Canadian lepidopterologist J Donald Lafontaine passed away

Renowned Canadian lepidopterologist J Donald Lafontaine passed away on 20 November 2025.

After decades of collaboration with the Canadian National Collection of Insects, Arachnids, and Nematodes in Ottawa, Don leaves behind a prolific career in entomology and an impressive body of scientific work.

At ZooKeys, he edited dozens of papers as a subject editor for the moth superfamily Noctuoidea ("owlet" moths) and authored 28 articles. He also co-edited 7 volumes of special issues of the series Contributions to the Systematics of New World macro-moths together with B. Christian Schmidt.

“All of us at Pensoft were deeply saddened to hear this news. Don had been part of ZooKeys since the journal’s very first day, and over the years we developed a warm and genuine friendship,” said Prof. Lyubomir Penev, founder of ZooKeys and Pensoft Publishers.

With gratitude for his passion and dedication, the ZooKeys team extends condolences to Don’s family and anyone who knew or worked with him.