Conservation, Ecology and Systematics of Lepidoptera in a changing world
The 23rd European Congress of Lepidopterology & 11th Forum Herbulot

September 25, 2023 - September 29, 2023
Conference

Hôtel Dupanloup
1 rue Dupanloup
45000 Orleans
France

Presentation

Insect declines are a major cause of public concern. One of the most affected, and sensitive groups for monitoring is Lepidoptera (moths and butterflies), which play a major role in the functioning of our ecosystems. They are one of the most important groups of herbivores and pollinators, as well as comprising a vast prey biomass and hosting an extensive specialized web of parasitic Hymenoptera. Being mostly readily visible and intricately patterned, they include the most iconic, charismatic and popular of all invertebrates. Many are model organisms for evolutionary and genetic studies, a few are significant economic pests, and some are vital sources of protein or silk. Understanding their ecology, genetics and systematics is crucial for efficient conservation management to understand and even reverse their decline. 

The conference will bring together world experts to discuss the conservation, ecology and systematics of Lepidoptera. It will be a joint event organized by the Society for European Lepidopterology (SEL) (http://www.soceurlep.eu/) and the International Forum Herbulot (FH) (http://www.herbulot.de/), which organizes a regular conference for the study of looper moths (Geometridae). It is the first time that SEL & FH have organized their biennial conferences together (http://www.soceurlep.eu/congresses/). 

SEL is a society with 514 members founded in 1976, which promotes the study and conservation of Lepidoptera and publishes the journal Nota Lepidopterologica (https://nl.pensoft.net/). FH is an international research initiative focused on the second largest family, Geometridae or looper moths, a society with approx. 150 members from 42 countries.

Convenors

  • Dr Carlos Lopez-Vaamonde,
    Forest Zoology Research Unit (URZF)/ Centre INRAE Val de Loire - FR & Insect Biology Research Institute (IRBI), University of Tours / CNRS - FR

Important dates

  • Registration & abstract submission open: 15th February 2023
  • Deadline for abstract submission: 31st May 2023
  • Early bird registration deadline: 15th June 2023

Societas Europaea Lepidopterologica (SEL)

To become a member of the Societas Europaea Lepidopterologica (SEL): http://www.soceurlep.eu/membership/

Practical Information

Confirmed speakers

Click on the name to display the abstract

  • Andrea Battisti, University of Padova - IT
    Andrea Battisti
     
    University of Padova
    Address: Agripolis, Legnaro
    Email: andrea.battisti@unipd.it
    Phone: (+39) 334 6952488
     

    Professor of entomology at the University of Padova, Department DAFNAE. His research activity addresses topics of forest entomology and insect ecology, with special emphasis on the effect of climate change on the insect populations. He’s also developing innovative techniques for the study and the control of insect pests. He coordinates a research group involved in several national and international research projects. Processionary moths are the most studied group of insects and several aspects of the ecology and evolution of the group were addressed in more than 40 years of studies in Europe, Africa, Asia and Australia.

    Ecology and evolution of processionary moths

    Processionary moths belong to a group of insect herbivores well known since the ancient Greek and Roman times for their association with the host plants, their particular behaviour, and their urticating and envenomation ability. A few species of processionary moths are plant pests in Africa, Asia, Australia and Europe. All species are protected against vertebrate predators by urticating setae either as larvae or adults and these setae may threaten animal and human health. Three major clades can be identified: i. Australian, with 29 species; ii. African, with 39 species; and iii. Eurasian-African, with 26 species. A molecular phylogeny of the European species supports the hypothesis that they should be treated as members of a single genus, Thaumetopoea. The ancestor originated in the eastern Mediterranean area and used broadleaved host plants. Subsequently, a switch to conifers occurred, just once, in a large subclade. The ancestor pupated in the soil, like several current species, but in a few taxa this trait was lost, together with the related morphological adaptations. The pine processionary moth, Thaumetopoea pityocampa (Denis and Schiffermüller), is an iconic insect in the Mediterranean culture because of its economic and medical importance and the unique traits of the life history, namely the winter feeding and the construction of conspicuous silk tents by the larvae. Its taxonomic status, however, is unclear because the type material is not available and several species and subspecies have been described in the last centuries. molecular information is reliable to separate species in most cases whereas morphology is not. In addition, hybridization among taxa makes it difficult to delimit species in contact zones when mating barriers are not present. 

    Keywords: Notodontidae, Thaumetopoea, sociality, urtication, delimitation

     

  • Jérôme Casas, Insect Biology Research Institute (IRBI), University of Tours / CNRS - FR
    Jérôme Casas

     

    Insect Biology Research Institute (IRBI), University of Tours / CNRS - FR
    Phone: (+) 33 6 32 63 11 69

    Trained as a population ecologist, his interests span organismal biology and ecology; behavior and population dynamics of consumer-resource interactions; the sensory ecology of mimetism; flow sensing in biotic interactions; locomotion in granular materials and at the air-water interface, physicochemical transport in olfaction and biologically inspired microtechnology. His group is composed of engineers, theoretical and soft-matter physicists, biologists and applied mathematicians working in the field of physical ecology.  A notable feature of his approach is the blending of natural history with both state-of-the-art technology and modeling. He was the director of the Institut de Recherche sur la Biologie de l’Insecte (UMR CNRS) for 7 years. He contributes or did so to many scientific boards, the most notable being BIOKON-The International Biomimetics Association (Berlin) as well as the interdisciplinary committee of the Canada Research Chairs program (Ottawa). He was awarded the ETH medal for a thesis in the University’s top 10%, was nominated junior and later senior member of the IUF (Institut Universitaire Français) and was the Distinguished Invited Professor of the Center for Insect Science at the University of Arizona in Tucson. He did hold the excellency Chair for bio-inspired technologies at the LETI CEA, a research powerhouse on micro-technologies in Grenoble. He was awarded a Humboldt research prize for lifetime achievement and is a corresponding fellow Royal Society of Edinburgh. Prof. Casas also served on the editorial board of a number of ecological, physiological and interdisciplinary journals and is currently co-editor in chief of Current Opinion in Insect Sciences.

