CURCULIO An International Newsletter for Curculionoidea Research Volume 53 September 2006 Featured Researcher CONTENTS Department of Biology Featured Researcher ............................. 1 Bjarte Jordal University of Bergen, Norway Editorial Comments .......................... 2 Research Activities ......................... 4 Past Specialists: W. H. Anderson ..... 5 ESA 2006 Report ............................... 8 Curculio-Institute .................................. 10 BToL Weevils ........................................ 11 Obituary Vadim Gratshev ..................... 12 Bulletin Board ....................................... 13 Recent Publications .............................. 14 Directory of Researchers ..................... 17 Academic Background Bachelor of Science in Biology, University of Bergen, Norway - 1993 Master of Science in Systematic Zoology, University of Bergen - 1995: "Taxonomy and ecology of beetles breeding in Cecropia (Cecropiaceae) leafstalks with special empha- sis on Scolytodes (Coleoptera: Scolytidae)" Bjarte Jordal at the University of Bergen Didactics in Natural Sciences, University of Bergen - 1996 conservation biology. I grew up on a mountain farm in the Doctor of Philosophy in Evolutionary Biology, University of western parts of Norway, with long winters and very little expo- Bergen & Harvard University - 2001: "The origin and radi- sure to insect diversity, except for blood sucking mosquitoes ation of sib-mating haplodiploid beetles (Coleoptera, Cur- and other annoyances. Therefore my narrowminded view of culionidae, Scolytinae)" nature changed considerably when taking classes in taxonomy Marie Curie Research Fellow, University of East Anglia, and invertebrate systematics at the University. After ponder- United Kingdom - 2002 to 2004 ing for a while with finding an educational path that would Postdoctoral Fellow and Curator of Coleoptera, Museum of satisfy me, I realized that systematics was perfect and that work- Natural History, University for Science and Technology, ing on tropical beetle diversity would suit my newborn interest Trondheim, Norway - 2004 to 2006 for insects. At the University I met Lawrence Kirkendall who Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Biology, University of introduced me to his research on tropical bark and ambrosia Bergen - 2006 to present beetles, and I later received my M.Sc. and Ph.D. partly under his mentorship. Research interests My first project dealt with the taxonomy of the diverse bark Taxonomy, phylogenetics, phylogeography and ecology of beetle genus Scolytodes, which includes many species that are Scolytinae, Platypodinae and Cossoninae of the world. associated with dead Cecropia stems and giant leafstalks. I described 12 new species of this genus during my M.Sc. study. Unlike many of the readers of Curculio I became interested in weevils quite some time after initiating my college studies in (continued page 2) CURCULIO - An International Newsletter for Curculionoidea Research (founded in 1975) - is published each year in March and September, and can be downloaded in Adobe PDF format at www.coleopsoc.org/nwslttrs.shtml Editor - Nico M. Franz. Department of Biology, University of Puerto Rico, PO Box 9012, Mayagüez, PR 00681, USA. Email: [email protected] CURCULIO 53 September 2006 This year's informal weevil meeting at the annual ESA meet- Editorial Comments ings in Indianapolis was a successful event (p. 8). As he has for many years, Charles O'Brien coordinated the meeting which Welcome to volume 53 of CURCULIO. Judging from the con- was attended by 15 participants including six talented gradu- tents of this volume, the 10th under my editorship, the commu- ate students. Plans are underway to organize an official wee- nity is well and is producing a lot of interesting and relevant vil-centered symposium at next year's meeting in San Diego, research. Our featured researcher this time is Barte Jordal who California (December 9-12). That symposium would showcase is already an accomplished expert in bark beetle systematics some of the younger workers and also partly compensate for and evolution. In his unique section, Horace Burke reviews the likely absence of a dedicated Phytophaga session at the the life and work of weevil specialist William Anderson (p. 5). upcoming International Congress of Entomology in Durban, Peter Stüben has news from the most recent excursion of the South Africa (see http://www.ice2008.org.za/). In either case, very active Curculio-Institute to Cotignac, southern France we look forward to seeing more from this promising group in (p. 10), and Duane McKenna contributes an update and call years to come. for weevil specimens for the high-profile Beetle Tree of Life Many thanks to everyone who contributed to the new