SSS: Swiss Systematics Society
The year 2024 once more saw an edition of the National Day of Natural History Collections, which took place on 27th October at 19 natural history museums and botanical gardens all over Switzerland.
Our annual scientific meeting was hosted by the Institute of Systematic Botany in Zurich and included a workshop on specimen-based data management on Thursday and a conference day on Friday. Two invited speakers were joined by four talks by our members (including three students).
Researchers at Swiss institutions described 86 new species last year, and the general assembly elected the stonefly Dictyogenus nadigi as the emblem of the society year.
Last year, we sent out two newsletters to our members (numbers 51 and 52), containing the latest news from the international world of systematics.
The SSS supported the biology24 meeting in Zurich on January 18-19. Several of our members presented, including our board member Emmanuel Toussaint as keynote speaker.
Our annual meeting took place on 1st November at the Botanical Garden in Zurich. Like every second year, it was preceded by a workshop on October 31st, which this time was led by Reto Nyffeler and his team. It was devoted to research data management for collection-based research projects. Recent developments and emerging tools were presented, in line with the Open Research Data agenda and FAIR principles for scientific data. The workshop attracted about 20 participants and was very well received.
The scientific meeting on Friday attracted 31 members and included two invited speakers. First, Nicolas Puillandre from the museum in Paris talked on “Integrative taxonomy, concepts and methods”, which spured a lively discussion. In the afternoon, Rodrigo Camara Leret from Zurich presented to us his take on the “Cultural dimensions of biodiversity”, introducing us to his research at the interplay between botany and cultural heritage. The meeting also included four presentations by our members on various taxa, from stone flies to extinct wasps and fishes, and various methods, from barcoding and species delimitation to speciation research and palaeontology. The day was rounded off by guided tours through the herbarium and garden.
Once more, we aimed to encourage young systematists through three actions in 2024. The student travel grant supported a PhD student to travel to the XX International Botanical Contress in Madrid, where he presented his work on the phylogenomics and conservation of plants in Switzerland. Second, we reimbursed train tickets to the annual meeting by students, as every year. Third, the award for the best master thesis in systematics went to Gloria Animalesto, who studied the diversity of digenean trematodes in frogs from West Java.
To increase the attention for the natural history collections in our country, we launch a “national day of natural history collections” in every even year. In 2024, 19 museums and botanical gardens all over Switzerland participated and opened their doors to the general public. Feedback was very positive, with especially the guided tours behind the scenes being much appreciated.
Like every year, we collected new species described by researchers at Swiss institutions in 2024 and listed them on our webpage. From this list, which included 89 species last year, our members chose their favourite at our annual meeting – which was a new stonefly species from the Alps. The New Species Swiss Made 2024 was announced in early 2025 with a press release, which received quite some spread.