INSECTS COLLECTION RECORDS OF THREE AQUATIC BUGS (HETEROPTERA); PYGMY BACKSWIMMER (PLEIDAE), WATER SCORPION (NEPIDAE)AND MARSH TREADER (HYDROMETRIDAE) FOR SASKATCHEWAN, CANADA
DALE PARKER, AquaTax Consulting, 1204 Main Street, Saskatoon, SK, S7H 0L2, E-mail:
Aquatic sampling in Saskatchewan province. There appears to be some by the authors has collected confusion regarding the distribution of specimens of pygmy backswimmers, the latter two bugs in Saskatchewan Neoplea striola, water scorpions, however; an article published in 1994 Ranatra fusca, and marsh treaders, reported R. fusca as occurring in Hydrometra martini. According to Mau southern parts of all Canadian et. al., Checklist of the Hemiptera of provinces13 and in 1987 another paper Canada and Alaska, published in 2000, reported H. martini as occurring in there are no previous records for the Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta.12
Figure 1: Side view of pygmy backswimmer (Neoplea striola,) showing beak. D. Parker
65 (3) September 2007 143 Figure 2: Map of southern Saskatchewan showing collection sites.
These two earlier papers did not plants.111 The life cycle has five larval provide a basis for the reported instars (growth stages) and takes presence of these bugs in about 60 to 70 days to complete.11 There Saskatchewan. Our collection results appears to be only one generation a confirm the presence of all three bugs year, with the adult being the in Saskatchewan. overwintering stage.111
Pygmy backswimmer (Neoplea striola Specimens were collected in (Fieber): Pleidae) southeastern Saskatchewan in 2006 Pygmy backswimmers are easily from Lightning Creek at Carnduff (49° over looked, as they are only about 2 12' 17” N; 101° 43' 03"W), Long Creek mm in length (Figure 1). The body is (49° 03' 47"N; 103° 29' 54"W) and three flattened ventrally and rounded sites associated with the Souris River: dorsally. The legs are all relatively short Rafferty Dam (49° 07' 27"N; 103° 01' as is the beak (mouthparts). The hind 59"W), Roche Percee (49° 04' 43"N; legs have sparse swimming hairs but 102° 45' 12"W) and at Highway 9 (49° pygmy backswimmers are weak 04' 28"N; 102° 17' 51"W) (Figure 2). swimmers, preferring to crawl through Collection locations ranged from slow- the submersed vegetation.5 The body moving streams associated with as a whole has no obvious markings, cultivated agricultural land (Long but under the microscope the first pair Creek) to larger rivers with Manitoba of wings and most of the body are Maple (Acer negundo) groves along the coarsely punctate (pock-marked). All banks (Souris River at Highway 9). stages are predaceous on small invertebrates, including seed shrimp It appears that this is a new record and insect larvae.15 The short beak is for N. striola and the family, Pleidae, in used to pierce the bodies of the prey Saskatchewan. This is the only species and the internal fluids are sucked out.10 of the family reported from Canada.8 N. Eggs are laid into submersed aquatic striola has previously been recorded
144 Blue Jay from Manitoba, Ontario, and Quebec.8 appearance is accentuated by two long In the United States, it has been breathing tubes at the end of the reported throughout New England and abdomen, which add 40% to the total in North Dakota, Montana, Florida, length. The overall body colour is brown. Kansas, Texas, Colorado and The forelegs are modified for grasping California.2'3’4'67'8'15 prey. The other two pairs of walking legs are long and slender for clinging The waterways from which pygmy onto submersed vegetation and other backswimmers were collected in substrates. The head is short in Saskatchewan-Souris River, Long proportion to the body, with large eyes Creek and Lightning Creek-all flow into and a pointed beak. Adults overwinter North Dakota and ultimately into in submersed vegetation and debris.12 Manitoba. As of yet, there are no Egg to adult requires about 47 days and collections from other waterways that includes five larval instars.912 Water flow directly into Manitoba, such as the scorpions are predaceous in all Qu’Appelle River and Pipestone Creek, stages.13 They use their modified even though Pipestone Creek does grasping forelegs to capture other connect with the Souris River system insects, crustaceans and even small in Manitoba. At present, the immigration fish and tadpoles.13 The prey is held by route for this species appears to be the forelegs while the pointed beak from the southeast through North pierces the prey and sucks out body Dakota, rather than straight east from fluids.10 Manitoba. In east-central Saskatchewan, water Water scorpion (Ranatra fusca Uhler: scorpions were collected from the Red Nepidae) Deer River at Rendek Elm Forest (52° Adult water scorpions, identified by 54’ 38" N; 102° 01’ 49" W) in 2002 and completely developed wings, have a 2003. Sampling in 2006 collected long slender appearance, with a body specimens from additional sites in 35 to 45 mm long but only 8 mm, or east-central Saskatchewan; fish less, wide (Figure 3). The slender rearing ponds near the Highway 6
