14k Canadian Arctic Expedition, 1918-18 



The first butterflies of the season appear at this time (Brenthis frigga 

 alaskensis and B.f.improba). The smaller form (improba) has a fluttering 

 flight and settle on plants with the wings spread out, moving them up and down 

 in the manner characteristic of this genus. Though seen on swampy ground, 

 it seems to favour the drier brown-coloured tundra and the bluffs with their 

 richer growth of flowers. The larger form (B.f. alaskensis) is found in similar 

 places, but has a wilder flight and remains longer on the wing. The colias 

 butterflies (Colias hecla glacialis) appear about the same time, but as noted by 

 D. Jenness on Barter island, the brenthis species are slower, more zigzagging 

 in their flight, and do not appear to travel such long distances at a stretch. 



Lepidopterous larvae, 5 mm. long, yellow-green, but head and thoracic legs 

 brown, skeletonize the leaves of Salix reticulata and spin them together with the 

 catkins, thus deforming both. Full-grown, black, flat hemiptera (Chiloxanthes 

 stellatus) are seen in the dried-out ponds, but appear not to use their wings and 

 to avoid water. Around those ponds with a rich vegetation washed-up plants 

 and shells of a snail (Aplexa hynorum) are common. 



July 11-21 

 Additional insects observed: 



Bumblebees Bombus kirbyellus 



Butterflies Brenthis chariclea 



Colias nastes 

 Moths Pyla arctiella 



Barrovia fasciata 



Scattered driftwood affords good colour protection to certain flies and 

 microlepidoptera. 



The ponds, many dry or nearly so, contain the usual life of snails, mites, 

 copepods, metanauplii of Branchinecta paludosa, worms, dytiscid beetles, etc. 

 A few predacious larvae of water-beetles, their discarded skins floating on the 

 surface, feed on the abundant young phyllopods. Three common species of 

 Salix — S. pulchra, S. richardsonii, S. ovalifolia var. cafndensis — have finished 

 flowering, but a fourth, S. reticulata, lasts a little longer. The male catkins 

 drop off, but the females remain until the seedwool comes out, or perhaps 

 throughout the winter. Those insects (principally Bombi) depending upon the 

 male catkins, must therefore, be satisfied with other flowers, but the sawfly 

 larvae (different species) boring in the carpels of the female catkins or forming 

 galls on the willow leaves are not so affected. 



July 22-31 



Toward the end of July, a number of other plants (Papaver nudicaule, 

 Cochlearia offici?ialis, Oxytropis sp., Saxifraga oppositifolia, Potentilla sp., etc.) 

 have finished flowering or nearly so, so that the insects must seek other flowers. 



On Herschel island the following were noted in addition to the common 

 insects : — 



Flies : 



Rhamphomyia herschelli Sphacroplioria cylindrica 



R. conservativa Ichneumonids (Stenomacrus borealis) 



Melanostoma sp. (Spiders) Pardosa groenlandica 



Phorbia sp. (Mites) Bdella frigida 

 Limnophora sp. 



In Ponds and Lakes 

 (Mites) Lcemnipes torris Cladocera (Daphnia, etc.) 



Copepods (Heterocope, etc.) Larvae of Chironomus and Tanypus 



Amphipods (Gammarus limnaeus) (Midges) 



On the leaves of the various species of Salix are seen galls caused by sawfly 

 larvae (Pontania sp.) Other sawfly larvae bore in the female catkins of these 

 willows; the larvae eat their way into the carpels and from these into the main 

 axis of the catkin, which they hollow out. Their presence is detected by the 

 dried-out character of the catkin and by the brown excrement outside. 



