What is an Arctic Insect?

Abstract

Entomologists in Canada, especially in recent years, have made an extensive contribution to the study of northern insects. Some 70 field parties of the Northern Insect Survey have worked in almost as many stations in arctic and subarctic Canada and have gathered a great mass of specimens for the Canadian National Collection (Freeman, 1958, 1959). Many taxonomic studies of this material have been published, though almost of necessity they deal with only a small fraction of what is available. Some distinguished studies of the geography of northern insects have likewise been based on these collections, and figured prominently in the symposium on this subject at the International Congress of Entomology at Montreal in 1956. There has also been an extensive program of studies on the ecology and control of the northern biting flies, carried out by the staff of the former Veterinary and Medical Entomology Unit and their collaborators from the Universities. This program also has resulted in publications too numerous for individual mention (Twinn, 1950, 1952, 1955).