Life Sciences Commons^™

Trap-Nesting Wasps And Bees: Life Histories, Nests, And Associates. Karl V. Krombein. Washington, D.C.: The Smithsonian Institution, 1957. Smithsonian Publ. 4670. Vi, 570 Pp. $12.50., Howard E. Evans

The Great Lakes Entomologist

Excerpt: The technique of "trap-nesting" for wasps and bees by putting out strips of wood having a hole bored in one end is not exactly new, but only within the last 15 years has it been widely employed in this country. This new book by Karl V. Krombein, chairman of the Department of Entomology at the U.S. National Museum, reveals how enormously productive the technique can be. It is, of course, useful only for species that normally nest in hollow twigs. Species that bore in pith (such as many crabronine wasps) do not usually accept the traps , nor do …

Observations On The Interrelationships Among Ants, Aphids, And Aphid Predators, Beverly Rathcke, Charles L. Hamrum, Arthur W. Glass

The Great Lakes Entomologist

Excerpt: The literature concerning the interactions of these insect groups is as interesting as it is extensive. It has generally been accepted that the relationship between ants and aphids has been one of mutualism in which ants derive all or a large part of their nutrients from aphid honeydew and perform special functions in return, primarily that of protecting aphids from their enemies. Every aspect of these associations has been covered by the excellent reviews of Nixon (1951) and Way (1963). It now appears that the nature and effectiveness of the protective value afforded the attended aphids by ants cannot …

Odonata Collected With A Mist Net In Baraga County, Michigan, Including A New Record For The Upper Peninsula, Norman F. Sloan

The Great Lakes Entomologist

Excerpt: In the summer of 1966, a study of the interrelation of birds and forest insects was initiated at Michigan Technological University. Japanese mist nets were used, among other methods, to make population estimates of birds. When checking the nets for trapped birds , Odonata were often found in the pockets, We were thus able to compile a list of Odonata frequenting the shores of Little Lake, Baraga County, Michigan. The "lake," actually a small stagnant basin of water not exceeding a foot in depth in dry years, is located on the Baraga Plains, approximately five miles west of Michigan …

The Hymenopterous Parasites Agathis Pumila (Braconidae) And Epilampsis Laricinellae (Eulophidae) On The Larch Casebearer (Lepidoptera: Coleophoridae) In The Northern Lake States, Jack B. Cody, Fred B. Knight, Samuel A. Graham

The Great Lakes Entomologist

Excerpt: The larch casebearer Coleophora laricella (Hübner) is a defoliator of larch (Larix spp.). The insect was introduced into North America from Europe at some time prior to 1886, and since has spread steadily westward. It was causing heavy defoliation by the early 1920's near Ann Arbor in southern Michigan and was recorded in northeast Wisconsin in 1939, at Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario in 1942, and Port Arthur, Ontario in 1947.

Many native parasites attack the case bearer but seem to effect little control. Parasites were imported from Europe beginning in 1928, but the first attempts to establish them …

New Distribution Records Of Michigan Mosquitoes, 1948-1963, Carl B. Obrecht

The Great Lakes Entomologist

Excerpt: The following records result from data accumulated from the years 1948-63. A total of more than 175 field samples, usually from different locations, have been taken from 27 counties in the upper and lower peninsulas of Michigan. The total of 2,199 specimens includes 241 larvae, 452 adult males, and 1506 adult females.

The Northern Widow Spider, Latrodectus Variolus (Araneae: Theridiiae), In Michigan, Louis F. Wilson

The Great Lakes Entomologist

Until recently the species of widow spider occurring in Michigan was considered a variant of the black widow, Latrodectus mactans (Fabricius). Levi (1959) summarized and revised the worldwide genus Latrodectus, placing the southern areas of Illinois, Indiana, and Iowa as the northern limit of mactans on the North American continent. Widow spiders located north of this became part of the widespread curacaviensis group. After further information was available, McCrone and Levi (1964) revised the curacaviensis group, establishing the species that extended north of mactans as the northern widow, L. variolus, originally described by Walckenaer (183v).

