Newsletter of the Biological Survey of Canada (Terrestrial Arthropods)

ARCTIC CORNER

News about studies of arctic insects 

First BSC Biodiversity Scholarship awarded

Arctic and Boreal Entomology Course 2004

Hisatomo Taki¹, Peter G. Kevan¹ and Rob E. Roughley^2 
1University of Guelph, Department of Environmental Biology, Guelph, ON N1G 2W1 
² University of Manitoba, Department of Entomology, Winnipeg, MB R3T 2N2

[a pdf version of this article is available by clicking here]

General
From July 31 to August 14 of 2004, the second Arctic and Boreal

Fig. 1. Course participants of the Arctic and Boreal Entomology course and University of Guelph’s Arctic Ecology course in Churchill, August 12, 2004.(photograph by H. Taki) (click picture to enlarge)

Entomology course, provided by the University of the Arctic Field School was organized and run at the Churchill Northern Studies Centre (CNSC) in Churchill, Manitoba. After the great success of the first course, held in 2003, the second Arctic and Boreal Entomology course was implemented and took place at the same time as the University of Guelph’s course in Arctic Ecology (Fig. 1).

The instructors for this year’s Arctic and Boreal Entomology course were Rob Roughley from Department of Entomology, University of Manitoba and Peter Kevan from Department of Environmental Biology, University of Guelph. The Arctic Ecology course was co-instructed by Paul Hebert of the University of Guelph and Peter Kevan. Participants on the Arctic and Boreal Entomology course were: Sylvie Forest from Fort McMurray, Alberta; Stewart Peck and Jarmila Kukalova-Peck from Ottawa, Ontario; Ian Hogg from Waikato, New Zealand; Ofrit Shavit from Beit Alfa, Israel; Shelley Brule, Sean Murray, Alisha Prater, Tim Rollwagen and Agata Pawlowski are undergraduate students at the University of Guelph. Also participating and helping with instruction was Hisatomo Taki, from Japan and who is presently a graduate student at the University of Guelph. Some of the curriculum, topics and actives of both courses tended to overlap and all participants of both were keen to learn about diversity, abundance and activity of insects in the transitional zone between the southern extremes of arctic tundra and the northern reaches of the northern boreal forest (Fig. 2).

Fig. 2. Peter Kevan explaining about the landscape of arctic and boreal zones in Churchill. (photograph by H. Taki) (click picture to enlarge)

The Churchill Northern Studies Centre provided us the wonderful hospitality. In addition to accommodation and meals, the centre also provided the necessary equipment, classroom and laboratory facilities to conduct the field courses. The centre also housed other groups on research projects focusing on various aspects of biological and social sciences. With such a diverse collection of researchers and students, we had many opportunities to gain deeper insights and to be introduced to different views on many topics of importance to the north.

The weather during two weeks was hardly what one would expect

Fig. 3. Student's head welcoming numerous mosquitoes. (photograph by H. Taki) (click picture to enlarge)

when thinking "arctic". It was sunny and warm with temperatures in the mid-20s Celsius, which was high for such a long duration for the time of year at which the course was held. This mild weather provided plenty of opportunities to spend time in the field for insect observation as well as collecting. That was met with an enthusiastic welcome from the local black flies, horse flies and mosquitoes (Fig. 3).

 

 

Projects in brief
Some insect groups were extensively sampled. All aquatic beetles (with emphasis on Dytiscidae) were collected by Rob Roughley; in the last two years he has accumulated records of five species not previously recorded from the Churchill area. Carrion beetles (Silphidae) were collected by Stewart Peck, assisted by Tim Rollwagen, who compared the capture rates with pitfall traps baited with chicken or fish. Hisatomo Taki and Peter Kevan concentrated efforts on bees (Apoidea). Fortunately, the timing of the course coincided with the blooming peak of some late-flowering plants in the area, so several flower-insect interactions were studied. Ofrit Shavit made extensive observations on flower visitors to patches of different sizes of Mastodon flower (Senecio congestus). Agata Pawlowski also worked on that plant, as well as fireweed (Epilobium or Chamerion angustifolium), comparing the invertebrate fauna associated with the stems and leaves. Numerous mosquitoes were found with pollinia of Northern bog orchids (Platanthera obtusata) (Fig. 4), so Katja Rochacewich initiated some pollination studies. The importance of prey to carnivorous plants was studied by Jean Enneson. She discovered that plants of butterwort (Pinguicula vulgaris) growing in different habitats have different chances to capture prey (springtails, mites, and small flies): in drier habitats less prey was captured.