project (BToL) led by Brian Farrell (p. 11). Maxwell Barclay CURCULIO volume! It is encouraging to see a truly interna- reports on the untimely departure of Russian weevil specialist tional community come closer through this medium. Vadim Gratshev (p. 12) NMF Bjarte Jordal (continued) Africa. A chapter on Scolytinae-Platypodinae-Cossoninae is currently in review for the Handbook of Zoology series on the The availability of a taxonomic monograph on North and Cen- Coleoptera (edited by Rolf Beutel & Richard Leschen). In a tral American bark and ambrosia beetles was of great help for longer-term perspective my work will include revisions of my studies both then and later, and its author Stephen Wood Crypturgini and Hylastini, as well as the elaboration of a mono- kindly helped me with identifications. The future seemed prom- graph for the Palearctic species of Scolytinae and Platypodinae, ising, but the lack of funding the next two years almost squeezed and another for the African and Malagasy fauna. Along this me out of academia. However, after one year in school of edu- line of research, I will contribute to the development of an en- cation and another year working as a teacher, I finally received cyclopedic on-line database, including morphological diag- a Ph.D. grant in 1998 to work on the phylogenetics of noses, illustrations, DNA barcodes, and distribution data. haplodiploid, inbreeding scolytines. The project included 18 Taxonomy is well suited for dissemination through on-line months research in Brian Farrell's laboratory at Harvard databases. One of the most important goals will be to build Univeristy where I learned protocols and analyses in molecular simple and appealing databases and thereby modernize the systematics. Together with Ben Normark and Andrea Sequeira taxonomic infrastructure. Many such databases are under con- we published a series of papers on the higher level struction or nearly completed, (e.g. for fishes, ants, spiders, phylogenetics of Scolytinae and Platypodinae. grasses, etc. I wish that the largest possible number of workers After my dissertation I received a Marie Curie Fellowship in the taxonomic community will contribute to such a massive from the European Union to study the evolution of host plant enterprise for all organisms. We have seen how GenBank has use in Crypturgini bark beetles in the Macaronesian archipela- become a tremendous success, so why not an encyclopedia of goes. This work was completed in Godfrey Hewitt's laboratory all life? A peer-reviewed Tree of Life encyclopedia that links the at the University of East Anglia. The main purpose for taking taxonomic community with DNA barcoding data, provided e.g. up this fellowship was to extend my research to also study through the Consortium for the Bare Code of Life (CBoL; see population genetic processes associated with speciation. My http://barcoding.si.edu/index.htm), and with distributional data, research therefore aims at studying not only phylogenetics e.g. via the Global Biodiversity Information Facilty (GBIF; see and taxonomy of wood boring weevils, but also at trying to http://www.gbif.org/), is perhaps the key to assure stable fund- understand some of the processes that lead to speciation and ing for taxonomy and taxonomic databases during the follow- diversification. ing decades. For the past 2-3 years I was finally able to resume my taxo- My main interest in addition to taxonomy are lower- and nomic work. Several smaller papers on the taxonomy of Euro- higher-level phylogenetics of Scolytinae and Platypodinae. The pean species complexes will be published soon (i.e., Crypturgus, phylogenetic position and classification of these groups has Dryocoetes, and Polygraphus). I am also currently describing been and still is very controversial. Although there is an emerg- new species of Aphanarthrum and Coleobothrus from South (continued page 3) 2 CURCULIO 53 September 2006 Bjarte Jordal (continued) has resulted in a large number of collected species, including many cossonines and some other weevil groups associated ing consensus for a close relation between Platypodinae and with dead wood. Most of my cossonine material has not yet Scolytinae (where the former is nested within the latter, and been identified, partly due to the lack of expertise on this group, that these groups are more closely related to Cossoninae than especially after Kuschel and Morimoto have retired. If there is to any other weevil group, the data produced so far are not anyone that would try identifying them, please let me know very decisive. To resolve at least some of the uncertainties, I (mainly Cossonini, Rhyncolini, Onycholipini, Pentarthrini, am now assembling species from all tribes of Scolytinae and Dryotribini, and some nest-parasitic Conoderinae