SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - The Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre was taken over by bug enthusiasts of all ages Thursday, June 11 for the second official Bugfest.

Milo Martin (left) and Oliver Lovely check a bug catching net to see if they caught any interesting creepy critters at Bug Fest, Thursday, June 9, 2011. - Kevin Allerston/NNSL photo

A team of McGill University etymologists led by Chris Buddle were on hand to show how to capture and identify the many bugs that call the NWT home, and explain why they are important to the biodiversity of the NWT. But it isn't all fun and games: there is real science behind why the team is in Yellowknife.

"Bug Fest is sort of an opportunity while we are here. We're doing a large project called the Northern Biodiversity Program where we're sampling insects and spiders at 12 locations across northern Canada, and Yellowknife is one of our stops," said Buddle.

"So we're doing the survey in the day and we're doing Bug Fest for fun," Buddle added.

The event was broken into two sections: one hour was spent in the foliage and waters around the museum, showing the techniques for catching bugs, which was followed by a slide show presentation about the bugs of the north and the importance of biodiversity.

Buddle said the point of Bug Fest is to get people of all ages, but particularly kids, interested in studying bugs and to think of it as something they can do as a career.

"A lot of us who study bugs as a job started out as kids once looking at insects and being interested in them. At least some of them who come away from Bug Fest will come away with excitement and the idea that you can do something for the love of the little creatures in the world and make a career of it and have a good life studying them," said Buddle.

Kathryn and Zoe Tucker came to the Bug Fest with their mom, and were two of the roughly two dozen people who spent their evening learning about the world of bugs.

"I wanted to come to Bug Fest because I like bugs. I like them because they are weird, and interesting at the same time. They range from so many sizes, so many colours, so many shapes... It's crazy just how many different kinds of creatures and different varieties," said Kathryn. "I don't know why, I just love the aquatic bugs, they're so weird." Her favourite part of the evening was when she got to see a caddisfly larvae outside its camouflage of twigs and rocks.

For Zoe, the best part was the spiders.

"I liked looking at the spiders. I learned what their nest looks like, when they have their eggs in them, because I saw a mother spider on the rock and she had it," said Zoe.

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