
I work both for the European Invertebrate Survey and for Naturalis. I am interested in a broad number of insects groups but my true love are dragonflies. Volunteers have a vital role in nearly all projects I work on and making information on natural history available for all kinds of users is key in most of my work.
Keywords
Conservation, phylogeny, biogeography, New Guinea, Bhutan, dragonflies, damselflies, Odonata, bumblebees, bugs, Heteroptea
Researchinterest
I want to understand how historical and present-day factors determine the distribution and trend of insects. This is not only interesting from a scientific point of view but is also crucial for the effective conservation of biodiversity. Collecting reliable distribution information is an important part of my work. For this I cooperate with Observado.org and Waarneming.nl, write field guides, contribute to the development of image recognition and support (amateur) specialist with their work.
In the Netherlands I have worked on various insect groups including bumblebees, bugs and ladybeetles. My main interest is in understanding how plant distributions determine the distribution and trend of phytophage insects. For this we are currently building a database of insect-plants relations which describes the link between plants and the 7.000 Dutch insect species feeding on them.
My current work on dragonflies focusses on the Himalayan region. Together with Bhutanese counterparts I work on the taxonomy (describing new species and undescribed larvae), phylogeny and biogeography of the dragonflies and damselflies of this region.


Currenttopics
A selection of the topics I am currently working on.

Bumblebee conservation

Dragonfly phylogeny

Bhutan biodiversity project

ARISE: knowing Nature in the Netherlands
Stichting Fonds Pontium for systematic zoology
Keypublications
- Boudot JP & VJ Kalkman (2015). Atlas of the European dragonflies and damselflies. KNNV-Publishing, the Netherlands
- Cuppen JGM, VJ Kalkman, G Tacoma-Krist (2017). Verspreiding, biotoop en fenologie van de Nederlandse lieveheersbeestjes (Coleoptera: Coccinellidae). Entomologische Berichten 77: 147-187
- Kalkman VJ, JP Boudot, R Bernard, G De Knijf, F Suhling, T Termaat (2018). Diversity and conservation of European dragonflies and damselflies (Odonata). Hydrobiologia 811: 269-282
- Kalkman VJ, KDB Dijkstra, RA Dow, FR Stokvis, J van Tol (2018). Out of Australia: the Argiolestidae reveal the Melanesian arc system and East Papua composite terrane as possible ancient dispersal routes to the Indo-Australian archipelago. International journal of odonatology 21: 1-14
- Orr B & VJ Kalkman (2015). Field Guide to the dragonflies of New Guinea. Brachytron 17: 3-156
In themedia
From 16 June (Sunday evening 9 p.m.) the Tower will be broadcast on NPO with a leading role for our work in Bhutan in the first episode. View the trailer of the series
Volkskrant: Ontwikkeling automatische cameraval voor insecten
Bionieuws: Beeldherkenning en veldbiologie