    Transport and capture of pheromones: a mesoscale approach

    Moths are models of chemical communication, performing highly specific, long-range communication via minute amounts of pheromones through a cascade of highly improbable events occurring in succession — transport in the air, capture by an antenna and entry into a sensory pore —this mystery remains intact since Fabre. Critical gaps remain in our knowledge, concerning physicochemical aspects in particular: how can such tiny amounts of pheromones be released and efficiently transported over large distances? When molecules are captured on the antenna, how do they reach the nanometer-wide olfactory pore on the cuticle? What fluid dynamics govern the large diversity of insect antennal forms? How does the environment modify signals? The sensory ecology program I develop with my colleagues, Ph.D. students and post-docs aims to quantify the mechanisms underlying this efficiency, using silkmoths and their feathery antennae as a model. I will focus on two processes — transport and capture —at the meso-scale, between molecules and organisms. Cutting-edge techniques from fluid dynamics (PIV), atmospheric chemistry (FIGAERO-ToF-CIMS) and materials science (AFM) will be used. I will first quantify the partitioning of pheromone transport between the gas and aerosol phases, making use of the finding that pheromones can be efficiently transported not only as single molecules, but also bound to aerosols. I will determine the roles of antennal surface patterning and architecture in capture efficiency, by studying the viscous boundary layers of antennae. If time permists, I will decipher the interfacial processes transporting the molecules to the sensory pores and present our first attempts to integrate our knowledge into an integrated microfluidic biochip performing the first two processes with an unprecedented degree of control.

    Keywords: transport processes, physical and chemical ecology, sensory physiology, boundary layer, complex antennae

     

  • Marc Holderied, University of Bristol - UK
    Marc Holderied
     
    University of Bristol - UK
    Address: 24 Tyndale Ave, Bristol, BS8 1TQ
    Email: marc.holderied@bristol.ac.uk
    Phone: (+)44 117 39 41190
     

    As sensory ecologist and bio-acoustician with strong links to bio-inspired engineering professor Holderied’s international research excellence is in the emerging fields of acoustic camouflage and biosonar navigation, with a continued passion for acoustic arms races and wildlife acoustics. He develops lepidoptera-inspired noise control solutions and as international consultant for the automotive industry helps establish Ultrasonic Vision technology. He studied Biology at the University of Erlangen, Germany (1997 Diploma, 2001 PhD) and since 2005 leads the BASElab at the University of Bristol, UK.

    Wingtip decoys and Stealth cloaks - Acoustic Defences of Moths against detection by echolocating Bats

    Invisibility cloaks are fantastic devices in popular culture from Harry Potter to Star Trek. But even in the real world so-called metamaterials (synthetic composite materials with emergent new properties) can act as (partial) cloaks both against light (vision) and sound (acoustics). We recently discovered that the 65MY old arms race with their echolocating bat predators has equipped silkmoths (Saturniidae) with remarkable acoustic metamaterials on their wings and bodies. These ultrathin sound absorbers offer protection because the strength of the echo bouncing off the moth's body determines the distance over which bats can detect it. In the talk we will use innovative acoustic tomographies to visualise how fur on bodies and scales on wings of moths provide acoustic cloaking. Turning the moth wing into bio-inspired thinner and better sound absorbers ('sonic wallpaper') can help us in the struggle to maintain healthy living and working environments in our ever noisier world.

    Keywords: Echolocation, Lepidopteran wings, scales, metamaterial sound absorber

  • Prof. Johanna Mappes, University of Helsinki - FI
    Prof. Johanna Mappes

     

    University of Helsinki
    Address: Organismal and Evolutionary Biology Research Programme Faculty of Biological and Environmental Sciences
    Viikki Biocenter 3 PO Box 65
    FIN-00014 Helsinki University - FI
    Email: johanna.mappes@helsinki.fi
    Phone: (+) 405372263
     

    Johanna Mappes is an evolutionary ecologist and her research focuses on predator-prey interactions, aposematic signals and mimicry in chemically defended prey and the evolution of signal polymorphism. Her main study species is the polymorphic, aposematic wood tiger moth (Arctia plantaginis) and their bird predators. Her lab consists of researchers from the fields of molecular biology, sensory ecology, chemical ecology, behavioral ecology and evolutionary ecology. In 2003 The Academy of Finland awarded Mappes the 'Young Dynamic Researcher Award' for her research merits in developing the ‘novel world method’ to study the evolution of aposematism.  She was elected as a Research Professor at the Academy of Finland from 2009-2013, and again from 2019-2023. Mappes served as a Professor of Evolutionary Ecology at the University of Jyväskylä from 2008-2019, where she headed the Centre of Excellence in Biological Interactions for the Academy of Finland from 2012-2018. In 2017 she was elected member of the Finnish Society of Sciences and Letters and in 2018 she became an honorary member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (AAAS). As of 2020, she is a Professor of Ecology at the University of Helsinki, Research Professor at the Academy of Finland.

