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LARVAL GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT OF ARGIA VIVIDA (ODONATA: COENAGRIONIDAE) IN WARM SULPHUR POOLS AT BANFF, ALBERTA

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 May 2012

Gordon Pritchard  and
Brian Pelchat
Gordon Pritchard
Affiliation:
Department of Biology, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta T2N 1N4
Brian Pelchat
Affiliation:
Department of Biology, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta T2N 1N4
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Abstract

Samples of a population of Argia vivida Hagen larvae were taken at about monthly intervals from a series of warm sulphur pools at Banff, Alberta, from June 1973 to December 1974. Changes in head capsule width and wing pad length in field-collected and laboratory-reared specimens show that the life-cycle is univoltine. Only the final (Z) instar can be recognized with certainty, but methods are described whereby the population can be divided into size classes which are thought to correspond well with the last nine larval instars. Periods of rapid growth occur in the autumn and again in the spring. Larvae overwinter in the instars U, V, W, X, and Y and the major shift to the final instar occurs in March and April. Adults emerge from April to August. In the laboratory, growth is temperature dependent until the penultimate (Y) instar and this could be a factor in the field since, although larvae can exist year-round at a constant 26 °C, some larvae live in the cooler areas at the edges of the streams and pools. Entry to the final instar appears to require the long photoperiods that follow the vernal equinox.

Type
Articles
Information
The Canadian Entomologist , Volume 109 , Issue 12 , December 1977 , pp. 1563 - 1570
Copyright
Copyright © Entomological Society of Canada 1977

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