I have been blogging at Zone 3b for a few years now, working under the general idea that this style of ‘naturalistic’ gardening is a boon for arthropod diversity. But of course, without keeping actual records of what shows up in this garden, I will never know if that is actually true. To work towards amending this, I will be be building up a list of the bugs that inhabit or visit this garden. Over the last few years quite a few of the ‘creepy-crawlies’ found in my garden have been identified with the help of the generous local entomologists at AlbertaBugs as well as the good people at BugGuide. I have been remiss at keeping a record of these, but by going through the archives, my photographs and my bug photography blog, I will now begin listing all the arthropods that have been identified so far. This is a work in progress, so it may look rather raggy for a while…
Order Diptera
Family Tephritidae
Currant Fruit Fly – Euphranta canadensis
Physocephala furcillata
Order Odonata
Sub-order Zygoptera (damselflies)
Family Lestidae
Spotted Spreadwing, Lestes congener Hagen, 1861
Order Hymenoptera
Western Yellowjacket, V. pensylvanica
Formica podzolica
Gilpinia hercyniae (Hartig) Spruce sawfly
Order Coleoptera
Scarlet Malachite Beetle, Malachius aeneus (Linnaeus, 1758)
Rose Curculio or weevil (most likely Merhynchites wickhami, Cockerell, 1912)