    Ecology and evolution of colours: Predators, conspecific and other drivers of colour polymorphism

    Ever since Darwin and Wallace, animal colours have been at the core interest of naturalists because coloration is involved in survival and reproduction of individuals. Coloration is easy to observe and accessible for experimental manipulation. Same time coloration of animals created evolutionary paradoxes for evolutionary biologists, that are still partially unresolved. In my research, I use colourful and distasteful wood tiger moths (Arctia plantaginis) and their bird predators to understand the interplay between phenotypic and genotypic variation on individual fitness. This moth species has many colour morphs (= polymorphism), which is puzzling because predators are expected to learn to avoid the most effective and common signal and thus wipe out other colour variants from the prey population, yet polymorphism is common among aposematic animals. I will show some recent developments to determine genetic basis of colour polymorphism and results of experiments that test ecological conditions that may drive and maintain phenotypic diversity in warning signals and mimicry.  

    Keywords: Warning colours, chemical defence, predation, balancing selection

  • Joana Meier, Wellcome Sanger Institute & University of Cambridge - UK
    Joana Meier
     
    Wellcome Sanger Institute & University of Cambridge - UK
    Address: Wellcome Trust Genome Campus, Hinxton, Saffron Walden CB10 1RQ, United Kingdom 
    Email: joana.meier@sanger.ac.uk
    Phone: (+44) 7770606089

    Joana Meier is an evolutionary biologist working on speciation in cichlid fishes, butterflies and peacock spiders. During her PhD and postdoc with Ole Seehausen at the University of Bern, Joana worked on the rapid adaptive radiation of Lake Victoria cichlid fishes. She found an important role of admixture facilitating their rapid diversification. In 2018 to 2022, Joana held a Bateson Research Fellowship at the University of Cambridge and later also a Branco Weiss Fellowship. Here, she started to work on South American butterflies. In collaboration with Chris Jiggins, she worked on parallel hybrid zones in Heliconius butterflies. Since July 2022, she leads a research group at the Wellcome Sanger Institute in the Tree of Life Programme. In addition, she was awarded a Royal Society University Research Fellowship in October 2022. Her team works on speciation in ithomiini and Heliconius butterflies. Combining comparative methods and population genomics approaches, she studies how speciation rates are affected by structural variants, admixture and the genetic architecture of traits involved in speciation.

    The role of hybridisation and chromosomal rearrangements in rapid speciation

    Speciation rates vary massively across the tree of life. Some lineages diversify rapidly into many species, whereas their close relatives speciate at a much slower pace in the same environment. The factors influencing such lineage-specific speciation rates are poorly understood. Hybridisation and chromosomal rearrangements are two of the factors that may contribute. Both of these factors can both increase or reduce the likelihood of speciation. Hybridisation can homogenise genomic regions under divergent selection or even lead to the merging of species. However, it can also enrich the genetic variation fuelling adaptation and speciation. Large-scale chromosomal rearrangements can facilitate speciation by reducing hybrid fitness or decreasing recombination in the vicinity of the rearrangement and thus locking co-adapted genes together. However, chromosomal rearrangements can also facilitate the evolution of polymorphisms, e.g. via supergenes, allowing a species to utilise multiple niches without speciating. 
    Together with a network of collaborators in the Americas and Europe, my team compares rapidly and slowly speciating lineages of ithomiini and Heliconius butterflies. These South- and Central American butterflies are well-known for their Müllerian mimicry rings and high species richness. The large variation in speciation rates across different lineages, particularly within the ithomiini tribe, make them an ideal system to study factors affecting speciation rates. Ithomiini and one lineage of Heliconius butterflies also show high rates of chromosomal evolution with karyotypes ranging from five to 120 chromosomes (Brown et al. 2004). We reconstruct chromosome-level reference genomes and combine micro- and macro-evolutionary approaches to elucidate the roles of hybridisation and large-scale chromosomal rearrangements in speciation and species persistence.

    Keywords: Speciation, chromosomal rearrangements, hybridisation, ithomiini, Heliconius

     

     

  • Marko Mutanen, University of Oulu - FI
    Marko Mutanen

     

    University of Oulu
    Address: Ecology and Genetics Research Unit, FI-90014, Oulu, Finland
    Phone: (+) 358 40 8246749

    Marko Mutanen is an enthusiastic entomologist and molecular taxonomist who has expertise on North European Lepidoptera and sawfly diversity. His research focuses broadly on insect biodiversity, but in particular he is interested in finding efficient solutions to our current inefficiency to understand the bewildering biological diversity surrounding us. He is a strong proponent of both DNA barcoding and DNA taxonomy. He is convinced that overcoming the so-called taxonomic impediment and achieving global bio-literacy requires wide-scale adoption of genetics and genomics each in species identification, species delimitation and biomonitoring. Mutanen leads the Finnish Barcode of Life (FinBOL) project, which is building a DNA barcode reference library for the multicellular species occurring in Finland. He also is leading several research projects that focus on finding ways to make us more bio-literate. Furthermore, he presently directs the Biodiverse Anthropocenes (2021-2026), an 8M-Euro multidisciplinary university research profiling programme. Mutanen has published ca 120 peer-reviewed scientific articles.

    What do unexpected patterns in DNA barcodes indicate? Insights from genomics

    Many national initiatives and individual researchers are working hard to build DNA barcode reference libraries covering geographic regions and taxonomic groups. Lepidoptera researchers across the world have been particularly active on this front. Presently, DNA barcodes are available for over 100,000 species of Lepidoptera. While DNA barcoding was originally designed to facilitate specimen identification into respective species, they have also turned out to be efficient in revealing cryptic diversity and speeding up taxonomic workflows. Consequently, new species have been revealed even in regions that have been subjected to thorough taxonomic scrutiny. Several newly discovered species from North Europe provide examples of usefulness of barcoding in unmasking cryptic diversity.

