32k Canadian Arctic Expedition, 1913-18 



On the margin of the brackish pond, now much smaller, imagines of My- 

 daeina obscura were captured. Empty, floating pupa cases of the same species 

 floated on the surface, showing that the imagines had but lately emerged. 

 Dytiscid beetles, midge larvae, copepods, Daphnia pulex (female now with two 

 winter eggs), and almost full-grown Branchinecta paludosa (female with 

 eggs) were found in the pond. The bottom of a larger pond inland, consisted 

 of a thick layer of brown detritus mud between the scattered stones and Carex 

 vegetation. In or on the bottom were many larvae and pupae of midges (Tanypus 

 sp., etc.), beetle larvae, and the common red watermite (Curvipes reinhardi). 

 In the big creek at the harbour on August 6, snails (Aplexa hypnorun), perlid 

 and ephemeroid-nymphs, turbellaria and Hydra sp. were collected. 



August 11-20, 1915 

 The flying insects observed were: — 



Bumblebees (Bombus sylvicola, B. neohorens. B. arcticus) 



Butt ernes (Colias sp., Brenthis sp., Oencis sp., Erebia sp., Lycaena sp., Chrysophanus 



sp.) 

 Moths (Anarta sp., etc.) 



Wasps, parasitic (Exolytus insularis, Dioctes modestus, etc.) 

 Sawflies 



Crane-flies (Tipula sp., etc.) 

 Flies (Melanostoma sp., etc.) 

 Flies, black (Simulium sp.) 

 Midges (Oecothea arislata) 

 Mosquitoes (Aedes sp.) 



An ephemeroid imago was captured on the 16th, just emerging from its 

 nymphal skin. 



On the ground, or upon plants are various spiders: the female of the big 

 Lycosa species now carry their newborn young in the egg cocoons. Mites 

 (Rhagidia gelida) and collembola are frequent. In plant pillows are found 

 various fly pupae and lepidopterous chrysalides or cocoons; if the latter be a 

 Gynaephora it may contain instead of the lepidopterous pupae the dried-out 

 caterpillar and about a dozen tachinid (Euphorocera sp.) puparia. Beneath the 

 surface are larvae of the common tipulids, and under stones, an occasional brown 

 slug, Agriolimax hyperboreus. Leaves of the various willows are often infected 

 by gall-mites (Eriophyes sp.), forming small prickly swellings. The sawfly larvae 

 are most conspicuous upon the willows, the larger species with its post-larval, 

 red colour, and the smaller boring in the female catkins; these latter pupated 

 the following June, but got no further. 



On the margins of the two ponds on the ridge about 100 feet high, southwest 

 of the harbour, brown detritus-mud is exposed. The ponds contain a number 

 of invertebrates, including a few males of Lepidurus arcticus; most of the 

 females of this crustacean have now deposited their eggs. 



The large creek at the harbour is now nearly dry. Here were found 

 turbellaria (now with "winter eggs" inside), perlid, and ephemeroid nymphs and 

 colonies of Simulium pupae, attached in running water to stones, moss, and 

 grass-stems, the stones being more popular on account of the similarity in colour. 

 In fact it is most difficult to detect these pupae unless they congregate in large col- 

 onies, when the two white, free gill-plumes on the head of each individual show 

 up in the water in undulating streaks. The pupa-cases (August 16) were mostly 

 empty, but some of them contained the pupae which were infested with one or 

 more minute, bright-red nymphs (three leg pairs) of a watermite, crawling over 

 the dead pupa. They represent probably the larval stage of one of the common 

 hydrachnids. The comparative scarcity of black flies at Bernard harbour may 

 be due to the small amount of streaming freshwater, an element necessary for 

 the complete development of the insect. Conditions may differ farther to the 

 east, judging from the great annoyance travellers have reported from black 

 flies there. 



