SSS: Swiss Systematics Society
The main highlight of 2023 of the Swiss Systematics Society was our annual meeting, which took place at the Musée d'Histoire Naturelle in Neuchâtel. The presentations showcased the wide scope of systematics, from fossil moschids to the Swiss plant tree of life.
We also continued our efforts to make the work of systematists more visible, by publishing a list of new species described by Swiss researchers online (https://swiss-systematics.ch/de/new_species_swiss_made_2023). Last year, this list reached an all-time high, with 314 new species. The general assembly elected Calamagrostis lonana Eggenberg et al. (2023) as the emblem of the year of the society.
Last year saw three newsletters sent out (numbers 48 to 50), updating our members on news from the society and from systematics on the international stage. With number 50, Jean Mariaux concluded his work on the newsletter and as a member of our board - he will be greatly missed!
Our annual scientific meeting, the "SSSDay", took place on February 3rd November at the Musée d'Histoire Naturelle in Neuchâtel. It featured two invited lectures, first an enlightening presentation by Anne-Claire Fabre on metamorphosis in salamanders, and second a joint talk by Jérémy Gauthier and Lionel Cavin on De-extinction. Both spurred an lively discussion. Ten additional presentations by our members took us from the Neotropics to Cameroon, from parasites of crab-eating frogs to Adephagan beetles. Six of these were given by student members. It was a inspiring meeting which once more refreshed our love of systematics as a fundamental and highly diverse branch of science.
As every year, the society also supported biology23, the largest conference in Switzerland on organismic biology.
Student travel grant: We awarded the student travel grant to Gaetan Potin, who used the support to visit fossil collections across North America to study Cambrian radiodonts, and Diana Rendon, who presented her PhD work on the taxonomy of jumping-lice at the 9th European Hemiptera congress in Prague.
Best master’s thesis award : The SSS award for the best master thesis in systematics in Switzerland went to Alice Padlewski, who presented her findings at the SSS Day.
Free travel to the SSSDay for students: Once more, several students took the opportunity to get free travel to the annual meeting of the society, and most of them also presented their work at the meeting.
Our outreach project "New Species Swiss Made" recorded a record number of new species this year: 314 new beetles, catfishes, tapeworms, fossil wasps, mayflies, mustard plants, fungi, bark lice etc. were described last year by systematists from Switzerland. Included in this very gratifying number are 128 new noctuid moth species from the Jacques Plante collection. It shows how important it remains to collect, examine and report biodiversity, and that dedicated work can speed up species discovery manifold.
As an emblem of the society, the general assembly elected the newly described grass species Calamagrostis lonana Eggenberg et al. (2023). This species is, as far as we know, endemic to the alluvial plain of the Torrent de Lona in the Val d'Anniviers in the Valais.