The Tenebrionidae of the Maritime Provinces of Canada are surveyed. Forty-eight species have been reported from the region. Eleven of these species (ten Palearctic and one Nearctic) have been introduced to the region, five of which are apparently now extirpated. Dates of first detection of these species are provided for each province and North America. Thirteen species are newly recorded in New Brunswick, 25 in Nova Scotia, and 15 on Prince Edward Island, for a total of 53 new provincial records. Of these, 18 species including Bolitophagus corticola Say, Neatus tenebrioides (Palisot de Beauvois), Helops gracilis Bland, Blapstinus substriatus Champion, Hymenorus obesus Casey, Hymenorus picipennis Casey, Hymenorus pilosus (Melsheimer), Mycetochara bicolor (Couper), Mycetochara binotata (Say), Mycetochara fraterna (Say), Platydema excavatum (Say), Platydema teleops Triplehorn, Corticeus praetermissus (Fall), Alobates pennsylvanicus (DeGeer), Haplandrus fulvipes (Herbst), Xylopinus saperdioides (Olivier), an undescribed species of Paratenetus Spinola, and an undescribed species of Neatus LeConte are newly recorded for the Maritime Provinces as a whole. One of these, Helops gracilis, is recorded for the first time in Canada. The fauna is discussed from the perspective of the patterns of distribution of species in the region and their possible underlying causes. Island faunas are discussed, as is the saproxylic component of the fauna, with a brief consideration of the importance of this trophic group in the dynamics of forest ecosystems in the region.

Fourteen species of Carabidae are added to Prince Edward Island’s (P.E.I.) faunal list, bringing the known fauna to 167 species. Bembidion nitidum (Kirby) and Bembidion obtusum Audinet-Serville are newly recorded for the Maritime Provinces. Six species are removed from P.E.I.’s faunal list. The history of collecting of Carabidae on P.E.I. is briefly recounted. Despite differences in land area and distance from the mainland between P.E.I., Cape Breton Island, and insular Newfoundland, their carabid faunas exhibit many similarities in size and composition. The native carabid fauna of P.E.I. comprises 49% of the species in the combined Maritime Provinces fauna, perhaps reflecting an island-related diminution of species diversity. The proportion of flightless species on P.E.I. (4.9%) is less than that in the Maritime Provinces as a whole (7.1%), an apparent indication that the Northumberland Strait has been a barrier to colonization. Twenty-seven introduced species are found on P.E.I., 26 of which can be classified as synanthropic and may have originated in dry-ballast quarries in southwestern England. Although the earliest dates of detection of many introduced species on P.E.I. are substantially later than elsewhere in the Maritimes, this reflects the paucity of early collecting. Land-management practices on P.E.I. (large-scale and early forest clearances, intensive agriculture, and the extensive use of biocides) may have had an impact on P.E.I.’s carabid fauna.

Bees of the genus Osmia Panzer (Hymenoptera: Megachilidae) are among the contenders to replace honey bees, Apis mellifera L. (Apidae), for pollinating tree-fruit crops. One species, Osmia lignaria Say, has shown great potential in western North America and was recently introduced into Nova Scotia for evaluation as a pollinator of apple, Malus Mill. (Rosaceae). A major component of that study was to develop management options for O. lignaria, including methods of sustaining nesting females following crop flowering to maximize population recovery for pollination in subsequent seasons. The objective of this study was to evaluate bigleaf lupine, Lupinus polyphyllus Lindl. (Fabaceae), as a secondary food plant for nesting female O. lignaria by investigating nesting activity, pollen-use patterns, and fecundity. During 2002–2003, female O. lignaria collected high proportions of apple pollen (>70%) during mid and late flowering; after then, most pollen (>90%) was collected from bigleaf lupine. The flowering period of lupine in Nova Scotia (late May to early July) slightly overlapped that of apple, so there was no scarcity of pollen resources during the life-span of O. lignaria. Most nests typically showed high levels (≤200%) of population growth, but recorded levels varied among nest types and locations. In 2004, nests closer to lupine plots exhibited significantly greater population recovery than nests located farther away (i.e., approximately 600 m). Bigleaf lupine is a suitable plant species for meeting the pollen requirements of nesting populations of O. lignaria following apple flowering, thus promoting the recovery of populations to meet apple pollination requirements in subsequent seasons.