    Ideally, DNA barcodes would show little variability within species and a plenty between them as this would ensure the efficiency of the approach. Unfortunately, it is not always that straightforward. Basically, barcoding may reveal two kinds of patterns that complicate their use in identification. First, DNA barcodes may differ only little, or not at all, between species. Second, they may show extraordinary variability within species that may even exceed that usually observed between species. Furthermore, it is not unusual to find two or more highly distinct clusters of barcodes within a single species.

    Such unexpected patterns in DNA barcodes may result from either ‘operational’ or biological causes. A ‘wrongly’ placed barcode raises a question: Is this specimen misidentified, or did contamination take place? Ruling out such operational causes may require analysis of additional genetic markers or detailed morphological study. Barcode sharing may be due to taxonomic over-splitting. Alternatively, extraordinary levels of intraspecific variability may have resulted from amplification of pseudogene instead of the true barcode. In addition to such operational causes, mitonuclear discordance may result from biological causes. Two species may share the same barcode because their recent speciation. Similarly, high intraspecific variation may result from other biological processes, such as retained genetic polymorphism or introgression.

    In order to understand the numerous observed cases of unexpected patterns observed in DNA barcodes of European Lepidoptera, we studied a number of cases using genomic approaches, including ddRAD sequencing and Target Capture, under various setting, including sympatry, parapatry and allopatry. These studies have revealed a variety of patterns and likely explanations, suggesting that patterns of variability in mitochondrial DNA is shaped by several biological processes, and their elucidation may require insights from nuclear genome. These studies have also revealed evident cases of cryptic diversity and taxonomic over-splitting.

    Keywords: Bioliteracy, DNA barcoding, genomics, mitochondrial DNA, mitonuclear discordance

     

  • Sandra Schachat, University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa - USA
    Sandra Schachat

     

    University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa
    Address:  Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences, Entomology Section. Honolulu, Hawaiʻi, United States

    Email: sschachat@schmidtsciencefellows.org
    Phone: (+1) 3013666424
     

    I am a postdoctoral fellow in Dan Rubinoff’s lab with interests in the fossil record, morphological evolution of Lepidoptera, and parthenogenesis in the context of sexual antagonism. I am particularly interested in the early fossil record of Pterygota and the early evolution of Lepidoptera. My research into both fossils and moths revolves largely around wings. During geologic intervals that predate major amber deposits, the fossil record of insects consists primarily of wings. When studying extant Lepidoptera my main focus has been on wing morphology: veins and color patterns. My university degrees are in Art History, Entomology, and Geology, and I enjoy conducting research that spans these disciplines. During the past few years I have been particularly interested in the question of whether we can pinpoint true evidence of absence in the fossil record, and more generally, what the fossil record can and cannot tell us.

    Evaluating putative fossil gaps for Lepidoptera and Pterygota: A comparative approach

    The fossil record of winged insects (Pterygota) is famously incomplete; the fossil record of Lepidoptera, all the more so. The ages of both Pterygota and Lepidoptera remain contentious because both undoubtedly originated before their first known appearances in the fossil record. Time-calibrated molecular phylogenetic studies present an available but imperfect alternative to a direct reading of the fossil record for estimating clade ages. Certain age estimates suggest that both Pterygota and Lepidoptera evaded fossilization for tens of millions of years during their early histories. However, whereas Pterygota appear to have diversified rapidly following the origin of wings, Lepidoptera appear to have diversified more slowly. Pterygota are unknown from the fossil record until ~325 Ma, shortly after which the major groups such as Holometabola appear and quickly outnumber all other terrestrial arthropods. In contrast, the few dozen fossil Lepidoptera known from the first ~100 Myr of the group's history have all been assigned to Monotrysia.

    Keywords: Fossil, phylogeny, Mesozoic, diversification
     

     

  • Eric Warrant, University of Lund - SE & Australian National University - AU
    Eric Warrant

     

    Lund Vision Group, Department of Biology, University of Lund, Sweden
    Research School of Biology, Australian National University, Canberra, ACT, Australia
    Address: Sölvegatan 35, SE-22362 Lund, Sweden
    Phone: (+) 46 704 964927

    Warrant is Professor of Zoology and Head of the Lund Vision Group at the University of Lund in Sweden, Visiting Fellow at the Research School of Biology at the Australian National University and Adjunct Professor at the University of South Australia. Warrant leads an active research group studying vision and visual navigation in animals from extremely dim habitats (nocturnal and deep sea). Using electrophysiological, optical, histological, behavioral and theoretical approaches, Warrant studies how animals as diverse as nocturnal insects, deep-sea cephalopods and fast-swimming predatory fishes are able to see well at very low light levels, and his research has led to the discovery of neural principles that permit vision in dim light. In recent years Warrant’s group has turned its attention to the sensory basis of long-distance migration in nocturnal insects, particularly the role of the Earth’s magnetic field and the stars in migratory navigation. Warrant’s work is funded by an Advanced Grant from the European Research Council, as well as from the Swedish Research Council. Warrant is Past-President of the International Society of Neuroethology, Fellow of the Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters, Fellow of the Royal Institute of Navigation and Fellow of the Royal Physiographic Society, and sits on the Senior Editorial Board of the Journal of Comparative Physiology A and also on the Academic Advisory Board of the Proceedings of the Royal Society B.

