This Friday is Canada Day, and what better entomological representation of Canada than the scourge of the Great White North, the black fly! Well, I suppose grylloblattids are a better choice, but so far no one has written a song about them, so black flies will have to do! (The Grylloblattidae are a group of rare insects first discovered on a glacier in western Canada, and are the mascot of the Entomological Society of Canada)
Along with our igloos and friendship with Charlie from Thunder Bay, swarms of black flies waiting to bleed unlucky Canadians dry is one of the more common misconceptions about Canada. Luckily, most of southern Canada is relatively free of black flies, but once you get into cottage country, the woods do indeed belong to the bikojisi, as they are known to the Ojibwe. The clouds of black flies present in the back country of Northern Canada have been known to instill fear in even the most adventurous outdoorsman (or outdoorswoman), and those required to work outdoors during the spring in Boreal Canada can undoubtedly sympathize with this weeks artist, Wade Hemsworth as he sings about his experiences with black flies while working for Hydro Ontario!
Incidentally, this short film by Christopher Hinton was nominated for an Academy Award in 1992 for Best Animated Short (it lost to this entertaining cartoon unfortunately). Pretty good for an insect loathed by most Canadians eh?
This black fly may be from Ecuador, but that arm is 100% Canadian!
H/T to Bug Girl for sharing this song!
This song is available on iTunes – The Blackfly Song – Folk Songs of the Canadian North Woods
Geez…when I saw the title of this song, I thought “No way! There’s no way it’s the same one!”
Sure enough…I remember my grade 1 teacher showing us this song back when I was in public school, and I’d still get it stuck in my head every so often!