View Full Version : What makes the Taiga so perfect for flying insects?

08-31-2009, 10:09 AM

I recently visited Canada's arctic territory, the Northwest Territories, which is mostly taiga and tundra. My mother and I went to Wood Buffalo National Park there and, I must say, I am amazed at the diversity of flying insects. Never have I been to a land with more horseflies, dragonflies, mosquitoes, gnats, damselflies, deer flies, black flies, etc. I've read in books that the Russian taiga is horrid for flies in the summer. Well now I've got a taste of it (literally, there were so many flies you'd breath them in). What makes the taiga so perfect for flying insects? I would have thought that the cold temperatures would have made it more or less fly free.

08-31-2009, 11:03 PM
Possibly because their are less predators? I know dragonflies are predators but I think the only amphibian predator flying insects would have up there are wood frogs (I might be wrong they might not even be that far north). Less roosts for bats?

08-31-2009, 11:42 PM
Got a point... reptiles and amphibians (their common predators) wouldn't live comfortably there. I can't explain how the cold isn't effecting the insects though. Does it get warmer seasonally? :?