Year 6: 2005

The 2005 field season found us surveying selected areas throughout the northwest coastal region: Prince Rupert and environs; the north side of the Skeena Valley east to Terrace; Terrace to the Nass River and the Nass valley east to Highway 37, including the Kitsault Road; and the Highway 37 corridor from Terrace to Kitimat (Figs. 10-15). Claudia Copley took part in a multi-disciplinary collecting expedition by boat through the islands south of Prince Rupert (Porcher, Banks, Pitt, Princess Royal islands) from 19 to 28 June. During their own studies, RBCM staff, Ken Marr and Mike McNall, helped Claudia collect. Rob Cannings and Jennifer Heron (Invertebrate Species at Risk Specialist, Ministry of Environment) surveyed the Terrace, Prince Rupert and Nass Valley regions from 5 to 13 July. The same areas were collected by Rob Cannings, Claudia Copley and Darren Copley from 14 to 19 July and by Claudia and Darren Copley from 20 to 26 July. This is a total of 32 collecting days.

Figure 10. Darren Copley and Rob Cannings - tired and wet dragonfly larvae collectors, Prince Rupert. Photo: Claudia Copley, RBCM

Several volunteers from the region gave advice, permission to collect or joined us in the field periodically. Ben Sabal (BC Parks, Terrace) aided with logistics and planning. Lars Reese-Jensen, also of the BC Ministry of Environment, advised us on collecting sites and guided us in the field. Robin Weber, Director, Prince Rupert Museum, helped with logistics and participated in collecting specimens. Dennis Horwood (Kitimat), Will MacKenzie (Ministry of Forests, Smithers) Jim Pojar (Whitehorse), Kathy Stuart and Don Youds (Terrace) suggested collecting sites. Carl Lofroth loaned us his house in Terrace as a base for field work. Collier Azak and Harry Nyce of the Nisga'a Lisims Government gave us permission to collect on Nisga'a lands in the Nass Valley.

A total of 82 separate collections was made; 507 adults and 190 larval lots were collected. Poor weather was a significant problem. In fact, the summer was a very wet one, and fewer adult dragonflies were encountered and sampled than would be expected, given the effort made. However, our extensive larval collections made up for much of the lack of adult material, although it was wet work. At the RBCM, Rob Cannings, and Claudia Copley checked the identifications of the specimens and Claudia entered the collection information into the database and curated the collection. No new species to BC were encountered.

The broad Skeena River basin extends well inland from the Pacific Ocean, allowing some species mainly found in the Interior of the province to range into coastal habitats. The area contains a fascinating mixture of interior and coastal environments. The focus of the survey this year was to document any dragonfly species, normally restricted to habitats east of the Coast Range, ranging into coastal (or coast-influenced) areas. In 2002 we collected Somatochlora whitehousei at Williams Creek Ecological Reserve south of Terrace. This is a good example of a boreal species, once known only from the east side of the Coast Mountains, living in a mainly coastal habitat in this transitional area. Like some other coastal populations of dragonflies, the Williams Creek population appears to have significantly larger individuals than those from east of the mountains. In 2005 we found the first S. franklini in what could be considered coastal habitat (Nalbeelah wetlands north of Kitimat). In the same place, the only coastal records of Lestes forcipatus north of southern Vancouver Island (600 km to the south) were tallied. Likewise, Aeshna tuberculifera was collected in the Kitsumkalum Valley (the nearest coastal records are on Vancouver Island) and A. subarctica at Prince Rupert (the nearest coastal records are at Bella Bella). Claudia collected several species far to the north of their previous coastal localities - Ladona julia, Sympetrum pallipes and, especially, Coenagrion resolutum.

Figure 11. The coastline near Prince Rupert from Mount Hayes. Metlakatla village
is in the distance. The summit of Mount Hayes contains many small coastal bog pools.
Photo: Claudia Copley, RBCM.

Figure 12. Fen in Diana Lake Provincial Park near Prince Rupert.
Photo: Claudia Copley, RBCM.

Figure 15. Nalbeelah wetlands near Kitimat, the site of several dragonfly range extensions in 2005.
Photo: Jennifer Heron.

Figure 13. Pond at summit of Kitsault Road, between the Nass River and Alice Arm.
This area contains many hectares of fine subalpine fens, ponds and lakes.
Photo: Claudia Copley, RBCM

Figure 14. Rob Cannings collecting dragonfly larvae at Herman Lake, Terrace.
Photo: Jennifer Heron.

The Odonata surveys in the Yukon continued in 2005 and, as in 2004, much of the material was deposited in the RBCM collection, helping to put the RBCM's northern BC specimens in a broader biogeographical context.

At an Invertebrate Species at Risk Symposium in Victoria in October, 2005, Rob Cannings presented an overview of the survey and the changes in species conservation ranks that have resulted from the work (Cannings and Ramsay 2005).

Publications. A paper on four of the species discovered in the province during recent inventories was published in Notulae odonatologicae (Cannings et al. 2005a); the fifth species had been published earlier (Kenner 2000). New information on the relationships between Lestes disjunctus and L. forcipatus and our new understanding of these species distribution and status are related in Cannings and Simaika (2005). A comprehensive report to the Habitat Conservation Trust Fund, which funded much of the northern survey, was submitted in 2005 (Cannings et al. 2005b). Rob Cannings co-authored a new annotated list of the Odonata of Canada (Catling et al. 2005); much of the BC information in this list is influenced by the dragonfly surveys.