65 (3) September 2007 145 crossing of the Saskatchewan River R. fusca has been reported from British (53° 15' 09" N; 104° 29' 07" W) and from Columbia, Ontario, Quebec, New Little Boggy Creek at Runnymede (51° Brunswick, Prince Edward Island and 28' 25" N; 101° 41' 54" W). Specimens Nova Scotia.8 In the United States, it is also were collected from southeastern found throughout the northern states Saskatchewan in 2006 : Little south to North Carolina and Texas, Pipestone Creek at Moosomin Lake west to Kansas and California.13 Reservoir (50° 02' 02" N; 101° 41' 41" W), Pipestone Creek before it enters Water scorpions appear to have Manitoba (49° 53' 11" N; 101° 26' 57" entered the province on a broad front W), Lightning Creek near Carnduff, (49° from Manitoba via the Red Deer River, 12' 17" N; 101° 43' 03" W) and from two Pipestone Creek and possibly other sites on the Souris River-one waterways, in addition to those associated with Rafferty Dam (49° 07' connected with North Dakota. The 27" N; 103° 01' 59" W) and the other at collection from the Gravelbourg area Roche Percee (49° 04' 43" N; 102° 45' suggests a wide east-west distribution 12" W). Farther west, they were in Saskatchewan. collected from the Wood River near Gravelbourg (49° 54' 07" N; 106° 29' 48" Marsh treader (Hydrometra martini W) in 2006 (Figure 2). Kirkaldy: Hydrometridae) Marsh treaders are very slender in Water scorpions are known to inhabit appearance (Figure 4). The adult all types of aquatic habitats.912 The specimen collected is 9 mm long and specimens collected were associated 0.5 mm wide. Unfortunately, it has been with submersed vegetation, trailing broken into two parts just anterior to fibrous roots or stick entanglements in the last pair of legs. The overall body slower reaches of the creeks and rivers. colour is brown. The head is elongated They were also collected in artificial and makes up almost one quarter of fishponds. the total body length. The eyes are set on the sides of the head, well back from R. fusca is one of three species of the anterior end. All the legs are thin water scorpion collected in Canada.8 and similar to each other. The beak is
Figure 4: Side view of marsh treader (Hydrometra martinij head and pro- and meso-thorax above, and meta-thorax and abdomen below. Elongated beak is indicated. D. Parker
146 Blue Jay an elongated piercing tube that is held and North America as a whole. As well, back along the underside of the head. the information provides data for testing Marsh treaders are found in all types of biogeography hypotheses, monitoring permanent waters where they feed on climate change-related species small crustaceans (water fleas and distribution shifts and determining seed shrimps) and aquatic insect potential waterways that invasive pest larvae associated with the surface species may use to enter film.12 The prey is pierced by the long Saskatchewan, and possible slender beak and the body fluids are monitoring methods for these species. sucked out.10 The life cycle includes five instars and takes about 21 days to Representative specimens will be complete.12 There can be multiple deposited in the Royal Saskatchewan generations in a year, with the adult Museum in Regina. being the overwintering stage.12 Acknowledgements A single marsh treader specimen Funding for sampling at Red Deer was collected in 1984 from a small, River was provided through a grant to well-vegetated wetland in the vicinity of Nature Saskatchewan from Waskesiu River (54° 04' 45" N; 105° 56' SaskEnergy. Funding for Pipestone 21" W) (Figure 2). H. martini is the only Creek sampling was provided by a Fish species of Hydrometridae to occur in and Wildlife Development Fund grant Canada. It has also been reported from from Saskatchewan Environment to the British Columbia, Ontario and Nova Saskatchewan Watershed Authority Scotia.8 In the United States, it has been (SWA). SWA funded the remaining recorded from the eastern states south sampling in southern Saskatchewan. to Florida, and from Minnesota, Texas, J. Halpin, K. Kirkham and C. Markel California and the two states bordering provided field assistance. C. McGuire Saskatchewan: North Dakota and provided R. fusca specimens from the Montana.2’6'1415 Since only one fishponds. specimen has been collected from 1. BARE, C.O. 1926. Life histories of some Kansas Saskatchewan, no immigration route “backswimmers”. Annals Entomological Society of can be ascertained, but its presence America. 