    Australian Bogong moths use the stars and the Earth’s magnetic field as compasses for long-distance navigation at night

    Each spring, billions of Bogong moths escape hot conditions in different regions of southeast Australia by migrating over 1000 km to a limited number of cool caves in the Australian Alps, historically used for aestivating over the summer. At the beginning of autumn the same individuals make a return migration to their breeding grounds to reproduce and die. By tethering spring and autumn migratory moths in a flight simulator, we discovered that Bogong moths are able to sense the Earth’s magnetic field and correlate its directional information with visual cues to steer migration. We also discovered that a critically important visual cue is the distribution of starlight within the austral night sky. Under natural dorsally-projected night skies, and in a nulled magnetic field (disabling the magnetic sense), moths fly in their seasonally appropriate migratory directions, turning in the opposite direction when the night sky is rotated 180°. Visual interneurons in the moth’s optic lobe and central brain respond vigorously to identical sky rotations. Migrating Bogong moths thus use the starry night sky as a true compass to distinguish geographic cardinal directions, the first invertebrate known to do so. These stellar cues are likely reinforced by the Earth’s magnetic field to create a robust compass mechanism for long-distance nocturnal navigation. 

    Keywords: migration, navigation, stellar compass, Bogong moth, Agrotis infusa

REGISTRATION  

  • SEL members 200€
  • Non SEL members 300€
  • Students & PhD Scholars 100€
  • Gala dinner (50€)

The fees includes: 2 lunches, 2 lunch boxes, 1 cocktail & the coffee breaks

 

Scientific Committee

 

Frederic Archaux

Frederic Archaux

 Head of Research Unit INRAE Forest Ecosystems. My research aims at identifying forest practices and landscape features   beneficial to biodiversity including butterflies. I also contributed to atlas and inventories of moth at the county and regional scale. 

 

Laurence Despres

   Laurence Després

   Laurence Després is Professor at University Grenoble Alpes (France), where she teaches evolutionary ecology and phylogenetics. Her main research interests are in the evolutionary processes leading to population diversification and speciation. Most projects combine population genetics and phylogenomic analyses together with ecological, biochemical and behavioral studies to test hypotheses about evolutionary processes or adaptation to multiple constraints mainly in the Alps.

 

Marianne Elias

  Marianne Elias

    Marianne Elias is an evolutionary biologist and a team leader with a strong interest in the ecology and evolution of butterflies. Her team has contributed major advances in systematics, community ecology and history of diversification of the neotropical butterfly tribe Ithomiini, comprising nearly 400 species and engaging in Müllerian mimetic interactions with other Lepidoptera. Marianne also has interest in understanding how butterfly populations and community respond to variable environments across elevation gradients in temperate and tropical regions.   
 

 David Lees

David Lees

    David Lees is a Senior Curator at the Natural History Museum in London, where he curates the traditional ‘Microlepidoptera’ and is an Editor-in-Chief of Nota Lepidopterologica. His research interests are molecular and morphological systematics, taxonomy and biogeography of butterflies and moths worldwide, with a long-term interest in the fauna of Madagascar.

 

Carlos Lopez-Vaamonde

 Carlos Lopez-Vaamonde

   Carlos Lopez-Vaamonde is a research scientist at the Forest Zoology Unit of INRAE Orléans and research associate at the Institute of Research on Insect Biology (IRBI) at Tours. He currently studies the responses of moths to environmental disturbances, biosurveillance of invasive species and systematics of Gracillariidae leaf-mining micromoths. He was general secretary of the Society for European Lepidopterology from 2015 till 2019 and is currently ordinary member of the council. He served as chief editor of Nota Lepidopterologica in 2015 and is now subject editor.

 

Jadranka Rota

 Jadranka Rota

   Jadranka Rota received her PhD in Entomology from the University of Connecticut, USA. She has worked as curator at Biological Museum, Lund University, Lund, Sweden since 2018. Her research interest is broadly in evolutionary history of Lepidoptera, including taxonomy, molecular phylogenetics and phylogenomics, as well as historical biogeography. Jadranka taxonomically specializes in the family Choreutidae, but has published on a number of different groups of Lepidoptera, including micros and macros. She is currently in the council of the Society for European Lepidopterology and she serves as a subject editor for Nota Lepidopterologica. 

   

Rodolphe Rougerie

  Rodolphe Rougerie

   Rodolphe Rougerie is a lecturer and curator of Lepidoptera at the Natural History Museum in Paris. He works on the systematics     and macroecology of hawkmoths, Sphingidae and wild silk moths Saturniidae by combining morphology, ecology, life traits and molecular phylogenies. He is a member of the Scientific Council of the Pôle National de Données de la Biodiversité (PNDB); France representative in iBOL International Scientific Collaboration Committee: https://ibol.org;  Member of Global Lepidoptera checklist working group (CoL/GBIF)  and Subject editor for Biodiversity Data Journal and Zookeys and  member of the editorial board of the Bulletin de la Société Entomologique de France and Antenor

 

Ryrholm_Nils

   Nils Ryrholm

  Nils Ryrholm received his PhD in Entomology at Uppsala University, Sweden. His thesis was about the influence of local- and microclimate on the    distribution of Lepidopteran species. He is presently working as professor at the University of Gävle in Sweden. He has continued to study       climatic impact on insects, in recent years mainly changes due to global warming. He is also working with the development of sexual pheromones as a tool in insect conservation. Nils is also strongly involved in several conservation projects like enhancing biodiversity in infra-structural habitats, the red-listing of butterflies and moths – on both national and European level.