Field-collected Agonum muelleri (Herbst) adults were videotaped to assess their ability to climb soybean (Glycine max (L.) Merr. (Fabaceae)) plants. All individuals climbed up and down soybean plants multiple times. Agonum muelleri spent from 12.5 ± 3.4% to 54.1 ± 11.3% of their time on soybean plants. Caged A. muelleri adults on plants infested with soybean aphids, Aphis glycines Matsumura (Hemiptera: Aphididae), reduced the number of apterous adults. The presence of predators had an indirect effect on the density of nymphal aphids by reducing the numbers of adult aphids. Agonum muelleri, an abundant carabid in soybean fields, readily climbs soybean plants to feed on soybean aphids.

Previous studies have shown that annual crops have different spider (Araneae) assemblages than adjacent relatively natural habitats, suggesting that spider recolonization of crops occurs via long-distance ballooning and that spider species in crops are mainly agrobionts. However, in perennial crops, e.g., apple (Malus domestica Borkhausen (Rosaceae)), which are subject to less physical disturbance than annual crops, overlap in spider species has been observed between tree foliage and adjacent habitats, suggesting that spiders colonize orchards from adjacent vegetation. The objective of this study was to compare the species composition of assemblages of foliage-dwelling spiders in apple orchards with that in adjacent deciduous forest and to determine whether spider assemblages in orchards are dominated by agrobiont species. Spiders were collected from four apple orchards and adjacent deciduous forest in southern Quebec from May until August 2004. The similarity of assemblages between the orchard and forest habitats was evaluated using nonmetric multidimensional scaling and multiresponse permutation procedures and spider species richness in the two habitat types was compared using rarefaction. Although spider species richness was higher in the forest than in the orchards, the composition of the spider assemblages in apple orchards was not significantly different from that in adjacent deciduous forest at three of the four sites. Therefore, adjacent deciduous forest, which is similar to orchards in vegetation structure and frequency of structural disturbance, is likely the main source of spiders found in apple orchards.

The Canadian insect fauna is too inadequately understood to support well-informed assessments about its conservation status; however, the foregoing collection of synthetic papers illustrates potential threats from industrial forestry. Loss of forest species and dramatic changes in forest insect assemblages driven by forestry activities are well illustrated by studies from places where industrial forest management has been more intensive or of longer duration. Improved understanding of how arthropod species are coupled to habitats, especially microhabitats, appears to be central to progress toward their conservation. Studies of arthropods conducted at the species level are most relevant for applied conservation purposes, because only species-level work that is well documented with voucher specimens provides adequate comparative data to document faunal change. Although taxonomic infrastructure required to support such work is seriously under-resourced in Canada, entomologists can help themselves by producing useful modern resources for species identification, by undertaking collaborative biodiversity work that minimizes the split between taxonomists and ecologists, and by supporting incentives for work at the species level. Securing the future of arthropod diversity in Canadian forests through effective policy will require sound regionally defined bases for whole-fauna conservation that mesh with broader land-use planning. Building these will require a practical understanding of how “ecosite”-classification systems relate to arthropod diversity, accurate inventories of the predisturbance forest fauna in all regions, and development of sound monitoring plans designed to both detect faunal change efficiently and identify its drivers. Such monitoring plans should include both baseline inventories and monitoring of designated control areas. In addition, effective biomonitoring efforts will facilitate the development of suites of arthropod indicators, accommodate both seasonal (especially phenological) and annual variation, clarify the relationship between cost-effective samples and reality, and ensure adequate consideration of “rare” species. Return on investment in monitoring will depend on effective preplanned linkage to policy development that can respond to drivers of faunal change in a way that effectively addresses undesired changes.

The specific impact of the aphid Macrosiphum euphorbiae (Thomas) on seedlings of common flax, Linum usitatissimum L., is 3.317 mg/mg, quantified as the dry mass of plant tissue required to produce a unit of herbivore tissue. This measure of the efficiency of biomass conversion between trophic levels for the aphid–flax interaction is similar to that previously reported for seven species of aphid on monocotyledonous cereals (Poaceae), but lower than that for two species of aphid on a species of Brassicaceae, a dicotyledonous plant. Therefore, the interaction between M. euphorbiae and the dicot, flax, does not support the hypothesis that aphids have less impact on monocots than on dicots.

We studied the abundance, diversity, and dispersion patterns of managed and wild bee (Hymenoptera: Apoidea) populations in commercial highbush blueberry and cranberry (Ericaceae: Vaccinium corymbosum L., Vaccinium macrocarpon Ait.) fields in the Fraser Valley of British Columbia, and assessed their potential as pollinators of these crops by determining which groups of bees had the greatest impact on percent yield and mass of berries. Bumble bees were evenly distributed within both crops. Other wild bee species were well distributed in blueberry fields but generally remained at edges of cranberry fields. Percent berry yield was not related to bee abundance for any group of bees, nor was species diversity correlated with berry mass. Blueberry mass and cranberry mass were related to abundance of bumble bees but not to that of honey bees or other wild bees. Bumble bees are recommended as potential alternative pollinators of these crops.