19:93-101. well within the province suggests further 2. BROOKS, A.R. and L.A. KELTON. 1967. Aquatic sampling in eastern Saskatchewan and semiaquatic Heteroptera of Alberta, should yield more specimens. Saskatchewan, and Manitoba (Hemiptera). Memoirs of the Entomological Society of Canada. 51:1-91. Conclusions The collection of these three families 3. DRAKE, C.J. and H.C. CHAPMAN. 1953. Preliminary report on the Pleidae (Hemiptera) of increases the number of aquatic the Americas. Proceedings of the Biological Heteroptera families recorded in Society of Washington. 66:53-60. Saskatchewan to eleven. 4. DURFEE, R. S., B. C. KONDRATIEFF and L. J. LIVO. 1999. New records of aquatic Heteroptera Sampling of Saskatchewan’s for Colorado: Notonectidae, Pleidae, Corixidae. aquatic habitats continues to yield new Entomology News 110: 243-245. aquatic insect records and distribution 5. GITTELMAN, S.H. 1974. The habitat preference information for the province. Results, and immature stages of Neoplea striola such as those presented in this paper, (Hemiptera:Pleidae). Journal of the Kansas Entomological Society. 47:491-503. are important in refining species distributions for the province, Canada
65 (3) September 2007 147 6. GUSTAFSON, D.L., website, http:// 11. RICE, L.A. 1954. Observations on the biology chasm.msu.montana.edu/dlg/aim/hemip/ of ten notonectid species found in the Douglas hemip0.html Lake, Michigan, region. American Midland Naturalist. 51:105-132. 7. KIRKALDY, G.W., and J.R. DE LA TORRE BUENO. 1909. A catalogue of American aquatic 12. SCUDDER, G.C.E. 1987. Aquatic and and semiaquatic Hemiptera. Proceedings of the semiaquatic Hemiptera of peatlands and marshes Entomological Society of Washington. 10:173-215. in Canada. Memoirs of the Entomological Society of Canada. 140: 65-98. 8. MAW, H.E.L., R.G. FOOTTIT, K.G.A. HAMILTON, and G.G.E. SCUDDER. 2000. 13. SITES, R.W. and J.T. POLHEMUS. 1994. Checklist of the Hemiptera of Canada and Nepidae (Hemiptera) of the United States and Alaska. NRC Research Press, Ottawa, ON. Canada. Annals of the Entomological Society of America. 87:27-42. 9. PACKAUSKAS, R.J. and J.E. MCPHERSON. 1986. Life History and laboratory rearing of Ranatra 14. TORRE-BUENO. J.R. 1926. The family fusca (Hemiptera: Nepidae) with descriptions of Hydrometridae in the western hemisphere. immature stages. Annals of the Entomological Entomologica Americana. 7:83-128. Society of America. 79:566-571. 15. VALLEY CITY STATE UNIVERSITY MACRO¬ 10. POLHEMUS, J.T. 1996. Aquatic and INVERTEBRATE LAB. Digital Key to Aquatic semiaquatic Hemiptera. Chapter 15. In: Merritt, Insects of North Dakota, website, http:// R.W. and K.W. Cummins, (eds.). 1996. An www.waterbugkey.vcsu.edu/php/ Introduction to the Aquatic Insects of North genusdetail.php?idnum = 9&g = Neoplea&ls = America. 3rd Ed. Kendall Hunt Publishing Company. adult&f=Pleidae&hi=pleidae Dubuque, IA. p. 267 to 297 CHECKLIST OF SASKATCHEWAN MOTHS: PART 18-GEOMETRIDAE (4), LARENTIINAE
RONALD R. HOOPER, Box 757, Fort Qu’Appelle, SK S0G ISO
This is the completion of the list of In this article, the size and early and Saskatchewan geometric! moths. The late dates of Saskatchewan specimens first geometric! article was published are given. Abbreviations: s=south, in Blue Jay, Volume 64, Number 2. n = north, w=west, e = east, CNC=Canadian National Collection in Unless otherwise indicated, all the Ottawa, RSM = Royal Saskatchewan species are represented in the Royal Museum in Regina. Saskatchewan Museum collection in Regina. The species are arranged Subfamily LARENTIINAE according to the website of Jim Troubridge and Don Lafontaine, The Many moths of this group have wavy Moths of Canada,6 with updates to designs of black and white, or brown 2006 provided to the author by Greg and white, and are called Carpets. The Pohl. This website also has colour pattern of many of them would indeed photographs of the moths. The make a beautiful design for a carpet. preferred food plants that are listed are The Scallop Shell Moth is nicely marked primarily based on Prentice.4 The with many parallel wavy lines like a sea common names that are used are shell. The Spear Mark and White- mostly according to J. R. J. L. Jones banded Black have a white marking and C. V. Covell, Jr..2 3 Recent scientific shaped like a spear point along the name changes are according to M. J. outer edge of the forewing. (Figure 1) Scoble.5
148 Blue Jay