 

Pasi Sihvonen

 Pasi Sihvonen

   Pasi Sihvonen is Director of zoology unit at the Finnish Museum of Natural History, University of Helsinki. His research focuses on systematics and biodiversity of geometrid moths globally, a megadiverse insect radiation of 24 000 species. Sihvonen has worked in several director, manager and expert positions at the University of Helsinki, Academy of Finland and the European Commission in research funding, research infrastructures, service development and research administration. Sihvonen promotes Diversity, Equity and Inclusion https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2237-9325  

 

Location: Hôtel Dupanloup

  • 16:00 Registration 
  • 17:30 Official opening by LE STUDIUM
  • 17:45 Carlos Lopez-Vaamonde -Scope & Outline of the conference 
  • 18:00  Erik J. van Nieukerken - Presidential address
  • 18:15 Keynote speaker:  Marc Holderied - Wingtip decoys and Stealth cloaks - Acoustic Defences of Moths against detection by echolocating Bats
  • 19:00 Wine & cheese cocktail

 

Location: Musée des Beaux Arts

Moderator: David Lees

  • 09:00 Registration
  • 09:15 Keynote SpeakerJoana Meier - The role of hybridisation and chromosomal rearrangements in rapid speciation 
  • 09:45Issei Ohshima - More than 5% COI divergence without morphological differentiation: Four host-associated cryptic populations in Psydrocercops wisteriae (Gracillariidae)
  • 10:00 Austin Kyhl - Tortricidae: the most successful family of terrestrial animal life in Hawaiʻi?
  • 10:15 Alena Suchackova - Biogeography of Palearctic woodland butterflies through their entire ranges
  • 10:30 Coffee break & posters session (Hôtel Dupanloup)
  • 11:30 Joaquín Baixeras - Form and function of deciduous cornuti: the case of the cornuti caltrop in Peridea anceps (Goeze, 1781) (Lepidoptera: Notodontidae)
  • 11:45 Boyan Zlatkov - First 3D reconstruction of copulation in Lepidoptera: interaction of genitalia in Tortrix viridana (Tortricidae)
  • 12:00 Mikael Englund - You can now both have your specimen and dissect it – micro-CT scanning revisited as a non-destructive imaging method for precious dried and pinned insects
  • 12:15 Jose Vicente Pérez Santa Rita - Towards a better understanding of male scent organs in Tortricidae: morphological and evolutionary perspectives of the hindwing anal roll in Olethreutini (Lepidoptera: Tortricidae: Olethreutinae).
  • 12:30 Lunch  & Poster session (Hôtel Dupanloup) (1h30)

Moderator: Jadranka Rota

  • 14:00 Keynote Speaker: Marko Mutanen - What do unexpected patterns in DNA barcodes indicate? Insights from genomics
  • 14:30  Matthew Greenwood - Resolving the radiation of Coenonympha butterflies in the phylogenomic era
  • 14:45 Jadranka Rota - Evolutionary history of Tineoidea
  • 15:00 Vineesh Nedumpally - Phylogenomics of North European Noctuidae based on anchored hybrid enrichment technology
  • 15:15 Rodolphe Rougerie - The evolutionary history of capital-breeding moths through the lens of wild silkmoths  (Saturniidae) phylogenomics"
  • 15:30 Etka Yapar - Phylogenomic Tree of Gelechioidea
  • 15:45 Short break (30')
  • 16:15 Yen Shen Horn - The first molecular phylogeny of Chalcosiinae (Zygaenidae) and the its influences on the revised classification and inference of character evolution
  • 16:30 Théo Leger -  A pipeline to extract and process digitized insect label information  
  • 16:45 Pathour Rajendra Shashank - CRISPR-based diagnostics successfully detects invasive insect pests
  • 17:00 David Lees - Diversity and endemism of the Lepidoptera of Madagascar

Free evening

Location: Musée des Beaux Arts

Moderator: Marie Anne Elias

  • 09:00 Keynote Speaker: Andrea Battisti - Ecology and evolution of processionary moths
  • 09:30  Maria Khan - Patterns of Speciation in a parapatric pair of Saturnia moths as revealed by Target Capture.
  • 09:45 Thibaut Capblanc - The genomics of speciation with secondary contact: a case study in Coenonympha butterflies.
  • 10:00 Antoine Guiguet - Intra- and inter-specific comparative transcriptomic approaches to reveal candidate effectors of gall induction in the micromoth Caloptilia cecidophora (Gracillariidae, Lepidoptera)
  • 10:15 Jean-Michel Drezen - Recent and potentially ongoing invasion of lepidopteran genomes by a helitron
  • 10:30 Coffee break & posters session (Hôtel Dupanloup) (1h)
  • 11:30 Sridhar Halali - Strong phylogenetic inertia drives the evolution of eye size in temperate butterflies
  • 11:45 Pável Matos - Bridging macro- and microevolutionary studies in Neotropical butterflies
  • 12:00 Laurence Despres - Demographic and adaptive responses to climate change in Parnassius apollo
  • 12:15 Mathieu Joron - Understanding phenological changes along altitudinal gradients in butterflies and moths
  • 12:30 Lunch  & Poster session (Hôtel Dupanloup)(1h30)

