Yves Alarie

Biography

Born in Trois-Rivières, Qc. I received a college degree in Health Sciences from CEGEP de Trois-Rivières in 1976. B.A. Philosophy and Anthropology (Université laval in 1980), BSc and MSc in Bio-Ecology from Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières in 1983 and 1985 respectively; PhD Sciences biologiques (Université de Montréal, 1990); NSERC Postdoctoral fellow (University of Manitoba (1990-1992). Assistant Professor University of Manitoba 1992-93 and Laurentian University 1993 to present. My research program is in the field of Insect Systematics has been supported steadily by NSERC since 1993; I have received the Laurentian University Research Excellence Award in 2002-2003. Director of RDC at Laurentian since October 2011. Married, father of 3 children.

Research Interest

My research emphasizes study of larval morphology of aquatic beetles. Although water beetles are among the most common insect inhabitants of freshwaters, knowledge of their larval morphology is scanty throughout the world. The identification of larvae is a continuing problem because the literature available to accomplish this is scattered, limited to certain groups, outdated, difficult to use or non-existent. Because of this, I developed a framework, which facilitates comparison among species. My system of analysis focuses on study of body sensilla, which are useful both for diagnosis and study of the genealogical relationships among taxa. The study of larval features should allow more comprehensive classifications to be constructed. Larvae are under differing selection pressures and therefore show quite different features. A long-term goal of my research is to produce a more rigorous and stable classification by combining characters from larvae with other data sets including adult and molecular characters.