An extensive survey of chewing lice from rock pigeon, Columba livia Gmelin, and mourning dove, Zenaida macroura (L.), carried out from 1994 to 2000 and from 2003 to 2006 in Manitoba, Canada, produced the following new records: Colocerastovornikae Tendeiro for North America; Columbicola macrourae (Wilson), Hohorstiellalata (Piaget), H. paladinella Hill and Tuff, and Physconelloides zenaidurae (McGregor) for Canada; and Bonomiella columbae Emerson, Campanulotes compar (Burmeister), Columbicola baculoides (Paine), and C. columbae (L.) for Manitoba. We collected 25 418 lice of four species (C. compar, C. columbae, H. lata, and C. tovornikae) from 322 rock pigeons. The overall prevalence of infestation was 78.9%, 52.5%, and 23.3% for C. compar, C. columbae, and H. lata, respectively. Coloceras tovornikae was not discovered until 2003, after which its prevalence was 39.9% on 114 pigeons. We collected 1116 lice of five species (P. zenaidurae, C. baculoides, C. macrourae, H. paladinella, and B. columbae) from 117 mourning doves. Physconelloides zenaidurae was encountered most often (prevalence was 36.7%), while the prevalence of the other four species was 26.3%, 18.4%, 3.5%, and 2.6%, respectively.

Three major lineages of mites (Arachnida: Acari) are parasitic in the nasal passages of birds: Rhinonyssidae (Mesostigmata), Ereynetidae (Prostigmata), Cytoditidae, and Turbinoptidae (Astigmata). The most diverse group of avian nasal mites is the Rhinonyssidae, which are obligate endoparasites of non-ratite birds worldwide. Prior to this study, there were only four published and three unpublished records of nasal mites from birds in Canada. In Alberta, 15% of 450 birds (154 species) examined during 2003–2007 were infested with nasal mites; in Manitoba, 16% of 2447 birds (196 species) examined during 1996–2006 were infested. We have expanded the known records of host – nasal mite species in Canada from 7 to 102, a 14-fold increase. There are now 50 species of Rhinonyssidae, 7 species of Ereynetidae, and 1 species of Turbinoptidae known from birds in Alberta and Manitoba. We predict that at least 70 species of rhinonyssid mites can be found in Canada.

Egg masses of the horse fly, Hybomitra nitidifrons nuda (McDunnough), and the deer fly, Chrysops aestuans Wulp (Diptera: Tabanidae), were collected during the summers of 1996–2000 from five different locations in southern Manitoba. On average, hymenopterous egg parasitoids were reared from more than 90% of collected egg masses. Telenomus hybomitrae Iranpour and Galloway and (or) Telenomus utilis Iranpour and Galloway (Hymenoptera: Platygastridae: Telenominae) emerged from multilayered egg masses of H. n. nuda. However, Trichogramma semblidis (Aurivillius) (Hymenoptera: Trichogrammatidae) and (or) Telenomus chrysopsis Iranpour and Galloway were reared from single-layered egg masses of C. aestuans. In H. n. nuda egg masses, more than 33% of individual eggs were parasitized and more than an additional 35% were apparently damaged by the two telenomine parasitoids. In C. aestuans egg masses, approximately 40% of individual eggs were parasitized and 18% produced neither parasitoids nor larvae.

The study was conducted to document the spatial distribution of the soybean aphid, Aphis glycines Matsumura (Hemiptera: Aphididae), in commercial fields of soybean, Glycine max (L.) Merr. The abundance of aphids was assessed weekly at 12 sites in 2005 and 2006 on more than 135 georeferenced plants per site. Variograms and principal coordinates of neighbour matrices (PCNM) were used to detect significant spatial structures. Variograms indicated a spatially random distribution of aphid populations in a majority (84%) of fields-weeks. For the variograms with a defined structure, the variance between pairs of observations generally increased rapidly with the distance between plants up to a distance where it stabilized, a pattern adequately fitted by spherical models. Structured spatial distributions were more prevalent in 2005 than in 2006, especially at the end of the season. In 2006, PCNM analysis was more sensitive in detecting spatial trends than were variograms. PCNM analysis revealed significant patterns across a broad range of scales, with dominant periods averaging 22.6 and 47.1 m for the short and long transects, respectively. Sampling plants along a 100 m long transect at about 7.5 m intervals in soybean fields would allow detection of the spatial structures identified in this study.