Moderator:  Niklas Whalberg

  • 14:00 Keynote Speaker:  Jérôme Casas - Transport and capture of pheromones: a mesoscale approach
  • 14:30 Hossein Rajaei - Forum Herbulot: a successful collaborative network coordinating research on geometrid moths
  • 14:45 Axel Hausmann - We want them all ! - Completing the DNA-library for European Lepidoptera in the BGE project.
  • 15:00 Hugo Benitez - Wing shape Evolution in the cryptic genus Prasinocyma (Lepidoptera: Geometridae): an example using the Ethiopian group.
  • 15:15 Flavia Rossina Joele Alves de Moraes - Phylogenomics of a neotropical geometrid tribe reveal contrasting patterns of phylogenetic signal in wing color characters
  • 15:30 Leidys Murillo Ramos - Emptying the taxonomic trash bin: molecular phylogenies resolve the polyphylies of Oenochrominae and Desmobathrinae.
  • 15:45 Short break (30')
  • 16:15 Shabnam Kumari - What underlies the unimodal elevational species richness pattern of Geometridae moths (Lepidoptera: Heterocera) in the protected area of the North-western Himalayan Biogeographic province, Himachal Pradesh, India?
  • 16:30 Erki Ounap - Molecular phylogeny of North European Geometridae (Lepidoptera, Geometroidea)
  • 16:45 Kadri Ude - A phylogenetic-comparative study on wing shape in Geometridae
  • 17:00 Pasi Sihvonen - Species delimitation in allopatry: a case study on African cycad moths (Geometridae: Ennominae)
  • 17:15 Hermann Staude - Geometrid moths of southern Africa (GMSA) project, a monograph.
  • 17:30 Claude Tautel - The early stages and systematic position of Gypsochroa renitidata (Hübner, [1817]) (Lepidoptera, Geometridae)
  • 18:30 Public lecture in French, LE STUDIUM LECTURE:  David Demergès - Agir pour la conservation des papillons, c'est encore possible !(Location: MOBE (Muséum d'Orléans pour la Biodiversité et l'Environnement, 6 rue Marcel Proust, 20 minutes walk from the Museum)

Free evening

 

Location: Musée des Beaux Arts

Moderator: Laurence Depres      

  • 09:00 Keynote Speaker: Johanna Mappes - Ecology and evolution of colours: Predators, conspecific and other drivers of colour polymorphism
  • 09:30 Daniel Linke - Anti-predator defences of neotropical Skipper butterflies (Hesperiidae), more complex than previously thought.
  • 09:45 Pritha Dey - A trait-based understanding of the vulnerability of a paleotropical moth community to predation by a sympatric bat with flexible foraging strategies
  • 10:00 Paul Doniol-Valcroze - Variation of chemical profiles and diversification in an alpine butterfly species complex
  • 10:15 Zowi Oudendijk - Evolution and prevalence of de novo synthesized pyrazines as a chemical defence in Tiger moth (Arctiinae) species
  • 10:30 Coffee break & last posters session (Hôtel Dupanloup)(1h30)
  • 11:30 Marianne Elias - One ring to bring them all: community assembly and niche evolution of mimetic butterflies
  • 11:45  Eric Toro-Delgado - Lack of evidence for co-cladogenesis suggests lateral and introgressive transfer of Wolbachia in European butterfly sister species
  • 12:00 Marcin Wiorek - Madagascar, Moths & Mimicry – a new potential mimicry system in Madagascar, involving Syntomini tiger moths
  • 12:15 Violaine Llaurens - Evolution of temporal niches in butterfly communities and consequences on sympatriciation
  •  12:30 Lunch (Hôtel Dupanloup)(1h30)

Moderator:  Frederic Archaux

  •  14:00 Keynote Speaker: Eric Warrant - Australian Bogong moths use the stars and the Earth’s magnetic field as compasses for long-distance navigation at night
  • 14:30 Anna Suuronen - Outbreak probabilities of macro-moth species in warming high latitudes
  • 14:45 Gunnar Brehm - Five years LepiLED: Impacts on light trapping and moth monitoring
  • 15:00 Ida-Maria Huikkonen - Distress of northern moths – population trends in the Finnish moth monitoring scheme (Nocturna)
  • 15:15 Yenny Correa Carmona - ANDIV: Exploring insect diversty in a global biodiversity hotspot
  • 15:30 Mar Repulles - Potential and limitations of Oxford Nanopore’s MinION sequencing device as a tool for rapid biodiversity inventory in the field
  • 15:45 Mahtab Yazdanian - Ecological and life-history traits predict temporal trends in biomass of boreal moths
  • 16:00 Loretta Mugo - The active and inactive gut microbiota of Lepidoptera: Effect of diet composition and implications for growth
  • 16:15 Tessie Garinie - Side effect of copper-based fungicide on untargeted pest: a case study of European Grapevine Moth
  • 16:30 short talks session (3 minutes, one slide): 
  1. Feza Can - Geometrid Moths of Turkey, a complete inventory of the family
  2. Feza Can - Zygaenidae of Turkey
  3. Hossein Rajaei - LEPIDOPTERA IRANICA, call for the next update
  4. Toomas Tammaru - Landscape-level determinants of butterfly species richness in northern Europe

Location: Hôtel Dupanloup)

  • 16:45 Coffee Break  
  • 17:15 -> 18:45 SEL general meeting 
  • 18:45 Guided visit of the city centre  (Departure in front of the Hôtel Dupanloup, arrival at the Lift)
  • 20:00 Gala dinner - Le Lift

