Tag: Insect
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130/150: They may not have wings, but boy can they jump!
Animalia: Arthropoda: Insecta: Archaeognatha: Machilidae: Petrobiinae: Pedetontus: Pedetontus submutans (Silvestri, 1911) The jumping bristletails belong to the order Archaeognatha. These small insects exhibit three pronged tails, an arched back, and two compound eyes. Its body is covered in detached scales making it very hard for predators to grip. Living in diverse habitats from moist shorelines…
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127/150: Happy Halloween! The Masked Hunter wears a costume of disguise!
Animalia: Arthropoda: Insecta: Hemiptera: Reduviidae: Reduviinae: Reduvius: Reduvius personatus (Linnaeus, 1758) The Masked Hunter is a true bug belonging to the family Reduviidae, also known as the Assassin Bugs. In accordance to their dangerous sounding common name they are known to have a painful bite, but they are relatively harmless towards humans as they don’t…
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123/150: The European earwig may be a pest to us, but at least they have good mothers
Animalia: Arthropoda: Insecta: Dermaptera: Forficulidae: Forficula auricularia (Linnaeus, 1758) The European earwig is an introduced species, as you may have guessed from its common name. This insect is known as a household pest and with omnivorous eating habits can either be found eating your grains & vegetables, or other smaller insect pests. Despite popular stories,…
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100/150: Phasmids, the masters of disguise!
Animalia: Arthropoda: Insecta: Phasmatodea: Diapheromeridae: Diapheromerinae: Diapheromera: Diapheromera femorata (Say, 1824) The common walking stick (Diapheromera femorata) is the only species walking stick found in Canada. Phasmids are excellent at camouflage and are commonly mistaken for twigs and leaves, accomplishing this feat by body modifications that resemble leaf veins and bark like tubercles. Phasmids will…
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72/150: Not as ‘Lousey’ as you may think!
Animalia: Arthropoda: Insecta: Psocodea: Psocidae: Psocinae: Metylophorus: Metylophorus novaescotiae (Walker, 1853) Meet the June barklouse. Don’t worry, I know what you’re thinking, but despite the name these small soft-bodied insects are not parasitic like most lice. Within Psocodea, the members that are found on trees are referred to as barklice.
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50/150 A damsel in distress? Think again!
animalia: Arthropoda: Insecta: Odonata: Coenagrionidae: Enallagma: Enallagma antennatum (Say, 1839) Have you ever wondered what the difference between a dragonfly and a damselfly was? Well you’ve come to the right place! First things first, both dragons and damsels make up an ancient order of insects called Odonata. They originated at least 300 million years ago…
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Ontario Bioblitz – Don River Watershed
Hey everyone, If you’ve ever wondered how scientists that study animals and plants do their work, then getting involved in a BioBlitz is a great way to discover this!
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A Great Start To The Summer
Hello everyone! My name is Dan Engelking, and I am currently working in Collections as a Collections Technician for BIO this summer. I would like to officially welcome you to my portion of the blog!
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Insects Galore
Hi everybody, I’m Kylee and I work in the archives in the collections department. I’ve been with BIO since September 2013 and worked in collections for a year previous to moving to the archive in the summer of 2014. I love working with BIO and I’m really looking forward to completing some field work this…