John H. Acorn

Fossil Mayfly Larvae (Ephemeroptera, cf. Heptageniidae) from the Late Cretaceous Wapiti Formation, Alberta, Canada

Abstract Fossil mayfly larvae (cf. Heptageniidae) are reported for the first time in the Cretaceous of Canada. The new fossils come from the latest Campanian part of the Wapiti Formation, which crops out in west-central Alberta, near the British Columbia border. These sediments represent mixed lentic and lotic fluvial environments consistent with modern heptageniid ecology. This discovery helps fill a significant temporal gap in heptageniid evolution between the Eocene and their earliest appearance in the Turonian.

First Record of the Myrmecophilous Sap Beetle Amphotis ulkei Leconte (Coleoptera: Nitidulidae) in Canada

Amphotis Erichson is a Holarctic taxon that includes five described species: three in Europe (Amphotis marginata (F.), Amphotis orientalis Reiche, and Amphotis martini Brisout) (Lencina et al. 2011) and two in North America (Amphotis schwarzi Ulke and Amphotis ulkei LeConte) (Parsons 1938, 1943). All species are associated with ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) (Hölldobler and Wilson 1990), but each species differs in the degree of myrmecophily (Parsons 1943; Lencina et al. 2011). The two North American species have been reported primarily from the eastern United States: A. schwarzi from Virginia south to Alabama and Georgia (Parsons 1943); and A. ulkei from Minnesota south to Texas (Parsons 1943; Price and Young 2006). Neither species has been previously reported from Canada (McNamara 1991; Majka and Cline 2006; Majka et al. 2008). While studying ants in the sand hills of central Alberta, three specimens of A. ulkei were collected during June 2010. These specimens represent a new country record for Canada and a large range extension for this species. Similar range extensions were documented for several ant species, e.g. Dolichoderus taschenbergi Mayr and Harpagoxenus candensis Smith, known previously from eastern North America until discovery in the central Alberta sand hills (Glasier 2012). Our specimens were identified to genus using the key in ‘American Beetles’ (Habek 2002) and to species by Parsons’ revisions (1938, 1943), using width and degree of emargination of the mentum and possession of six striae on each elytron (Fig. 1). Specimens of A. ulkei were collected inadvertently using 24-hour pitfall traps at two sites in the Redwater sand hill zone (Wolfe et al. 2004) of Alberta, Canada: Site 1 the Opal Natural Area; and Site 2 the Redwater Provincial Recreation Area. Both areas constitute sand dunes, overgrown with mixed jack pine (Pinus banksiana Lambert; Pinaceae) and trembling aspen (Populus tremuloides Michaux; Salicaceae) woodlands, with black spruce (Picea mariana (Miller) Britton, Sterns and Poggenburg; Pinaceae) in the lower

Chapter 251 – Teaching Resources

Publisher Summary This chapter discusses various entomology-teaching resources. Those who teach about insects in the entomological sense, the best resources have always been a good entomological library, a selection of live insects in culture, a well-maintained collection of preserved specimens, and somewhere to take students to see live insects behaving in a natural fashion. These are still the basics, along with contagious enthusiasm and genuine personal knowledge of the subject. In recent years, two changes in social attitudes have strongly affected entomological teaching. Websites are the most important recent development in entomological teaching, and take various forms, such as clearinghouses to other sites, museum databases, exercises for instruction at various levels, and taxon-based compilations and/or species accounts. Internet is a wonderful tool, but the library is still the rightful place for scholarly information in entomology. Books and journals are for the most part much more carefully written, reviewed, and designed than their web-based counterparts, and therefore they are the guardians of mainstream entomological knowledge. Additionally, a number of excellent television programs, as well as regular series, have featured insects as their subject matter. Some of these are available on videotape or DVD. In general, video narration is not peer-reviewed, and is notorious for inaccuracies. Nonetheless, the value of video in education is difficult to overestimate.