L. variolus is the most …

Speak, Memory: An Autobiography Revisited. Vladimir Nabokov. New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1966. 316 Pp. $6.75., Ronald S. Wilkinson

The Great Lakes Entomologist

Excerpt: Presumably, many of Vladimir Vladimirovich Nabokov's readers do not know that he is a distinguished entomologist; one can search through the majority of his numerous novels, short stories, translations and critical works without discovering the fact. On the other hand, there may be an entomologist somewhere who does not know that Nabokov of the Lycaenidae is also the author of Lolita, Pnin, and Nabokov's Dozen. To those in both categories, and to those who already know how successfully Nabokov has bridged the Two Cultures, we recommend Speak, Memory.

This enlarged and revised version of Nabokov's autobiography …

A Method Of Collecting Catocala Minuta (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae) And Related Species, Joseph Muller

The Great Lakes Entomologist

Excerpt: During the last twelve years I have 'sugared' extensively in areas where large honey locusts (Gleditsia triacanthos L.) are abundant. Although the various forms of Catocala innubens Guenee and Stvenoloma lunilinea (Grote) have appeared in my bait traps, Catocah rninuta Edwards has been absent. [C. minuta is taken on Gleditsia in southern Michigan by using a mixture of molasses, brown sugar, beer and,rum-- Ed.] There is, however, amethodof collecting the pupae of C. minuta that I have employed with excellent results.

Réaumur's Insect Collecting Net Of 1736, Ronald S. Wilkinson

The Great Lakes Entomologist

Excerpt: In several recent papers (Wilkinson, 1966a, 1966b, 1966c, 1967), I have discussed the interesting origins of modern collecting nets. Actual illustrations of nets are very rarely found in entomological literature before the 1750s, and we are extremely lucky to have in Réaumur's classic Mémoires pour servir á l'histoire des insectes (Paris, 1734-42), a very early depiction of one of the ancestors of our present bag-net, with an explanation of its construction.

René Antoine Ferchault de Réaumur (1683-1757) is probably best known for his thermometer, still used in some countries. A prominent member of the Académie des Sciences, …

January Collecting In Central Michigan, Ronald S. Wilkinson

The Great Lakes Entomologist

Excerpt: To the uninitiated reader, searching for adult insects in mid-winter might seem a fruitless task at best. Yet as the List of Michigan Insects and Related Arthropods takes shape, L'off-season" collecting records are urgently needed by the compilers. Many species of insects thrive when we might wish to stay indoors; the Collembola are good examples, as are the species of Chionea (Diptera: Tipulidae), a genus of wingless crane-flies. We should like to know much more about the distribution of many hardy winter insects, and only increased collecting will enable this.

Notes On The Ecology Of Xyloryctes Jamaicensis (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae) In Southern Ontario, Karl Stephan

The Great Lakes Entomologist

Excerpt: The comprehensive survey of literature on the biology of the Scarabaeidae by Ritcher (1958) indicates that the ecology of many large groups is known from a study of very few species. Such is the case with the rhinoceros beetles in the subfamily Dynastinae. From 1960 to 1965 I had many opportunities to observe the rhinoceros beetle Xyloryctes jamaicensis (Drury) in a woodlot near Wheatley, Ontario, on the north shore of Lake Erie. My notes, although fragmentary, suggest areas of further research.

Arthur J. Yates (1882-1961) And His Collection Of Lepidoptera, Roland L. Fischer

The Great Lakes Entomologist

The fine collection of Michigan Lepidoptera assembled by the late Arthur J. Yates has recently been donated by his wife, Mrs. Ethel K. Yates, to the Entomology Museum of Michigan State University.

