Insect Life on the Western Arctic Coast of .1 



sp.) emerging from perlid nymphs were noticed. The nympha were crawling 



up on the stones in the creek. At inched to these 3tonee by their rear Buctorial 

 disk-wart wore simuliid (black-fly) larvae up to I cm. long. About a dozen 

 were sitting together on each stone and whim the stones were lined, the lai 

 released their hold and tried to slip off. When placed in a tumbler, they could 

 easily climb up the glass bytheaid of their thoracic central) "wart- tid th< 



suctorial disk at their hind end, somewhal idler the manner i worm. 



Or they would spin threads from the water-surface to the inside 

 and ascend on them, but they are no1 able to floal without these threads. Winn 

 at rest, these larvae attached themselves to the glass or to the threads by their 

 hind disk and kept the body straight out or at some angle. Only then are 

 their famous plumose gills to be ^vcn on the expanded neck. Thee 

 folded up and stretched out, one at a time, continuously, with varying quick- 

 ness; there is about one second between two "strokes," simultaneously with 

 the maxillae, but the latter move both together. 



The powerful and varied means of locomotion possessed by thi se simuliidfi 

 is due to their living in running water, the scarcity of which around Bernard 

 harbour at this period probably explains the scarcity of the fly. Farther east, 

 the species is very common. Efforts to rear the larvae were unsuccessful. 



June ,21-30, 1915 



Flying insects now are often met with (Bombus neoboreus, etc., all queei 

 various flies, etc.) but the majority of insects are still upon the ground. 



The ponds and lakes around the harbour, the lakes being only partly free 

 of ice, were examined. In the ponds were the common mosquito larvae . b 

 nearcticus) and an occasional fly larva (Rhamphomyia sp.), freshwater snails 

 (Aplexa hypnorum) attached to grass leaves or as empty shells upon the mud 

 bottom, dytiscid beetles, midge larvae tubes of caddis-flies, etc., and two kinds 

 of water mites. One of these mites (Thyas stolli) is 1-lf mm. long, has black 

 eyes, and a round and flattened abdomen of a bright rose colour. It is always 

 seen crawling over the mud bottom. The other mite (Curvipes reigkardi) is l< 

 than 1 mm. long and has the ball-shaped abdomen tile-red with the legs and 

 cephalothorax still darker. It is not so often seen crawling, but generally paddles 

 with all its long-haired legs, rising or sinking in the water at will. 



The large lakes contain various trichopterous larva' in their tube-: they will 

 attach themselves even to a baited hook. The usual dytiscid beetles and 

 various midge larvae (Chironomus sp., etc.), and the larger dipterous larva' are 

 present. Crawling on the bottom in the marginal water are perlid larvae 

 (nymphs), evidently near their final transformation, for over the snow covering 

 the lake ice one mild day (June 25) a number of imagim vpnia nearctia 



probably of the same species, were seen crawling with wings already, but not 

 fully developed. They may have come up through cracks in the ice, or fn 

 the ice-free marginal water. The direction in which they crawled indie.-. ted 

 an instinctive knowledge of the location of the shore, even if they i re t ir out on 

 the lake. They perhaps make for the shore to copulate, but their life as imagines is 

 probably very short. Three months later in the same locality, similar instance 

 but on a larger s'cale, were seen, only it was then trichopterous imagines. < >n 

 these lakes the usual collembola {Podura aquatica, et< sembled in large colon- 



ies, the full-grown bine ones carrying their Bmall, brown, young ones on their 

 backs in grebe style. Minute, jumping-flying flies were also common. A larger 

 fly with similar locomotion had half a do/en minute, flat, round mite- on the 

 central side of the first abdominal rings. 



July l-l". 1916 



Many flowers are out, resulting in a great number ol insects. The flying 

 varieties include flies, crane-flies, midges, and mosquitoes. The crane-flies are 

 typical of dry tundra places and are frequent on ponds. < M' bymenoptera, various 