Fig. 4. Mosquito with pollinium of Northern bog orchids (Platanthera obtusata). (photograph by H. Taki)  (click picture to enlarge)

 Tracy Roy discovered that water mates (Hydracarina) really like to eat Daphnia. Several students worked on biodiversity comparing spiders (Alisha Prater) and epigeic invertebrates (Shelley Brule) in burned and unburned forest. Sean Murray found more springtails (Collembola) associated with the bases of cracks in than on top of the eroding peat plateau near CNSC. That result was attributed to the dry, warm conditions atop the plateau versus the damp, cooler, and shaded cracks. Similarly, Megan Becker noted that there was a positive effect of the moisture gradient on invertebrate diversity from the drier forest into fen-lands near Twin Lakes.

 

Other activities and highlights

Fig. 5. Malaise trap set by Stewart Peck on lichens in spruce forest in Churchill. (photograph by H. Taki) click picture to enlarge)

Explanation and demonstration of collecting techniques and equipment (e.g. sweep nets, aspirators, killing vials, even baseball hats for collecting specimens!) were included in field lectures. Various trapping methods were described and used, including: malaise traps (Fig. 5), 

pan traps, fan traps, light traps, pitfall traps, Berlese funnels (Fig. 6) and bottle traps for aquatic insects (Fig. 7). The importance of pinning, preservation and proper labelling of specimens were also stressed at this time. Using the demonstrated techniques, many insect specimens were collected from various locations, including: the kelp strand, saline and shoreline ponds of Hudson Bay, bogs, ponds and streams, salt marshes adjacent to the Churchill River, the northern boreal forest, the forest margin, the willow scrub, boreal forest-tundra transition zones, and tundra zones. All field sites were easily accessible from the CNSC.

 

Fig. 6. Berlese funnels for extracting soil arthropods (photograph by R. Roughley) (click picture to enlarge)

Fig. 7. Bottle traps for aquatic insects (photograph by R. Roughley)  (click picture to enlarge)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As well as field lectures, evening lectures and discussions addressed a wide range of entomological topics with emphasis on the arctic tundra and boreal forest habitats. Some of these topics included diversity and classification of insects, insect cold hardiness and thermoregulatory behaviours. Also at evening sessions, course participants designed, implemented and reported on their research projects and special interests. Especially valuable were talks on comparison of insect diversity and behaviour in different environments. For example, in a talk about Antarctic entomology by Ian Hogg, a comparison was made of insect faunas from different environments using various insect trapping techniques in the Arctic and Antarctic, and Jarmilla Kukalova-Peck provided a highly entertaining lecture on the origins of insect wings.

Through the participants’ research projects and demonstrations of traps, very interesting specimens were collected. Some of the biggest surprises included capture of three large sawflies of the family Cimbicidae, and a tiger beetle (Cicindelidae) which were previously thought not to be present in these areas. These findings suggest an extension of certain insects to a more northerly habitat, perhaps in association with climate change. As the specimens are catalogued, we expect to list more additions to the insect fauna in the area. Most of the specimens are deposited in the J.B. Wallis Museum of Entomology at the University of Manitoba but many specimens will be incorporated into a reference collection at CNSC.

More information on the Arctic and Boreal Entomology course can be found on the web site, www.uoguelph.ca/~pkevan, under courses. Please feel free to contact Peter Kevan (pkevan@uoguelph.ca) or Rob Roughley (rob_roughley@umanitoba.ca) with any questions regarding further details of the course. The third course will be offered in the summer of 2005.