Corresponding author: Aaron D. Smith (
Academic editor: L. Penev
Smith AD, Aalbu RL, Bouchard P (2014) Editorial: Third International Tenebrionoidea Symposium. In: Bouchard P, Smith AD (Eds) Proceedings of the Third International Tenebrionoidea Symposium, Arizona, USA, 2013. ZooKeys 415: 1–8. doi:
The Third International
August 7th, before the first talk.
The 1st International Tenebrionid Symposium, entitled “Systematics and Biogeography of
The 2nd International
To continue this successful tradition, and encourage tenebrionoid workers from around the world to meet, share their research, and form new collaborations, researchers in the US and Canada decided to host the 3nd International
Before the meeting, researchers visited US collections on both the west and east coasts and held a pre-meeting collecting trip through California, Nevada, Utah, and Arizona. Gustavo Flores had the most impressive itinerary of museum visits. After flying into New York City from Mendoza, Argentina, Gustavo visited the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH – New York, New York), the Smithsonian Institution (NMNH – Washington, D.C.), the C.A. Triplehorn Insect Collection at Ohio State University (OSUC – Columbus, Ohio), the Field Museum (FMNH – Chicago, Illinois), and Rolf Aalbu’s personal collection (RLAC – El Dorado Hills, California). In Sacramento, Gustavo joined Wolfgang Schawaller, Roland Grimm, and René Fouquè who had been working in the California Academy of Sciences (CASC – San Francisco, California), California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA – Sacramento, California), and RLAC collections the prior week. Rolf, Gustavo, René, Roland, and Wolfgang then drove from Sacramento to Tempe while doing field work through California, Nevada, Utah, and north central Arizona (
Pre-meeting sightseeing stop at Zion National Park, Utah. Left to right: Wolfgang Schawaller, René Fouquè, Gustavo Flores.
During the meeting 21 presentations, seventeen 20-minute talks and four posters, where given (see
Many of the attendees had previously corresponded by email, but never met in person. For example, Guodong Ren’s research group (
Visiting Chinese and US-based Chinese researchers. Left to right: Yuxia Yang, Li Zhong, Guodong Ren, Guanyang Zhang (ASU postdoc), Shanshan Liu, Caixia Yuan
Dr. Charles A. Triplehorn showing off a Triplehornia metallica Matthews and Lawrence shirt made by his grandson.
Group discussions were also held during the symposium on potential large scale tenebrionid projects that could be undertaken as a community, the organization of a Proceedings volume from the Symposium, collecting localities for the post-meeting trip, and potential localities and dates for the Fourth International
Post meeting dinner. Left to right, back row: Bill Warner, Rich Cunningham, Pat Bouchard, Wolfgang Schawaller, Aaron Smith, Milton Campbell, Andrew Johnston, Marcin Kamiński; front row: Ron Somerby, Gael Kergoat, Roland Grimm, Rolf Aalbu, Rebecca Dornburg, René Fouquè, Gustavo Flores, Paulina Cifuentes Ruiz.
After the formal symposium, attendees went their separate ways, with some doing solo collecting and some visiting US museums (California Academy of Sciences and the University of Arizona Insect Collection to name just two). Twelve researchers from five countries went to the Beetle Infestation VI on August 10th hosted by Pat and Lisa Sullivan in Ramsey Canyon, Huachuca Mountains, one of the most biologically diverse localities in the United States, before collecting through southern and central Arizona (
Post meeting collecting. Marcin Kamiński and Andrew Johnston near Madera Canyon.
Post meeting afternoon break at Fred Skillman’s house, Cochise, AZ. Left to right: Wolfgang Schawaller, Pat Bouchard, Rolf Aalbu, Kojun Kanda, Andrew Johnston, Fred Skillman, Warren Steiner, Marcin Kamiński, René Fouquè.
Many of the presentations, a list of collecting localities, and additional pictures from the symposium are online at:
Two researchers graciously volunteered to host the next symposium at their institutions: Gustavo Flores (CCT CONICET – Mendoza, Argentina) for 2016, or Guodong Ren (Hebei University – Baoding City, China) for 2015, and presented short talks highlighting the advantages of their respective cities. A survey was set up to allow the attendees of the Third symposium, current tenebrionoid researchers (those with at least one tenebrionioid manuscript in print), and graduate students working on tenebrionoids to vote for the host city of the Fourth International
We would like to express our gratitude to all of the attendees and the volunteers at ASU (Andrew Johnston and Guanyang Zhang) who helped make the symposium such a success. We are also deeply appreciative of the ASU-HIC, IISE, SoLS, Akis Consulting, and the NSF ARTS program (DEB-1258154) for providing facilities, supplies, catering, and partial travel funding. Lastly, we are grateful to Dr. Gustavo Flores for volunteering to host the 4th International
Rolf Aalbu – California Academy of Science, San Francisco, CA USA
Patrice Bouchard – Canadian National Collection of Insects, Ottawa, Ontario CANADA
Kojun Kanda – Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR USA
Nico Franz – Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ USA
Aaron Smith – Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ USA
Warren Steiner – Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC USA
Quentin Wheeler – Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ USA
Rolf L. Aalbu (USA)
Jason T. Botz (USA)
Patrice Bouchard (Canada)
Milton Campbell (Canada)
Alejandro Castro Tovar (Spain)
Paulina Cifuentes Ruiz (Mexico)
Adriana Li Colinas (Spain)
Rich Cunningham (USA)
Rebecca Dornburg (USA)
Gustavo E. Flores (Argentina)
Rene Fouque (Czech Republic)
Nico M. Franz (USA)
Roland Grimm (Germany)
Andrew Jansen (USA)
Andrew Johnston (USA)
Marcin Jan Kamiński (Poland)
Kojun Kanda (USA)
Gael J. Kergoat (France)
Shanshan Liu (China)
James Pflug (USA)
Guodong Ren (China)
Wolfgang Schawaller (Germany)
Aaron D. Smith (USA)
Ronald Somerby (USA)
Warren Steiner (USA)
Larry Stevens (USA)
Donald Thomas (USA)
Donald Thomas, Jr. (USA)
Charles A. Triplehorn (USA)
Bill Warner (USA)
Quentin Wheeler (USA)
Yuxia Yang (China)
Caixia Yuan (China)
Guanyang Zhang (USA)
Patricia Eri Ishii (USA)