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The Odonata, dragonflies and damselflies, constitute one of the more charismatic and better-studied orders of insects. The approximately 6,000 extant species on Earth can be variously found on all continents, except Antarctica. A relatively stable taxonomy, a relative ease of species identification and an aquatic immature stage has made the Odonata a taxon of interest in documenting the symptoms of global environmental change, especially at higher latitudes. The Odonata fauna of the north-temperate Canadian province of Quebec includes 150 species, many of which are at the northern limits of their geographic distribution. Quebec hosts multiple entomological specimen depositories, including seven publicly-accessible research collections. One of these, the University of Montreal's Ouellet-Robert Entomological Collection, houses an exceptionally large collection of Odonata. An initial specimen data capture project for this collection gathered 31,595 Quebec Odonata occurrence records, but several Quebec species were missing and geographic coverage was biased towards the Montreal region. To complement this dataset, we undertook to digitise the Odonata records of six other public research collections. They are, in order of Quebec Odonata collection size, the Laval University Entomological Collection, McGill University's Lyman Entomological Museum, the Insectarium of Montreal Research Collection, the Quebec Government's Insect Collection, Bishop's University's Insect Collection and the Laurentian Forestry Centre's René-Martineau Insectarium. Of the 40,447 total specimen occurrence records, 36,951 are identified to the species level, including 137 of the 150 species officially-recorded in Quebec and 2 non-nominotypical subspecies. We here summarise the data and highlight the strengths and weaknesses of the datasets. The complete dataset is available with this publication (Suppl. material 1), whereas the specimen data associated with each collection are available as Darwin Core archives at Canadensys.net and will be updated as appropriate.

Caliroa dionae Smith and Moisan-De Serres, n. sp., is described from Quebec. The species was reared from larvae feeding on highbush blueberry, Vaccinium corymbosum L. (Ericaceae) and is the first North American record of a species of Caliroa feeding on Vaccinium. It is distinguished from other North American Caliroa species and from Palearctic species of Caliroa that feed on Vaccinium.

Nematus spiraeae Zaddach, a European sawfly that feeds on Aruncus diocus (Walter) Fernald (Rosaceae), was discovered in Quebec. This probable introduction is the first report of N. spiraeae in North America and the first record of a sawfly feeding on Aruncus in North America. A diagnosis and some life history notes are given for N. spiraeae.

Honey bees depend on flower resources (nectar and pollen) to supply individual and colony needs. Although behavioural studies already assessed optimum foraging patterns of bumblebees, honey bees foraging behavioural patterns have been poorly assessed. We used Sysirinchium palmifolium L. (Iridaceae), a low-growing, abundant and anthophilous grassland flower to test the hypotheses that Apis mellifera workers would i) spend more time, ii) visit a greater number of flowers, and iii) travel greater distances within patches of S. palmifolium which were newly opened or not been visited by other pollinators when compared to foraging on patches that were available to pollinators during its whole blooming period (only one day). In two different sunny days, we measured bee activities in an area opened for visitation during the whole anthesis (OP plot treatment) and another opened for visitation only half of anthesis (CL plot treatment). We observed bees spending more time, visiting more flowers and travelling more in S. palmifolium CL treatment than the OP plot treatment. Previous studies already showed bees alter their foraging behaviour in the lack of resources. Honey bees are able to remember the period of the day when resources are usually the higher, they probably detect the most promising period to gather resources on S. palmifolium flowers. Since A. mellifera is a pollinator with a wide-distribution and is considered an important cause of changes on native pollinator communities, we support additional studies evaluating its foraging behaviours to better understand how it explores flower resources.