Appendix II: Sources of Equipment and Supplies for Studies of Macroinvertebrate Biodiversity
Disclaimer: Listing of suppliers or sampling devices does not constitute endorsement by the authors of this report. It is intended only as an initial source of information.
Maps and Planning Material
1. The most comprehensive source for maps in Canada is The National Atlas Information Service, Room 650, 615 Booth St., Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, K1A OE9; phone 1-800-465-6277. The National Topographic Series in different scales may provide the most information for planning a study, but land-use maps are also often available. Website: http://ellesmere.ccm.emr.ca/.
2. Provincial Natural Resources offices may have small-scale maps or aerial photographs of local study areas. They may also have hydrographic maps of local waterways.
3. Hunting and fishing stores may have commercially produced terrain maps or contour maps of lakes.
Basic Supplies
Waterproof notebooks and papers suitable for data sheets and labels are available from J.L. Darling Corporation, Tacoma, Washington, U.S.A., 98421-3696, as the "Rite in the Rain"â series. One of the distributors in Canada is Western Technical Supplies, 845 West 15th St., West Vancouver, British Columbia, V7P 1M5; phone 604-986-2391. All-Weather Copier Pak paper, No. 8511 is available for photocopying waterproof data sheets and labels. It comes in an 8.5" x 11", 200-sheet package. An HB or 2B pencil will produce water- and alcohol-proof labels on this paper.
Sorting and bug-picking forceps are available from a variety of places: locally from medical or dental supply houses, first-aid or safety supply stores, or from large, national, scientific supply outlets such as Canadawide Scientific, Fisher Scientific (U.S.A. Website: http://www.fisher1.com/) or VWR Canlab (U.S.A. Website: http://www.vwrsp.com/). Straight #5s or #4s are useful for smaller invertebrates such as midge larvae but larger forceps are needed for the mayflies and stoneflies.
Vials, jars, bottles, caps, stoppers, and plastic bags such as the Whirl-Pakâ are available from scientific supply companies but also may be available from local distributors of plastic or glass containers. Tongue-and-groove-type bags of various sizes are common in grocery stores.
Preservatives such as ethanol are available from scientific supply companies, usually in a denatured (toxic-if-ingested) form. They may also be acquired from specialty companies such as Commercial Alcohols Inc., 2 Chelsea Lane, Brampton, Ontario, Canada, L6T 3Y4, also of Toronto and Montreal. Ethanol is a substance controlled by law, so a permitting process will have to be followed. Formaldehyde may also be purchased from scientific supply companies and occasionally from agricultural suppliers where it is sold as a soil fungicide. Purchases of preservatives are usually made through a sponsoring scientific or educational institution because many companies are reluctant to sell to individuals. However, liquors such as vodka (40% ethanol) will preserve small samples if not diluted by water. Samples preserved in vodka should have the liquor changed within 24 h to eliminate any possible dilution. A temporary preservative could also be made of a solution of 70% automobile antifreeze (ethylene glycol) in water. It is not recommended for long-term storage of specimens, and it is toxic to animals.
Field Equipment
Grabs, corers, dip nets, and other sampling equipment are available from a variety of sources but the most often-cited one is the Wildlife Supply Company (WILDCO), 301 Cass Street, Saginaw, Michigan, U.S.A., 48602; phone 517-799-8100 (Website: http://www.wildco.com/). WILDCO has a number of distributors in Canada, including Egetec Enterprises of Barrie, Ontario and Hoskin Scientific of Vancouver, British Columbia, Burlington, Ontario, and Montreal, Québec. The Website for Hoskin Scientific is http://www.teamkd. com/HOSKIN.HTM; e-mail may be sent to Hoskin@direct.ca. WILDCO catalogues are available from each of these distributors or from the parent company.
Equipment for physical and chemical sampling such as thermometers, and O2, pH, conductivity, and alkalinity meters can be found in scientific supply company catalogues. An excellent source for surveying, mapping, and general environmental equipment is Forestry Supplies Inc., 205 West Rankin St., P.O. Box 8397, Jackson, Mississippi, U.S.A., 39284-8397; phone 1-800-647-5368.
Self-made sampling equipment such as dip nets, Ekman sieve nets, and kick-sampling nets are often equal in quality to the commercial variety. Local machine shops can bend 1/4" (6.4 mm) stainless steel rod into any shape, such as a hoop for a 36-cm diameter Ekman sieve net or a 35-cm base triangle for a kick net, welded to a 10-cm long, 1 1/8" (28.6 mm) ID stainless steel pipe as a handle socket. Nitexâ nylon netting of the desired mesh size for stream or lake sampling is often available from local silk-screen, print-making shops, or from WILDCO. Heavy "duck" canvas will suffice for nets not used roughly, but ripstop trucker’s tarpaulin material from tent and awning suppliers is superior for nets to be used for kick-sampling streams. This material is harder to sew but may be fastened to the net frame by snaps or velcro on the outside of the hoop, which facilitates replacement. Tent-door and window screening (woven ripstop nylon), although usually a dark color, makes inexpensive mesh sweep nets for capturing aerial adults of many aquatic insects.
Entomological supplies such as adult sweep nets, light traps, activity traps, and taxonomic keys are available from numerous suppliers, including Canadian scientific supply companies, but specialized companies abound. These include BioQuip® Products, 17803 LaSalle Ave., Gardena, California, U.S.A., 90248-3602; Carolina Biological Supply Company, 2700 York Rd., Burlington, North Carolina, U.S.A., 27215 (Website: http://www.carolina.com/), and many others. Excellent source lists of suppliers and equipment are found at the following websites: http://insects.ummz.lsa.umich.edu/ entostuff.html (mostly U.S.A. suppliers) and http://www.ex.ac.uk/~gjlramel/six.html (a very good source of information).
Laboratory Supplies
Invertebrate-viewing and handling equipment such as microscopes, slides, mounting, and staining supplies are available through large scientific supply companies but some of the specialized subsampling equipment such as sample-splitters are available from entomological suppliers and WILDCO. White-enamel steel trays for live-sorting specimens in debris are often sold as "lasagna pans" at restaurant-supply stores. Office Depot (phone 1-800-685-8800) sells a fluorescent lamp with a central magnifying lens suitable for live-sorting.
The above sources should be regarded only as starting points in the search for equipment and information for biodiversity studies of macroinvertebrates; numerous other suppliers exist. Many other services are available, such as companies offering customized statistical programs for data analysis, and contract services for sorting and identification.
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