30k Canadian Arctic Expedition, 1913-18 
July 11-20, 1915 
Insect life at Bernard harbour is now at its height. The following flying 
insects were observed : — 
Sawflies: Pontania suhpallida, Amauronematus magnum, etc. 
Bumblebees : all three sexes almost all infected with Parasitv.s bomhorum. 
Wasps : Ichneumon sp., Apanteles sp., etc. 
Flies : PtioHna sp., Rhamphomyia sp.. Phorhia sp. 
Crane-flies: Limnobia sp., TipuJa pp. 
Mosquitoes : Aedes sp. 
Phryganeoidae "] 
Perlidse |- Adults 
Ephemeroidte I 
Butterflies: Brenthis sp., CoUas, sp., Oeneis, sp., Erebia, sp. 
Moths 
The ground is alive with insect life. Mites (Trombidium sp., etc.) are 
common and their eggs {Bryobia praetiosa) are deposited on dead willow 
leaves, from which the young ones (nymphs) are just emerging. Many spiders 
{Lycosa sp.), are seen, the larger of which line the interior of crevices or lem- 
ming-burrows with web; they also construct nets outside for capture, some- 
thing like a large moth cocoon. The spiders often carrying egg-sacks, devour 
their prey (other spiders, beetles, etc.), inside the burrows or " cocoons." The 
" cocoons " up to about 3 cm. in diameter are almost globular and firmly spun of 
close-lying threads, with a 'Vindow" of slighter construction. This " cocoon " 
is perhaps a protective web, closing the burrow outwardly, and used by the 
female only until the eggs hatch and the young are able to take care of them- 
selves. Collembola, beetles and beetle larva? (weevils, carabids, etc.) are com- 
mon. Of hemiptera, various small, wingless forms {Euscelis hyperboreus, 
Calacanthia trybomi, etc.) aliound in plant tufts. The common Saldid (Chilo- 
xanthes stellatus) has already been referred to (page 11k). A microlepidopter 
is also common and characteristic of sandy slopes, but seems never to use its 
wings; it keeps them as a roof for the body, crawls up on the sand and slides 
suddenly down, when scared, like a leaf-hopper, which insect it resembles in 
shape and colour. Various lepidopterous larvae or pupae were placed for rearing, 
but without much success. The flower stems of Pediculoris lanata held some 
of these larvae (rearing 71); and dipterous larvae and dipterous pupae were found 
in moss, and various sawfly larvae — ^both the species which make leaf galls and 
the ones which live in the immature, female catkins — were found on willows. 
Attempts were made to rear both kinds, but they progressed only as far as the 
pupal stage. The larvae inside the galls made their cocoons on October, 1915, 
and pupated the following June (Rearing 74). The others (Rearing 85) enter the 
carpels by eating a hole at their base, and their presence is soon shown by yel- 
low-brown excrement. The infested carpels do not ripen, but dry up, because 
the larva inside feeds on the wall and seeds, and probably later attacks one or 
more carpels. In due time the larvae spin cocoons outside the carpels and pupate 
inside them. 
The overflow from the ponds contains ohgochaete worms {Lnmbriculus sp.), 
larvae of dytiscids, and minute mosquitoes (midges). (PI. IX, fig. 2). Trout 
caught in a large creek near the harbour had in their stomachs large dipterous 
larvae, as well as smaller larvae {Chironomus (?)) and larvae and rymphs of perlids. 
In the mud of the brackish pond many green algae, attached to which were 
numerous fasciae of " winter-eggs " of Daphnia pulex were present and the water 
teemed with the young cladocera emerged from these. In the water were also 
many metanaupliae, about 1 cm. long, of the common phvllopod {Branchinecta 
paludosa), a favourite food for the larvae and beetles of dytiscids; minute, red 
collembola, a great number of midges in all stnges of development, and copepods 
were also observed. The curious puparia of the interesting fly, Mydaeina obscura, 
were found on the 19th in this pond. The larvae burrow in the mud of ponds or 
lakes, and during the postlarva-pre-pupa stages, remain there looking like brown 
