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 sutpallida, Amauronematus magnus, etc. 

 Bumblebees: all three sexes almost all infected with Parasitus bomborum. 

 Wasps : Ichneumon sp., Apanteles sp., etc. 

 Flies : PtioUna sp., Bhampho'myia sp.. Phorbia sp. 

 Crane-flies : Limnobia sp., Tipitla sp. 

 Mosquitoes : Aedes sp. 

 Phryganeoidse ] 

 Perlidae Adults 



Ephemeroidffl 



Butterflies: Brenthia sp., Colias, sp., Oeneis, sp., Erebia, sp. 

 Moths 



The ground is alive with insect life. Mites {Tromhidium 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 "window" 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. Collemb61a, beetles and beetle larvae (weevils, carabids, etc.) are com- 

 mon. Of hemiptera, various small, wingless forms (Euscelis hyperboreus, 

 Calaca'nthia i,rybomi, etc.) abound 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 Pedicularis 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 oligochaete worms (Lumbriculus 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 nymphs 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 phyllopod (Branchinecta 

 paludosa), a favourite food for the larvae and beetles of dytiscids; minute, red 

 collembola, a great number of midges in all stages 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 