New Records Of Acrolophidae (Lepidoptera) From Kentucky, Julian P. Donahue

The Great Lakes Entomologist

Excerpt: A recent collection of Kentucky moths submitted for identification contained 28 specimens of Acrolophs, or burrowing webworms. Rudolph A. Scheibner collected the moths in 1966 in Lexington, Fayette Co., and Paintsville, Johnson Co., Kentucky. The specimens are deposited in the insect collections of the University of Kentucky and Michigan State University. The five females in the series, all from Lexington (three collected on 19 June and two collected on 5 July), were not identified. The 23 males, identified according to Hasbrouck (1964), represent four species. Only one of them, A. popeanellus, has previously been recorded from Kentucky.

Aniulus Paludicolens, N. Sp. (Julida: Paraiulidae), A Bog-Dwelling Milliped, Neil B. Causey

The Great Lakes Entomologist

Almost without exception, millipeds require a continuously moist substratum, yet they do not tolerate flooding. Other ecological factors that limit their distribution are subtle and difficult to recognize. Aniulus paludicolens, n. sp., is unique in that all collections are from Sphagnum bogs in the vicinity of the Great Lakes. It is best known from Byron Bog, in southern Ontario. This bog has the following vegetation zones: a, a central bog based on a mat of Sphagnum moss and covered almost entirely by leatherleaf; b, a low wooded region, damp or flooded, with hardwood trees and shrubs at its outer limits …

A New Family Of Cavernicolous Millipedes With The Description Of A New Genus And Species From Idaho (Diplopoda: Chordeumida: Chordeumidea), John S. Buckett, Michael R. Gardner

The Great Lakes Entomologist

The Chordeumidea is accumulating species names faster than any other group of North American Diplopoda. About one-half its species, 47, have been described since 1950. This recent growth has occurred because the small size, localized populations, and, frequently, cave habitus of these millipeds have obstructed thorough collection in the past. These factors have only recently been overcome by comprehensive collecting. As a result of this rapidgrowth and the many artificial groupings which result from it, much organization of the higher classification remains to be done. Hoffman (1961) emphasizes that co- operation between workers, more thorough descriptions, more accurate illustrations, and …

A Melanic Pieris Rapae From Michigan (Lepidoptera: Pierdae), Julian P. Donahue, M. C. Nielsen

The Great Lakes Entomologist

The Arthur J. Yates collection of Michigan Lepidoptera, recently donated to Michigan State University (see Fischer, 1967), contained a striking melanic male cabbage butterfly [Pieris rapae (Linnaeus)] (Figs. 1, 2) now incorporated into the MSU series. Yates collected the specimen on 29 May 1934 in Roseville, Macomb County, near the western shore of Lake St. Clair in southeastern Michigan. An examination of the androconia and genitalia, using the characters described by Chang (1963), assured proper identification of the specimen. Although we have found no record of a similar rapae taken in North America, there are some named European forms of …

Botanical Latin: History, Grammar, Syntax, Terminology And Vocabulary. William T. Stearn. London And Edinburgh: Thomas Nelson And Sons, Ltd., 1966. Xiv, 566pp.($14.75), R S. Wilkinson

The Great Lakes Entomologist

Excerpt: As W. T. Stearn reminds us in the preface to this attractive and welcome work, "the realm of literature which a knowledge of botanical Latin opens to botanists is a strange barbarous place for classicists; invited into it as an interpreter, a good classical scholar may well feel like Alice meeting Humpty Dumpty through the looking-glass." The same perplexity is experienced by the entomologist; those of us educated in the Latin of Cicero and Pliny are ill equipped to name new species or even to translate Latin descriptions, as biological Latin developed long ago into a stylized form not …

Insect Behaviour. Symposium No. 3 Of The Royal Entomological Society Of London. Ed. P. T. Haskell. London: The Royal Entomological Society, 1966. Viii, 113 Pp. $6.35. .., Anthony Eve

The Great Lakes Entomologist

Excerpt: The science of zoology is expanding at such a rate that it is difficult for even the relatively narrow specialist to keep up with the ever- increasing literature on his subject, and almost impossible to assimilate recent findings in the entire field of zoological research. The international congresses of zoology and entomology have helped, considerably by facilitating personal contact between workers of different nationalities. On a more modest scale, the symposia of the Royal Entomological Society of London have provided a useful means of bringing together entomologists in an atmosphere conducive to the free exchange of ideas and information.

