The Ouellet-Robert Entomological Collection: new electronic resources and perspectives

Abstract

The Ouellet-Robert Entomological Collection (Université de Montréal, Montréal, Québec, Canada) is one of the largest and most important university collections in Canada. Although officially dedicated in 1984, much of the material in the collection dates to the 1930s and 1940s work of the Clerics of Saint Viator, Joseph Ouellet and Adrien Robert. In order to establish curatorial priorities, a collection profile was conducted grading eight criteria on a scale of 1–4, the most important being the conservation status of the specimens. A taxonomic inventory of the collection was also conducted, including the number of pinned specimens and alcohol vials, as well as a brief geographic description: whether or not at least one specimen of each species was collected in Québec or in North America. Finally, the specimen metadata for Odonata, Ephemeroptera, and Trichoptera were digitised. The inventory and specimen data can be downloaded at Canadensys.net. The collection houses approximately 1.5 million specimens, of which one-third are pinned, representing 20 000 species. Half of those species are recorded from Québec. The inventory and profile will be updated and the specimen database grown as portions of the collection are re-curated by personnel and volunteers, including the student-run organisation, “Club QMOR”.

A review of Agrilus cuprescens (Ménétries, 1832), the rose stem girdler, in North America

“…Indeed, Campbell et al (1989) alternatively later noted that A. cuprescens first detection into Canada was in Ontario in 1927 (presumably corresponding to two specimens in the Canadian National Collection; Government of Canada, 2023). Later, Klimaszewski et al (2017) alternatively cited a specimen from Ouellet‐Robert entomological inventory (Favret, 2014; record not digitized as of 2023) from 1918 in southern Québec as the first Canadian occurrence.…”

The Odonata of Quebec: Specimen data from seven collections

“…The Ouellet-Robert Entomological Collection at the University of Montreal has an exceptionally large holding of Odonata, so when the opportunity presented itself to digitise insect specimen data, this group was an obvious choice (Favret et al 2019). Of the 33,122 Odonata specimen occurrence records in the Ouellet-Robert Collection, 31,595 (95%) are from the Canadian province of Quebec.…”

“…What was labelled as E. cyathigerum may properly be attributed the name Enallagma annexum (Hagen, 1861) (Turgeon et al 2005). Alternatively, some specimens may actually be Enallagma vernale Gloyd, 1943, as this latter species was once considered a subspecies of E. cyathigerum (Donnelly 1989).…”