Solitary cavity-nesting bees, especially trap-nesting Megachilidae, have great potential as commercial pollinators. A few species have been developed for crop pollination, but the diversity, abundance, and potential pollination contributions of native cavity-nesting bees within agricultural systems have seldom been assessed. Our objectives were to compare the diversity and fecundity of cavity-nesting bees in Nova Scotia in natural ecosystems with those in apple orchards under three levels of management, using trap nests, and to determine whether any native bees show promise for development as pollinators. Our results show that species richness and numbers of bees reared from trap nests in commercially managed orchards, abandoned orchards, and natural habitats were similar, and species’ compositional patterns were not unique to specific habitats. Trap nests can be used to increase and maintain cavity-nesting bee populations within Nova Scotia apple orchards. Osmia tersula Cockerell (Megachilidae), which accounted for almost 45% of all bees captured and was the most abundant species nesting in all habitats evaluated, should be assessed for potential as a commercial pollinator of spring-flowering crops. The influence of natural cavities on bee species richness in trap-nesting surveys is also discussed.

Growth patterns of Rheumatobates crassifemur crassifemur Esaki and R. bonariensis (Berg) were compared in a multivariate framework. Study of allometric coefficients in R. bonariensis showed sexual differences biased towards males in antennal and foreleg segments and biased towards females in body length and middle-leg segments. Multivariate allometric analysis of female growth patterns detected variation among species in those characters that are strongly modified in males of R. c. crassifemur. We show that sexual morphology diverges as of nymph V in R. c. crassifemur but only in the adults of R. bonariensis.

Past studies of gall-maker-host interactions have been hampered by an inability to conduct experimental transplants of individuals between host plants. We describe a method for transplanting gall-maker larvae between galls on different individual host plants. Our method involves removing and inserting larvae through slits cut in young galls, and allows for healing and continuing growth of the gall. We developed and tested our method with larvae of the gall-making moth Gnorimoschema gallaesolidaginis Riley (Lepidoptera: Gelechiidae) on its two host plants, Solidago altissima L. and S. gigantea Ait. (Asteraceae). For three of four host × year combinations, unparasitized larvae survived at similar rates in transplants and controls. On one host in one year, transplant survival was low, possibly as a result of severe drought stress. Interestingly, survival of parasitized gall-maker larvae was lower in transplants for three of four host × year combinations, suggesting that gall-makers stressed by parasitoid attack are less able to tolerate transplant stress. Our technique may be applicable to many other gall-maker species, especially those making relatively thin-walled galls, and should represent a valuable new tool for the study of gall-maker-host interactions.

Acrocerid flies are often considered to be rare and their role in pollination is poorly understood. In this study, adult Eulonchus sapphirinus Osten Sacken were common on flowers of Geranium robertianum L. (Geraniaceae) in Olympic National Park, Washington, and have morphological and behavioural characteristics that indicate a dependence on floral nectar. Both males and females of this species are good potential pollinators from a behavioural standpoint. They make few revisits to individual flowers, remain highly constant to one flowering species in each nectar-foraging bout, and carry pollen on their bodies. Individuals were abundant and formed the majority of insect visitors to G. robertianum flowers. Males and females differed in their flower-visiting behaviour, with females visiting more individual flowers and doing so more slowly than males. This difference between the sexes appears to relate to mating behaviour, which takes place within the flower patches. The ramifications of the observed flower-visiting and mating behaviour for flower pollination are discussed. This study shows that based on both their abundance and their behaviour, these flies are potentially important pollinators in certain habitats.

The aphid Acyrthosiphon svalbardicum Heikinheimo, which is endemic to Svalbard and feeds exclusively on eightpetal mountain-avens, Dryas octopetala L. (Rosaceae), has developed a series of adaptive traits to cope with the harsh conditions of the High Arctic. Prior to this study, only a single specimen of the winged morph of A. svalbardicum had been found, suggesting extremely low dispersal potential. In 2006 we collected many winged females in several places at Kongsfjorden, Spitsbergen. Although winged individuals were generally found in high-density populations, no significant relationship existed between aphid abundance and wing development. We discuss whether this sudden increase in winged-morph production by A. svalbardicum is related to a warmer than usual summer in Svalbard.

Two non-destructive sexing techniques suitable for use in the field and laboratory are described, and tested with the Warren root collar weevil, Hylobius warreni Wood (Coleoptera: Curculionidae). On the second visible abdominal sternite of males is a longitudinal depression that is absent on females. In addition, setae on the last visible abdominal sternite of females are arranged longitudinally; setae on males are arranged radially. For the first character, accuracy was 90% and sex could be determined without the aid of magnification. The latter character was slightly more reliable, at 95% accuracy, but required at least 12× magnification.