The formal business of the society was conducted first. At the opening of the general assembly, scheduled for 13:30, President Oliver Martin greeted the 24 members present and communicated a change to the programme: because the report of the treasurer, or quästorin, was not available and could not be presented at the ordinary general assembly, an extraordinary part of the assembly would be held by videoconference later in the year. That extraordinary session duly took place on 21 June 2021, which is why the minutes of the society's general assembly cover more than a single sitting. The minutes of the 2020 general assembly in Basel were approved without comment and without amendment, and the meeting closed at 14:13, a brisk session by the standards of any learned society.
In his presidential report, Oliver Martin reviewed a year in which the society continued to rely on a network of institutional partners. Administrative support in 2020 came once again from the Centre Suisse de Cartographie de la Faune in Neuchâtel, while the society remained a member of the Platform Biology of the Swiss Academy of Sciences, SCNAT, in Bern, where it is looked after by managing director Pia Stieger. Requests for financial support submitted by the president were granted in full by the institutions approached. The Swiss Academy of Sciences contributed CHF 13,155, the Biedermann-Mantel Foundation in Zurich gave CHF 6,000, and Syngenta AG in Basel provided CHF 6,000. The president expressed the society’s gratitude to these three funders for their important contributions, and extended thanks on behalf of the board and the membership to all the institutions, committees and individuals who had supported the society’s work.
The report also looked back at the society’s calendar of meetings. The entomo.ch annual meeting, traditionally a two-day event, had taken place on Friday 6 and Saturday 7 March 2020 at the Natural History Museum Basel, with the general assembly itself held there on the Saturday morning from 10 to 11. The society thanked Matthias Borer and his team at the museum for the excellent organisation. The two regular half-yearly board meetings were held on 6 March 2020 at the Natural History Museum in Basel and, reflecting the pandemic’s disruption, online via Zoom on 4 November 2020. The society’s website, which includes information about the entomo.ch meeting, remained accessible through the Portal Naturwissenschaften Schweiz of SCNAT, with support from Mariella Hobi and Nicola Frieden and editorial work by Andres Jordi.
Digitalisation featured prominently in the year’s activities. The society’s projects to digitise entomological journals continued, and in addition to the journals already digitised, all volumes of several further titles are to be made available online in PDF format: Entomologica Basiliensia and Entomologica Basiliensia et Collectionis Frey, in collaboration with the Natural History Museum Basel, the Bulletin Romand d’entomologie, and Entomo Helvetica. The society’s contact person for this work remained Regina Wanger, head of the DigiCenter at the ETH Library in Zurich. In a separate collaborative initiative, entomologists from Germany, Austria and Switzerland together designated the mayfly Ephemera danica, the Danish mayfly, as Insect of the Year for 2021, and a flyer produced for the occasion can be obtained through the society. The librarian’s report, delivered by Philippe Jeanneret, was brief: in 2020 there was no activity of the society’s library.
The scientific publishing side of the society showed both strengths and warning signs. Daniel Burckhardt, editor of Fauna Helvetica, reported that no volume had been published in the reporting year, although two manuscripts were already well advanced, and he thanked CSCF head Dr Yves Gonseth and his staff for their good collaboration. Thibault Lachat, editor-in-chief of the society’s journal Alpine Entomology, reported that the fourth edition of the journal had been delivered at the beginning of 2021, containing 18 articles across 194 pages: 13 research articles, one checklist, one short communication, one book review, one in memoriam, and the yearly report of the society. Authors of ten different nationalities were represented, fitting the journal’s goal of gaining importance at the international level, although authorship remained dominated by Swiss entomologists. Two new subject editors joined the editorial board, which now comprises 24 specialists, and thanks to the contributions of the editors and the permanent support of the publisher Pensoft, the mean duration for acceptance of a manuscript was significantly reduced. Lachat also sounded a note of caution: since late autumn 2020 the journal had experienced a strong decrease in submitted manuscripts, which might affect the number of published papers in the next issue, and measures had already been discussed with Pensoft and the editorial board to secure a consistent flow of submissions.
The delayed financial business was settled at the extraordinary assembly on 21 June 2021. From treasurer Emanuela Leonetti’s 2020 accounts, expenditure included CHF 6,618.73 for printing Alpine Entomology, CHF 16,260.75 to Pensoft for the website and open access, CHF 70.84 for the publication of Fauna Helvetica, CHF 5,518.40 for administration, CHF 1,673.00 for the SCNAT membership fee, CHF 1,463.12 for support of working groups and CHF 1,403.50 from the sale of bulletins. Income included CHF 13,925.70 in membership fees, CHF 8,809.78 from sales of Fauna Helvetica volumes, CHF 4,688.12 from SCNAT, CHF 6,000.00 each from Syngenta and the Biedermann-Mantel Foundation, and smaller sums from donations and interest. The income statement for 2020 closed with a profit of CHF 567.12 and assets of CHF 109,983.31. The auditors, Michel Sartori and Christian Monnerat, reported that the opening balance, the annual closing and the operating statement matched the submitted accounts, that the receipts were correct and matched the ordinary activities of the society, and that the society’s assets corresponded to the asset account of the balance sheet. They proposed that the accounts be approved and the treasurer granted discharge, and the members present granted that discharge unanimously.
Further decisions followed in quick succession. The president presented the 2021 budget, which once again envisaged a profit of CHF 0, and the membership fees were left unchanged: members in Switzerland pay CHF 60, students and members otherwise in training pay half the ordinary fee, CHF 30, for three years, and members abroad who wish to receive the printed version of Alpine Entomology pay an additional CHF 15 in shipping costs. The budget and the fees were approved unanimously. Before the close of business, the society remembered its deceased members with a minute of silence, among them Michele Abderhalden of Info Fauna and the Natural History Museum Lugano, Claude Henri Besuchet, conservator at the Natural History Museum Geneva, Renate Gygax-Däppen, Charles Maquelin of the Center for Bee Research in Liebefeld, Willi Sauter-Niederer, professor at ETH Zurich and a former board member, president and honorary member of the society, Jean-Michel Studer and Erwin Steinmann-Gredinger. The next entomo.ch meeting is planned for 4 and 5 March 2022 at the Museo cantonale di storia naturale in Lugano.
Subject of Research: The 2021 annual meeting of the Swiss Entomological Society, held by videoconference, covering society reports, finances and experimental Hymenoptera research.
Article Title: Protokoll der Jahresversammlung der Schweizerischen Entomologischen Gesellschaft vom 5. März und 21. Juni 2021 via Videokonferenz
Article References: Neumann, M. (2021). Protokoll der Jahresversammlung der Schweizerischen Entomologischen Gesellschaft vom 5. März und 21. Juni 2021 via Videokonferenz. Alpine Entomology, 5, 119-122. https://doi.org/10.3897/alpento.5.77433
Image Credits: AI Generated
Keywords: Swiss Entomological Society, annual meeting, videoconference, Hymenoptera, ants, Ooceraea biroi, division of labour, Alpine Entomology, Fauna Helvetica, entomo.ch, insect conservation, scientific societies
News Source: Drew Townsend. (October 28, 2026). Research report: Protokoll der Jahresversammlung der Schweizerischen Entomologischen Gesellschaft vom 5. März und 21. Juni 2021 via Videokonferenz. Scienmag.
