The following is a guest post by Staffan Lindgren When I started teaching Invertebrate Zoology in the mid-1990’s, students were required to write term papers as one of the tools for evaluation. With a fairly heavy teaching load, this approach became somewhat unmanageable given relatively high enrollment, in particular since I feel that it […]
Do you have a good taxonomic knowledge of Canadian arthropods? Are you an awesome, champion collector? Do you want an excuse to spend a few days geeking out over lovely terrain and catching lovely wildlife? Well, the Biological Survey of Canada, the Royal BC Museum and the Yellowstone to Yukon Conservation Initiative want you to […]
We have featured the wonderful metalwork of Canadian artist Elizabeth Goluch before, in this awesome interview by Crystal Ernst. Now Ben Proudfoot of Breakwater Studios has produced this wonderful video featuring Elizabeth, her inspiration and work. If you are fascinated by insects aesthetically, or have a love for metalwork and sculpture, this is a great introduction to the artistic […]
Living in Western Canada is pretty sweet. Especially here on the coast, we have a plethora of awesome insects that only occur in this region. I am trying to savour these insects while I can, as this fall I am moving to Toronto. The snakeflies (Raphidioptera) are awesome animals, with a delightfully elongate prothorax and long […]
Catherine Scott and I recently indulged in an almost unheard-of pleasure…A week long car camping trip to the Okanagan Valley! For those of you who don’t know, this is the area where the vast majority of BC wines originate (and tree fruit crops as well!). The South Okanagan and the Lower Similkameen Valleys, biologically speaking, are very […]
Eloise Rowland, graduate of the Gries Lab of Simon Fraser University was recently recognized by the Royal Entomological Society for the best paper published in the journal Physiological Entomology in 2013 and 2014. This paper, part of Eloise’s MSc work, examines the role of sound in the sexual communication of the gypsy moth, Lymantria dispar. […]
Researchers at Simon Fraser University have just published a paper describing a bedbug pheromone blend which includes three new volatiles and a surprising arrestant: histamine! Regine Gries, along with colleagues from SFU’s Chemistry and Biological Sciences Departments have been working on pheromone chemistry of these pervasive and damaging pests for years. Regine has led the […]
Invasive ants are generally a phenomenon of warmer climates. Argentine ants, red imported fire ants, and electric ants are all major economic problems in places like Florida, New Caledonia, and Australia. But what is to stop European and Asian ant species from damaging invasions of Canada? It turns out, not much. Ken Naumann and Rob Higgins, […]
On Friday, while walking to work I found this male wasp, cold and still on the pavement. This was a male western yellowjacket, Vespula pensylvanica, and he was in rough shape. Even here in Vancouver, wintry weather comes this time of year, and we have had freezing nights for almost a week.
The following is a guest post by Terry Wheeler, from the Lyman Entomological Museum at McGill University. It is re-posted from the Lyman Museum Blog, where it originally appeared. Two wolf spiders, whose names are Pardosa lapponica and Pardosa concinna, run across open ground all over northern Canada. Here’s the problem: these two species of spiders live in a […]