Insect Life on the Western Arctic Coast of America 17k 



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) 



Diptera (Aricia borealis, etc.) 



Microlepidoptera 



Bumblebees 



Hemiptera (leaf -hoppers) 



Sawfly larvae (Pontania sp.) 



Midge and water-beetle larvae 



Copepods (Cyrlops sp.) 



Cladocera (.Daphnia, Chydorus, Eurycerua) 



Snails (Ajilexa hypnorum) 



Worms (Lumbriculus, 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 jrigidus (grasshopper) . . . Orthoptera 

 Bombus sylvicola (June 15, 1910). .. Hymenoptera 



Pterostichus agonus ~j 



P. hyperboreus L carabidse 



Amara brunnipennis 



Carabus chamissonds ) 



Galerucella decora ) CThrysomelidae 



Baltica bimarginata j 



Coceinella quinquenotata ( Coccinellida; 



C. nugatoria \ 



MelamopMla longipes I Buprestldae 



Silpha lapponica | Silphidae 



Lepyrus gemellus ] 



L. capuclnus (■ Rhyncophora 



Tricalopims 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 



