WILDFLONER PHOTOS WANTED by Katherine Clough

Geoff Hogan and I are preparing a book on familiar wildflowers of Prince Edward Island. It will be published next spring by Ragweed Press and will be the third volume in the Island Pathways series. Many of you are already familiar with Familiar Birds of P.E.I., the bird book written by Geoff and published this spring. we are looking for high quality photos of the species we have selected for the new book and we therefore invite you to submit any photos which may be suitable for inclusion. If you are interested in participating in this project please give me a call at 566-4961, preferably between 7 p.m. and 9 p.m., and I will be pleased to give you a list of the species we are looking for. If any of your work is selected you will receive a copy of the book and $10 for each photo appearing in the book.

WHALE DISCOVERED adapted ‘rom Goewatch, Canadian Geographic Aug/Sep 91

The immensity of our oceans was once again brought home when an American and two Peruvian scientists identified a new species of toothed whale, Mesoplodon peruvianus. This 3.5 meter ong, dolphin shaped whale is the first new whale discovery in 28 years. This whale is related to beaked whales such as Cuvier's

Beaked Whale which has been seen in Canadian waters off the Atlantic and Pacific coasts.

SANFLIES

These non-stinging wasps use a saw-like apparatus on the tip of their abdomen to cut plant tissue to allow the deposition of eggs into the slits created in needles and leaves. There are many species of sawflies in North America with approximately 100 species feeding on conifer foliage in their larval stage. Depending of the species, some feed only on old leaves while others utilize only new leaves. Some species occur only in the spring while others occur in the summer and still others throughout the growing season. The larvae of typical defoliator sawflies looks like a caterpillar but can be identified by the more than 5 pairs of prolegs on the abdomen. Depending on the species they may be defoliators, leaf rollers, webformers, skeletonizers, leaf miners, bud miners, stem borers, or gall makers.

The yellowheaded spruce sawfly feeds primarily on the new growth of a variety of spruces, preferring young, open grown trees. The insect overwinters in the ground as a larval stage within a dark brown cocoon encrusted in earth. Pupation occurs when the ground warms and adults, about 12 mm. long, emerge in May or June. The female lays its eggs singly near the base of the needle and the eggs hatch 7 to 14 days later. The larvae reaches its full growth of about 20 mm. in mid-July and then drops to the ground where it crawls into the ground and spins its cocoon.

References: Anon. "Red Pine Sawfly". Insect and Disease Pamphlet, Maritimes

Forest Research Centre.

N.T. Johnson and H.H. Lyon. Insects that Feed on Trees and Shrubs. Cornell

University Press.

A.H. Rose and O.H. Linquist. 1989. Insects of Eastern Spruces, Fir and

Hemlock. Forestry Canada, Forestry Technical Report 23, Ottawa.

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