Tag: British Columbia
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148/150: Learn more about this Canadian rarity
Animalia: Arthropoda: Insecta: Lepidoptera: Geometridae: Larentiinae: Xanthorhoini: Xanthorhoe clarkeata (Douglas Ferguson, 1987) The Xanthorhoe clarkeata are a newly discovered species of geometrid moth as of 1987. They live primarily on the Haida Gwaii Islands of British Columbia. This species is likely endemic to only these islands, making it a rare and unique species to Canada.…
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147/150: Nutty Facts about the Peanut Worm!
Animalia: Sipuncula: Phascolosomatidea: Phascolosomatida: Phascolosomatidae: Phascolosoma agassizii (Henri Marie Ducrotay de Blainville, 1827) Peanut worms, also known as Sipunculids are marine worms in that typically dwell in shallow waters. Sipuncula means “little tube” or “siphon” in Latin and refers to the introvert of peanut worms, a long sensitive tube ringed with tentacles which they can…
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114/150: The Magnetic Gumboot Chiton
Animalia: Mollusca: Polyplacophora: Chitonida: Acanthochitonidae: Cryptochiton: Cryptochiton stelleri (von Middendorff, 1847) Chitons are some underrated interesting creatures. Like their better-known relatives, the gastropods, chitons have a mantle, a muscular foot for locomotion, and a radula for eating. Their radula, or ‘rasping tongue’ is made up of many teeth like structures that are capped with magnetite, an…
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68/150: Did you know scorpions live in Canada too?
animalia: Arthropoda: Arachnida: Scorpiones: Vaejovidae: Paruroctonus: Paruroctonus boreus (Girard, 1854) Paruroctonus boreus, or the Northern Scorpion, is native to British Columbia and Alberta and is the only species of scorpion found in Canada. Though a relatively common species, it is rarely seen due to its nocturnal nature. However, like all scorpions, P. boreus glows under…
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54/150: Imagine a worm 60 metres long!
Animalia: Nemertea: Enopla: Monostilifera: Emplectonematidae: Paranemertes: Paranemertes peregrina (Coe, 1901) Nemertea, also known as “ribbon worm” is a phylum of marine invertebrate worm-like animals that are characterized by their eversible proboscis. The proboscis is used to catch prey and comes out of the nemertean’s body and stabs its prey with a venomous tip.
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15/150: Pretty underwater feather dusters or worms with tentacle eyes? Why not both!
Animalia: Annelida: Polychaeta: Sabellida: Sabellidae: Eudistylia: Eudistylia vancouveri (Kinberg, 1866) You wouldn’t expect that the beautiful Vancouver feather duster (Eudistylia vancouveri) is a type of worm, but that’s exactly what it is. It belongs to a class of segmented bristle worms called Polychaeta within the family Sabellidae, AKA feather duster worms. They are sedentary marine…
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6/150: Yellow cedars get cold feet
Plantae: Pinophyta: Pinidae: Pinales: Cupressaceae: Callitropsis: Callitropsis nootkatensis (D. Don, 1824) One of the oldest known trees in Canada is a Yellow Cedar (Callitropsis nootkatensis), and its estimated age is over 1800 years! Unfortunately the tree was discovered after having been cut down in a clear cut operation in 1980.
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Beginning to Barcode British Columbia
The summer of 2014 can be said to have been CBG’s busiest field season. Not only was it the final year of the Canadian National Parks (CNP) Malaise Program, but we also focused on concentrated sampling efforts in provincial parks within Ontario and British Columbia (BC). Now that the CNP Program is complete, we were…
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DNA barcoding and Malaise traps capture the remarkable diversity in Canada’s National Parks
Hi everyone! As some of you may know, we here at BIO spend a great deal of our field work sampling in Canada’s beautiful National Parks. In fact, from 2012 to 2014, BIO and Parks Canada partnered up to complete a massive national barcoding project that aimed to map out the country’s arthropod biodiversity: the…
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Visiting Victoria
At the end of October, Gerry Blagoev and I flew across the country to visit the Royal British Columbia Museum (RBCM) in Victoria, British Columbia. We were on a quest for specimens! Identified specimens, that is. Most of the time our collections team is busy finding specimens out in the field and preparing them for…