Fellow Dipterists / systematists / ecologists, if you have not yet heard, Agriculture & Agri-Food Canada is planning to eliminate the Diptera Unit at the Canadian National Collection of Insects, supposedly for financial reasons. The open letter below has been prepared by Dr. Art Borkent. If you agree with the letter, and would like to add your name in support, please follow the directions below. Message is as follows: ********************* The following is an “Open Letter” that will be presented to the Canadian press by a Member of Parliament, Ms. Elizabeth May. If you can support this petition, please send your name, full affiliation and address (including country) to Art Borkent’s email: artborkent@telus.net Your name will be added to a supporting list that will likely never be seen publicly but needs to be noted by our member of parliament. Please consider helping to stop the removal of the Diptera Unit in Ottawa, Canada. Please remember that we are writing this for the press – someone gave advice that it should be written at about the level of an intelligent 14 year old. If any of you are members of another society of specialized Dipterists or otherwise, please feel free to send this on to your other colleagues. I am hoping to have this submitted to Elizabeth May with all the signatures by Friday, Feb. 13. Time is of the essence. best wishes, Art Borkent and David Grimaldi

(Message too long for alt-text): the text of the first page of an open letter to support keeping the Diptera Unit open at the Canadian National Collection of Insects and Nematodes.

(Message too long for alt-text): the text of the second page of an open letter to support keeping the Diptera Unit open at the Canadian National Collection of Insects and Nematodes.

A sampling of output from the Diptera Unit at the CNC

From Chris Borkent: Fellow Dipterists/systematists/ecologists: Agri./Agri-Food Canada plans to eliminate the Diptera Unit at the Canadian National Collection of Insects. Dr. Art Borkent has prepared an open letter to support keeping the unit open. To sign, please read & follow the instructions here.

PhD position opening in community and biogeography PhD Position in Community Ecology & Biogeography, Montreal, Canada Our research group at Concordia University investigates the forces enabling the maintenance, and governing the distribution, of biol...

Our research group has an open PhD position! Please share widely!

Possible topics include:

Determinants of range limits

Assembly of ecological networks (eg,
plant-pollinator)

The role of soil arthropods (eg, ants) in carbon storage

Details:
docs.google.com/document/d/1...

We believe they did, in fact! Not technically in the mandibles themselves, but in the clypeal horn, on their foreheads. Micro-CT scans indicate high density around where the mandibles articulate with the horn, which is thought to be bioaccumulated metal reinforcing the horn during mandible closure

Interested in ants, dad jokes, and insect puns (not necessarily in that order)? I had so much fun talking about ant fossils and evolution in this podcast! 👈👈🐜 (attempted ant finger guns - tarsal claw guns?)

Upping this again one week before the deadline! If you're interested in ecology, plants, insects, fossils, new methods and more, please consider applying! Lots of potential routes to answer these questions, and a beautiful (if cold!) setting to do so in!

Pls repost!

Thanks for the follow list! Okinawa is great and so are the hermit crabs - found the cutest Ryukyu pottery mug with blueberry hermit crabs

Please come join us and help us unravel deep-time community dynamics in bugs and plants! Edmonton is a great city to live in and there are lots of different approaches to tackle these questions!

Finally made the (long-overdue) switch to Bluesky and can start posting about bugs and fossils again 🐜⚒️ (tragically no fossil emojis so have a dubious rock hammer instead)