often we think kids need to be talked down to, but nothing is further from the truth. As mentioned above, kids are sponges for information and in our experience they want to hear the details. You will want to avoid jargon, but other than that, provide the details whenever you can. Again, doing a ‘thematic’ talk with school kids becomes quite important because you just won’t have time to cover anything in-depth if you try to cover too much.
Finally, and most importantly, be passionate and enthusiastic. Kids will feel your positive energy and love of entomology; they will feed off of this, take it home with them; they will start asking more questions, start to dream, and fall further in love with the world around them. Spending a bit of time in a classroom is perhaps one of the most important kinds of outreach activities to do.
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Cross-posted from: http://arthropodecology.com/2013/04/26/kids-like-bugs-entomology-outreach-in-elementary-schools-part-2/
We are pleased to announce that we will be co-locating our 2016 annual meeting with the International Congress of Entomology (ICE) hosted by the Entomological Society of America (ESA) in Orlando, Florida (see http://ice2016orlando.org/)! The ESC Governing Board has voted to accept the ESA’s invitation to join them and other national entomological societies at the ICE 2016 venue.
We also are pleased to introduce Murray Isman (UBC) as our appointed representative to the ICE Organizing Committee. Murray is already poised to collaborate with the ESA in ensuring a smooth merger of meetings. Of the options presented to us by the ESA in their invitation, we have opted for a separate, pre-ICE conduct of our Society’s business, and then full access to what will be a diverse and rich ICE scientific program under the theme of Entomology without Borders.
So mark your calendars for September 23- 30, 2016, and look forward to more announcements as we move closer to the big event.
Your ESC Executive
Nous sommes heureux d’annoncer que nous tiendrons notre réunion annuelle 2016 sur le site du International Congress of Entomology (ICE) accueillit par la Société d’entomologie d’Amérique (ESA) à Orlando en Floride (voir http://ice2016orlando.org/)! Le conseil d’administration de la SEC a voté pour accepter l’invitation de l’ESA à nous joindre à eux et à d’autres sociétés entomologiques nationales sur le site de l’ICE 2016.
Nous sommes également heureux de présenter Murray Isman (UBC) comme notre représentant nommé sur le comité organisateur de l’ICE. Murray est déjà prêt à collaborer avec l’ESA afin d’assurer une fusion harmonieuse des réunions. Parmi les options présentées par l’ESA dans leur invitation, nous avons opté pour une réunion séparée, pré-ICE, pour les affaires de notre Société, suivie d’un accès complet à ce qui devrait être un programme scientifique riche et diversifié à l’ICE, sous le thème de Entomology without Borders[1].
Alors réservez les dates du 23 au 30 septembre 2016 à vos agendas, et nous avons hâte de vous communiquer d’autres annonces alors que nous approcherons du grand évènement.
Votre conseil exécutif de la SEC
[1] Entomologie sans frontières
Written by Chris Buddle and Paul Manning.
Spending time talking to kids about Entomology is ALWAYS worth it. If ever invited to speak at an elementary school about insects, always say “yes”, and in this post, we’ll expand on why it’s worth your time. In a second post on this topic, we’ll provide some tips on how to talk to kids about bugs. Although these posts are focused primarily at elementary school events, the ideas and tips could be expanded to community nature walks, events at an ‘earth day’ celebration, hosting a bug day in your backyard, etc.
Part 1: Why talk to kids about bugs?
Most kids aren’t afraid of nature. In our experience, elementary school kids (especially the younger grades) still have a fascination with entomology and are still curious and excited by ‘bugs’. Later in life, it seems that many kids will follow one of several paths: (a) disinterest, (b) disgust, or (c) delight. As entomologists, in a field that is so important, getting kids to be delighted is very important.
Kids like bugs.
Kids already know a lot but they like an expert to verify their findings and support their interests. In our experience, kids can get especially excited about insects because they see them all the time – they have played with them in their yards, tasted them (perhaps), and probably spend time trying to burn them with a magnifying glass. Bugs are accessible, small, curious, and catchable, and thus kids learn about them – an entomologist can keep facilitating this learning.
Kids are truly amazed that you can ‘get a job‘ studying insects. This is unfathomable to them, since they don’t typically get much exposure to biologists. They are exposed to limited career options (“I want to play in the NHL“, “I want to be a doctor“, “I want to be a firefighter“) in part because our school systems often exclude the cool jobs like “stream ecologist”, “geologist”, or “entomologist”. The idea that you can spend time (as an adult!) collecting and curating insects (i.e., FUN STUFF) can be quite extraordinary. In our experiences, it’s so painfully obvious that working outdoors with insects is simply not noticed as a real job by many people; entomologists must work to correct this. Giving kids exposure to wonderful careers (like entomology) can help encourage future scientists that there are truly enjoyable careers that involve getting ones hands dirty, and spending time outside.
Entomologists have a responsibility to dispel myths about arthropods, and this should start at an early age. Invariably, we get statements from kids such as “My Dad told me to stay away from spiders ’cause they will bite you“, or “My aunt told me that earwigs go into your ear, so I hate them“, or “I am allergic to bees because my cousin is allergic“, etc. We can bring clarity to these kinds of statements, and by offering an ‘expert opinion’ on these topics, can help kids understand the real facts about entomology.
Kids are sponges: it is satisfying to speak to an audience who is fully engaged and willing to soak up as much as you can provide. Bugs are a very exciting topic for kids, and they will remain interested, excited and enthused if you continue to provide good content.
Kids ask great questions. As an example, one of us (PM) recently talked about insects to an elementary school class. The class was asked to guess what was living within a gall, and to make guesses as to what they thought the gall was, and how it was formed. After one student quickly suggested that an insect was living within the gall, a flurry of wonderful questions began. Students asked questions like:
- How did the insect get inside the gall?
- How does the insect survive the winter?
- What does the insect eat when inside the plant?
- Why doesn’t the insect kill the plant?
All of these questions prompt interesting, and relevant discussions that fit well within learning objectives in science curriculum. Providing a concrete example that is applicable to students, might also result in a better understanding of the concept.
Finally, it’s nice to talk to kids about bugs because they genuinely appreciate it. Being thanked for spending time doing this kind of outreach is really, really nice. And, sometimes you might receive some nice thank-you cards or posters to put up on your wall. To us, these are as important as a diploma on your wall, or a favourite butterfly poster. Thank-you notes from kids are some of the most wonderful things to read, and they often include delightful, creative, and colourful drawings.
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SEC Président : ESCPresident@esc-sec.ca
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