Newsletter of the Biological Survey of Canada (Terrestrial Arthropods)

The Quiz Page

News and Notes

 
  — test your knowledge of Canada and its fauna —

1. What is relict permafrost?
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2. The mean July temperatures in Saskatoon and in Quebec City are identical at 19.3°C. What are the main differences in their climates?
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3. If a person can run for some distance at 20 km / hour, is it worth running away from the attack of biting flies, given their speed of flight?   
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4. What is the highest body temperature at which terrestrial arthropods are active?
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5. One characteristic Canadian tree is white spruce, Picea glauca. Name a well known species from each of five different orders of insects that feeds on this species.
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Answers to Faunal Quiz

1. What is relict permafrost?

Answer:   Relict permafrost is permafrost that was formed in the past and that persists in places where it cannot form today.

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2. The mean July temperatures in Saskatoon and in Quebec City are identical at 19.3°C. What are the main differences in their climates?

Answer:  Saskatoon is colder in winter than Quebec City (January mean –17.6° vs. –11.5° C), the daily range and extremes of temperature are greater, and it is drier in the summer (about half of the Quebec precipitation) and much drier in the winter (only about 1/5th of the Quebec precipitation).

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3. If a person can run for some distance at 20 km / hour, is it worth running away from the attack of biting flies, given their speed of flight?

Answer:  Although theoretically a person can outrun mosquitoes and midges (e.g. 4 to 9 km / hour), and even black flies, some horse flies could keep up (10 to 22 km / hour), and in any case some of these species can relocate hosts after substantial displacement especially in open habitats; all of them have a potential flight range of many kilometres. In particular, however, running away from attack would normally bring the victim into an area occupied by other individuals of the same species.

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4. What is the highest body temperature at which terrestrial arthropods are active?

Answer:  A pseudoscorpion from the Namibian desert has been reported to enter heat coma only at 65° C (Vannier, G. 1987. Bulletin de la Société d’Écophysiologie 12: 165-186). However, normally arthropods use habitat selection and nocturnal activity to avoid rather than confront such high temperatures. In Canada, the opposite behaviours of thermophily, basking and endothermy perhaps are more common.

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5. One characteristic Canadian tree is white spruce, Picea glauca. Name a well known species from each of five different orders of insects that feeds on this species.

Answer:  Many well known species feed on white spruce, but sample species of insects that do so are the spruce budworm, Choristoneura fumiferana (Lepidoptera), the spruce beetle, Dendroctonus rufipennis (Coleoptera), the spruce cone maggot, Delia anthracina (Diptera), the spruce seed chalcid Megastigmus atedius (Hymenoptera) and the spruce adelgid, Adelges strobilobius (Homoptera).