Laminating Lepidoptera For Educational Use, Darryl Quidort

The Great Lakes Entomologist

Excerpt: A convenient method of teaching farmers, 4-H members and students to recognize various species of Lepidoptera is now being used in Michigan with wide success. In the process, insect wings are mounted on cardboard and sealed between layers of clear plastic. The resulting "laminations" have several advantages over pin-mounted Lepidoptera, and are admirably suited for any use that requires constant handling. The finished mounts are impervious to museum pests, are dust-proof, may be cleaned with ease, and are easily stored in a loose-leaf binder. The plastic is flexible, thus danger of damage from bending is slight.

The Behavior Of Atlanticus Testaceus (Orthoptera: Tettigoniidae) On The E.S. George Reserve, Michigan, S. K. Gangwere

The Great Lakes Entomologist

Several reports deal in part with the systematics, distribution, or habits of one or another of the shield-backed katydids of the orthopteran genus Atlanticus. Included are Blatchley (1920), Cantrall (1943), Caudell (1907), Davis (1893), Hebard (1934), McNeill (1891), Rehn and Hebard (1916), and Scudder (1894). One species of the genus, A. testaceus (Scudder), is found commonly throughout Michigan and has interesting habits. As the species' feeding behavior was poorly understood, the author undertook an investigation dealing with that subject. The results are in press. During the course of that study much information was obtained on certain non-feeding aspects of the …

A New Species Of Thraulodes From New Mexico (Ephemeroptera: Leptophlebiidae), Richard W. Koss

The Great Lakes Entomologist

While working on the Ephemeroptera collection in the Entomology Museum at Michigan State University, the author came upon a single specimen of Thraulodes which appeared to be a new species. Although it is only in fair condition (the preserving fluid having dissipated under field conditions), the colors are well preserved and very distinctive. The specimen was sent to Dr. Jay R. Traver, University of Massachusetts, who confirmed suspicions that the specimen was new. I have been informed by Dr. Traver that she and Dr. George F. Edmunds Jr. are presently engaged in a revisionary study of the genus for North …

Another Record Of Williamsonia Fletcheri In Michigan (Odonata: Corduliidae), David F. Foley

The Great Lakes Entomologist

Excerpt: Williamsonia fletcheri Williamson was first taken in the United States in the upper peninsula of Michigan near Manistique, Schoolcraft County (Gloyd, 1932). On June 4, 1966, I collected two males of this rare species at Island Lake, a small lake heavily overgrown with jack pine and poplar in southeastern Grand Traverse County. The specimens were identified by Mrs. Leonora Gloyd of the University of Michigan. This is the first report of this species from the lower peninsula of Michigan, and the second for the United States.

Some Notes On Heteropteran Trichobothria, Carl W. Schaefer

The Great Lakes Entomologist

Excerpt: There has been much recent interest in the comparative morphology of the Heteroptera. This work has emphasized the land bugs, or Geocorisae, and has been concerned with working out the relationships and taxonomic placement of the higher categories (categories above the genus), and with the phylogenetic lines and sequences of these higher categories. The geocorisine groups with which I have been most concerned are in the closely related superfamilies Lygaeoidea, Pyrrho- coroidea, and Coreoidea (see Schaefer, 1964, for a discussion of the relationships among these groups). Another superfamily, the Pentatomoidea, is less closely related. All four of these superfamilies …

A Review Of The North American Species Of The Genus Otites Latreille, With Descriptions Of Two New Species (Diptera: Otitidae), George C. Steyskal

