Black flies are tiny, stocky flies from 1.4 to 6 mm long. Despite their name, their colour varies depending on the species. Their convex thorax gives them a characteristic humpbacked appearance. The six fairly short legs have white bands in certain species.
The females’ abdomens, which absorb blood meals, are particularly expandable. Their short, sharp mouthparts are adapted to cutting through skin and sucking up blood.
Mosquitoes are small insects with elongated bodies and a pair of V-shaped, forward pointing antennae. The males’ antennae are bushier than the females’.
These insects also have a characteristic long proboscis. Females have very sharp mouthparts for piercing the skin of vertebrates from which they suck blood. Males do not bite and their mouthparts are not as rigid.
These are small brownish-yellow insects about 3 to 4 mm long. Their compound eyes are bright red. They have two broad, oval wings and dark bands on their short abdomen. Males have a dark, rounded extremity, and females have a lighter, pointed one. Males are smaller than females.
These are very small ants, varying in colour from pale yellow to brown, with a darker abdomen. The petiole, the part that gives ants their slender waists, has two small nodes.
Adults in the colony belong to different castes. Workers are sterile females from 1.5 to 2.5 mm long. Queens, larger and darker, are from 3.5 to 5 mm. A single colony may have several queens. Males are about 2.8 mm long. Queens and adult males have wings when they emerge.
Carpenter ants are black, tinged with red or brown depending on the species. Males are 9 to 10 mm long, with small heads and two pairs of wings. Females are either queens or workers. Future queens have wings.
The queen is usually much larger than the workers, with a well-developed abdomen.
Workers are from 6 to 13 mm long. Their appearance differs depending on their role: nurses, scouts, soldiers, etc.
Social wasps are insects with extremely narrow waists between the thorax and abdomen. Workers have a stinger at the tip of the abdomen.
There are two subfamilies of social wasps in Quebec. Vespinae, or hornets, are black with yellow or yellowish-white markings on the abdomen, head or thorax. Paper wasps, or Polistinae, are brown, with long legs.
Dobsonflies have a soft, brownish body. They can grow up to 7 cm long. Two pairs of large wings of nearly equal length with rounded tips are fixed to the insect’s thorax. They are transparent, with spots. On its head are a pair of compound eyes, as well as simple eyes, or ocellae.
The dermestid beetle is a dark brown or black beetle whose elytra feature a wide stripe of smaller, lighter hairs that range from yellow to grey or white in colour. This stripe has six black dots in the centre (three on each elytra) that vary in size and shape. Its head has two short, club-shaped antennae. Two pairs of wings are attached to its thorax. Under its elytra are two functional wings which are used when the beetle takes flight. Males and females have similar appearances and measure between 6 and 9 mm.
Around 20 species of Dermestidae live in Quebec. Dermestid beetles, whose name means “skin eater,” are frequently found in homes.
The most common, other than the larder beetle (Dermestes lardarius), are the black larder (Dermestes ater), the hide beetle (Dermestes maculatus), the carpet beetle (Anthrenus scrophulariae), the varied carpet beetle (Anthrenus verbasci), the black carpet beetle (Attagenus unicolor), the dermestid beetle (Trogoderma inclusum) and the warehouse beetle (Trogoderma variabile).
The order of Megaloptera includes some 300 species divided into two large families: Corydalidae (dobsonflies) and Sialidae (alderflies). There are 16 species of dobsonflies in Canada and at least five in Quebec. Among the 24 species of alderflies in North America, five are listed in Quebec, all belonging to the Sialis genus.
Megaloptera undergo a complete metamorphosis. The larvae, which are very different from adults, live in the water and are predatorial.
Dobsonfly larvae do not have the terminal filament at the base of their abdomen like alderfly larvae. They both breathe using tiny gills. Megaloptera larvae act as indicators of water quality, as they do not tolerate pollution well.
Dobsonfly and alderfly adults barely eat, although their jaws are strong and well adapted. Their imposing wings do not allow these insects to fly over long distances.