Hôtel Dupanloup

Moderators: Nils Ryrholm & Pasi Sihvonen

  • 09:00 Keynote Speaker: Sandra Schachat (via zoom) - Evaluating putative fossil gaps for Lepidoptera and Pterygota: A comparative approach 
  • 09:30 Robert Hoare (via zoom) - Phantasmagoria unfettered: the astonishing Eschatotypa group of New Zealand (Lepidoptera: Tineoidea)
  • 09:45 Sajad Noori - Lepidoptera under human-induced threats: a case study on Iranian Lepidoptera 
  • 10:00 Marta Vila - Landscape genetics of the protected Spanish Moon Moth in core, buffer, and peripheral areas of the Ordesa y Monte Perdido National Park (Central Pyrenees, Spain)
  • 10:15 Evert Van de Schoot - Impact of light pollution on the development of the diurnal caterpillars of the Garden Tiger Moth (Arctia caja): an experimental approach
  • 10:30 Coffee break
  • 11:00 Laura Torrado-Blanco - Past, present, and future of the NW Spanish montane endemism Erebia palarica Chapman, 1905.
  • 11:15 Jenny Hodgson - Where and why are species’ range shifts hampered by unsuitable landscapes? 
  • 11:30 Zdenek Faltynek Fric - Population size, behaviour, and dispersal of Coenonympha tullia (Lepidoptera, Nymphalidae, Satyrinae)
  • 11:45 Caroline Kebaili - Human and climatic impact on four emblematic species of butterflies in Franche-Comté and implications for conservation management
  • 12:00 Dirk Maes - Species traits as a guidance for moth conservation in a highly anthropogenic European region
  • 12:15 Ole Karsholt - The Lepidoptera of the Faroe Islands – a dynamic fauna
  • 12:30 Martin Wiemers - Conserving Madeira’s threatened endemic butterflies
  • 12:45 Jérémy Gauthier - Museomics to retrace the decline of butterfly populations throughout the 20th century
  • 13:00 Nils Ryrholm - In search of unknown biodiversity – and their resources    
  • 13:15 Gerhard M.Tarmann - Promissing developments in the upper Vinschgau valley/Val Venosta and in the SEL Study Area Sesvenna (Südtirol/Alto Adige, Italy) regarding the distribution and diversity of Zygaenidae
  • 13:30 Closure of Conference & Student Awards
  • 13:45 End of the conference day
     

Oral presentations & posters

Deadline of Abstract submission: Wednesday 31st May 2023.

Please send your abstract before the deadline to maurine.villiers@lestudium-ias.fr .
Only one oral presentation by delegate is allowed. The scientific committee will review the submitted abstracts and will comunicate its decision shortly after the Abstract submission deadline. 

Please download the template for oral presentation.
Please download the template for short talk presentation (3minutes, 1 slide)
Please download the template for poster presentation.
Please note that we do not print the posters, but racks & pins will be provided for up to A0 sizes, portrait format.
 

 Indicate preferred topic:

  • Forum Herbulot
  • Systematics
  • Ecology
  • Conservation

Submission details

Files and figures should be named with the presenting author’s name.

Each author can submit a maximum of 2 presentations (oral and/or poster). Co-authorship, however, is not affected by this limit.

Authors will be notified via email about the outcome of the review process by 16 June 2023 with an acceptance/rejection letter. The authors of all accepted abstracts (in the case of multiple authors, the author designated as the presenting author) must register to be included in the final conference program. Online early bird registration will start on 27th February2023 and close on 15th July 2023. Oral and poster presentations that do not meet this requirement, will be removed from the program.

After the submission deadline, abstracts cannot be corrected or modified.

Location

 

Hotel Dupanloup

 

Hôtel Dupanloup : 1, rue Dupanloup - 45000 ORLEANS - FR

The conference venue is unique. Located right next to the Orléans’ cathedral, the episcopal palace of Orléans, built between 1635 and 1641, locally known as the Hôtel Dupanloup, is a classical French building which served until 1905 of residence to the bishops of Orléans.  Since 2014, the renewed palace hosts the International University Center for Research and Le Studium Loire Valley Institute for Advanced Studies.

Participants will be welcomed in this exceptional surrounding, blending Middle Age and Renaissance cultures with modern design and will have the opportunity to discover French cuisine and wines.

How to get there ?

Train
By train: 

* Orléans centre station
 1.5 hour trip from Paris (Austerlitz)

 * Les Aubrais station (4km from Orleans town centre)
Tramway A, 10 minutes trip to Orléans centre station
 

> Plan your trip by train: https://www.sncf-connect.com/en-en/

Voiture
By car:

GPS: 47.90243, 1.91179
Please note that you can't park in the courtyard in front of the Hotel Dupanloup.
Paid car parks nearby : 
Parking Cathédrale, Rue Saint-Pierre Lentin, 45000 Orléans
Parking Hôtel de Ville, 4 Rue Fernand Rabier, 45000 Orléans

Avion
 By plane:
*Arrival at Roissy Charles De Gaulle (CDG) airport
Take RER B in direction to Saint Rémy Les Chevreuse, step out at Gare du Nord Stop
Take Metro 5 in direction to Place d'Italie, step out at Gare d'Austerlitz Stop 
> Then take a train to Orléans (see "by train" section above)
*Arrival at Paris-Orly (ORY) airport: 
Take RER C from Pont de Rungis – Aéroport d’Orly in direction to Pontoise.
Step out at Gare d'Austerlitz Stop
> Then take a train to Orléans (see "by train" section above)  

General Information

Information
Congress Venue

 Hôtel Dupanloup, 1 rue Dupanloup

45000 Orléans, France

Dates
 Dates

Monday, 25 September - Friday, 29 September 2023

Language
 Language

The official language of the Congress is English

Badge
Welcome pack and Name Badge

 Upon arrival you will receive a welcome pack that includes the printed material of the Conference and your name badge will be given to you at the reception . Please wear your name badge at all times during the Conference and to all official Conference events.

Invitation Letters
Invitation Letters

 An official letter of invitation facilitating the obtention of an entry visa can be sent upon request . In order to receive an invitation letter for visa purposes, send an email to maurine.villiers@lestudium-ias.fr. Please note that : 
- we only issue an official letter once the payment of the registration fee has been validated.
- such letters do not represent a commitment on the part of the Organisers to provide any financial assistance.

Certificat
Certificate of attendance

 After the conference, in order to receive a certficate of participation, send an email to maurine.villiers@lestudium-ias.fr

Hotel
Hotels

List of recommended Hotels in Orléans

Restaurant
Restaurant

List of recommended Restaurants in Orléans

Partners of the event