The Great Lakes Entomologist

Excerpt: In 1961 (Steyskal, 1961), I placed the genus Otites in a key to the North American genera of Otitidae and indicated the synonymy of the genus Ortalimyia. Bibliography and synonymy of the hitherto known species of our area will be found in the Catalog of the Diptera of America North of Mexico (Stone et al., 1965). The only previously published key to our species was by Hendel (1911, as Ortalis), wherein were included Cevoxys latiusculus (Loew) and the four species now known as Otites bimaculahs (Hendel), 0. evythvocephala (Hendel), 0. pyvvhocephala (Loew), and O. stigma (Hendel). The present treat- …

The Genus Phragmatobia In North America, With The Description Of A New Species (Lepidoptera: Arctiidae), Julian P. Donahue, John H. Newman

The Great Lakes Entomologist

Excerpt: This paper, based on the examination of 1,879 specimens, serves to resolve the taxonomic problems involving the three North American species of Phragmatobia. The genus Phragmatobia, the ruby tiger moths, has had a checkered history since it was described by Stephens in 1829 (type, by monotypy, Noctua j'uliginosa Linnaeus, 1758). Although many species have been described in or transferred to this genus, in both the Old and New Worlds, most of them have been removed to other genera. By 1902 Dyar recognized only two North American species, a status since then unchanged (McDunnough, 1938; Forbes, 1960). Despite the recent …

Ixodes Brunneus (Acari: Ixodidae) From Two Bird Hosts: A New Michigan Tick, Richard S. Keith, Brenda S. Keith, William C. Scharf, Sarah A. Hamer

The Great Lakes Entomologist

The tick Ixodes brunneus Koch (Acari: Ixodidae) is reported for the first time in Michigan from two bird hosts at two locations in the lower peninsula. All stages of this tick exclusively feed on birds, and are primarily known from the southern U.S., although abundant records occur from northern states. The role of this species as a vector of pathogens is discussed.

First Report Of Leptomantispa Pulchella (Banks, 1912) (Neuroptera: Mantispidae) From Iowa, Edwin L. Freese, Paul K. Lago

The Great Lakes Entomologist

An adult specimen of Leptomantispa pulchella (Banks) (Neuroptera: Mantispidae) was collected in southeast Iowa. Published records indicate the species is present in southwestern Canada and much of Central America, but this is the first published report of this species from Iowa.

Feeding Records Of True Bugs (Hemiptera: Heteroptera) From Wisconsin, Supplement, Andrew H. Williams

The Great Lakes Entomologist

In order to understand any animal and its habitat requirements, we must know what it eats. Reported here are observations of feeding by 27 species of true bugs (Hemiptera: Heteroptera) encountered in various habitats in Wisconsin over the years 2003–2014. This is the first report of Anasa repetita Heidemann (Coreidae) from Wisconsin.

Macromia Alleghaniensis (Odonata: Macromiidae): New For Michigan, With Clarifications Of Northern Records, Julie A. Craves, Darrin S. O’Brien

The Great Lakes Entomologist

An Alleghany River Cruiser, Macromia alleghaniensis Williamson (Odonata: Macromiidae), collected in Cass County, Michigan on 18 June 2014, represents the first record of the species for the state, as well as the northernmost unequivocal record in North America. Other records north of 40° latitude are clarified and discussed.

Occurrence Of Treehopper (Hemiptera: Membracidae) Bycatch On Purple Panel Traps And Lindgren Funnel Traps In Pennsylvania, With New State Records, Lawrence Barringer

The Great Lakes Entomologist

Surveys for invasive insects in Pennsylvania conducted from 2009-2013 captured large numbers of native treehoppers (Hemiptera: Membracidae). These were collected using Lindgren funnel traps and purple prism traps totaling 1,434 specimens in eight tribes, 20 genera, and 57 species. As a result of this work Pennsylvania now has four new published species records: Heliria gibberata Ball 1925, Palonica pyramidata (Uhler 1877), Telamona projecta Butler 1877, and Telamona westcotti Goding 1893. With proper site selection Lindgren funnel traps may be able to capture ten to hundreds of treehoppers in a single season, especially within the Smiliinae: Smiliini and Telamonini.