Description
The Canadian Shield ecoregion is one of six natural regions found in Alberta. It is restricted to the extreme northeastern part of the province (Strong & Leggat 1992). This region is further divided into the Kazan Upland and Athabasca Plain that are located north and south of Lake Athabasca, respectively. Although the Lepidoptera are one of the dominant insect groups of the Boreal Plain (Danks 1979), very few accounts of local butterfly inventories are available (Bird et al. 1995), and no published inventories of moths exist for any given site in Alberta. The recently established parks within the Athabasca Plain subregion, consisting of the Richardson River Dunes Wildland Park, Marguerite Crag & Tail Wildland Park, Maybelle River Wildland Park and Athabasca Dunes Ecological Reserve, encompass a unique sand dune complex. Typical boreal habitats are also represented. The purpose of this report is to provide a summary of the Lepidoptera species found to date within the new...