Insect Life on the Western Arctic Coast of America 17e 
Judging from the climatic conditions, and the size and extension of the 
willows, both the vegetation and the insect life must be unusually luxuriant, at 
least on those portions of the islands in the delta which are not flooded in the 
spring, or are not too far from the mainland. 
Toker point is about the eastern limit of Mackenzie delta. The coast is 
low and flat with numerous lakes and ponds. Some of the islands, such as 
Nicholson island, and points such as Maitland point, cape Dalhousie, are, how- 
ever, higher and consist of slate or clay. Farther inland, the so-called " mud- 
volcanoes " are a characteristic feature of the country. The coast between 
Nicholson island and cape Bathurst presents gently swelling hills, as high as 
200 feet a couple of miles from the beach, and with much vegetation. 
It may be assumed that the proximity of this part of the coast to the 
Mackenzie delta with its comparatively warm and long summer, and to the 
woods there and along the Eskimo lakes and Anderson river farther east, favours 
vegetation and insect life. 
The east coast of Bathurst peninsula presents steep, slaty cliffs, but the 
west coast and the two Baillie islands which it faces, are composed mainly of 
tundra bluffs underlain in places by ground-ice. 
Cape Bathurst — village and harbour — is situated at the end of the peninsula 
on a long spit of gravel and sand, whose shingle bears no lichens, proving that 
the sea sometimes covers the spit. Where the spit joins the tundra is a belt 
of tundra sods and barren muck left by the sea, and the bluffs are steeply cut 
by gullies made by water in the spring. These gullies merge into swampy 
depressions between the higher parts of the tundra, south of which the 
typical tundra stretches far inland. 
The following insects, etc., were noted at Cape Bathurst: — - 
Mosquitoes (Aedes nearcticus) 
Dipteia (Aricia borealis, etc.) 
Microlepidoptera 
Bumblebees 
Hemiptera (leaf-hoppers) 
Sawfly larvae ( Pontania sp.) 
Midge and water-beetl© larvae 
Copepods (Cyclops sp.) 
Cladocera (.Daphnia, Chydorus, Eurycerus) 
Snails (A2)lexa hypnorum) 
Worms (Ltimbrimchis, Henlea, etc.) 
COAST FROM FRANKLIN BAY TO STAPYLTON BAY 
The following insects were collected at Langton bay by V. Stefansson and 
R. M. Anderson, 1910-11. (See "My Life with the Eskimo," p. 449, and 
Report of the Canadian Arctic Expedition, 1913-18, vol. iii). 
Melanoplus frigidus (grasshopper) . . . Orthoptera 
Bombus sylvicola (June 15, 1910) . . . Hymenoptera 
Pterostichus agonus ^ 
P. hyperboreus ' p„„„v,i.g- 
Amara brunnipennis [ 
Carabus chamissonis J 
Galerucella decora i ^, ,., 
Haltica Umarginata \ Chrysomelidse 
Coccinella quinquenotata ) ^ . ,,.j 
C. nugatoria [ Coccmellida) 
Melanophila longipes / Buprestidse 
Silpha lapponica , ( Silphidse 
Lepyrii^ gemelhi^ j 
L. capucinus j- Rhyncophora 
Trioalophua stefanssoni J 
The vegetation and insect life in this section are somewhat similar to those 
west of cape Bathurst. Stefansson states in " My Life with the Eskimo " 
that mosquitoes became numerous at Langton bay by June 20, and that, by 
the end ot July, the skins of caribou are full of holes made by the escaping bot 
16579—2 
