Wisconsin Entomoloqical Society Newsletter
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Wisconsin Entomoloqical Society Newsletter Volume 44, Number I February 2017 Monarch Magic the next morning, we saw only a couple of monarchs. By Phil Pellitteri [email protected] The next evening (September 20), I was sitting in a tree on the edge of the fust field. I am old enough to remember the discovery I had a couple of butterflies come in about of the Mexican overwintering sites in an an hour before sunset and land in a tree article in National Geographic. I was branch about 12 feet away. Over the next disappointed when the honeybee was voted hour, when a new butterfly approached, the as the state insect instead of our beloved roosting monarchs would flash their wings native butterfly. I have tried to explain the and often the butterfly would land on the many factors that have impacted monarch branch. There were about 15 monarchs populations when I am out giving talks. clustered on the one branch and at least Since I have retired.. I have had the chance to another 20 in other places on the other side watch the migration and wish for the large of the tree. I did get a chance to video-record populations which I saw when I was some of their behavior. While not younger. But I never expected to experience reproducing the overall numbers of the first what I saw this fall. morning, it still became a special expenence. th It was the morning of September 18 • I was out bowhunting in Iowa County on a property that my friends own between Avoca and Muscoda. My neighbor and I were going out to set up a tree stand and were driving along the edge of a 40-acre field filled with a new crop of clover. As we drove past the wood's edge, hundreds of butterflies flushed into the air. They had been roosting in the bushes and trees on the west edge of the field. If you looked behind us, you could have seen 50-60 butterflies in the air at any one time and the numbers were constant for the whole length of the field and the adjacent 50-acre clover field. I've guessed that we saw at least 700-800 butterflies that morning. We were excited to share the experience with our friends, although a storm front came through that afternoon and when we went back to the site Photo by Richard Hansen/Monarchwatch. This was a magical first for me. I know that Craig created an Introduction to the WIRC the populations as a whole are under document outlining the basic protocols and tremendous stress, but for a couple of days guidelines for working with specimens in this fall, I got to see what the migration is the collection. He also created a multi-page supposed to look like. illustrated primer that explained the process of verifying scientific names. Then, with an Excel template Craig created, students were Y car 2016: Some Highlights from the required to update the taxonomy for selected UW-Madison Insect Research Collection fly families and harvest data from specimen (WIRC) labels in the WIRC Diptera holdings, as part of their course requirements. By Dr. Daniel K. Young Department of Entomology, UW-Madison One off-shoot of course-related field work [email protected] produced two new WIRC-based publications: In January, we began having regularly scheduled, weekly strategic meetings • Young, D.K. and C.M. Brabant. between the WIRC curator, Dr. Craig 2016. New records of Diastata Brabant, and WIRC director, Dr. Daniel K. repleta Walker (Diptera: Young. The meetings grew out of our desire Ephydroidea: Diastatidae) from to draft a comprehensive WIRC Wisconsin. Entomological News, Management Policy Handbook that will 126(3): 191-195. address all aspects of collection • Young, D.K. and C.M. Brabant. management and enable us to further 2016. New Records ofAulacigaster develop Best Practices spin-off documents, neoleucopeza Mathis and Freidberg Power Point presentations, videos, and (Diptera: Schizophora: protocols for the WIRC and those engaged Aulacigastridae) from Wisconsin. in collections-based research, projects, The Great Lakes Entomologist, internships, volunteer opportunities, etc. 48(1- 2): 98- 102. January also saw a Saturday Open Cabinet In March, Craig researched several options Coleoptera-sorting event. Organized by for a new WIRC focus-stacking imaging Craig, the day-long event brought together system to augment the Auto-Montage 18 participants throughout the day who system that is beginning to feel its age. This examined and sorted to family or beyond included inviting Madison-area 6,963 specimens-representing 77 beetle photographer Don Parsons to consult on the families-from the drawers of unsorted new system. The final set of components Coleoptera in the WIRC. were ordered and assembled in late March. Don Parsons was again invited to the WIRC During the Spring Semester, one of the in early April to provide initial training on courses Dan taught was Entomology 701 - the new system that is now housed in the Advanced Taxonomy of Diptera. One of the WIRC imaging facility. things Dan wanted to incorporate into the course was WIRC-based requirements to The WIRC participated for the first time in engage students directly with the collection. the UW campus-wide Science Expeditions Prior to "turning them loose" in the WIRC, program on Saturday, 02 April. Ninety-nine 2 Yi sitors signed our guest book and explored (Thematic Collections Network) grant our exhibits in 14 7 Russell Labs throughout proposal entitled, COLLABORATIVE the afternoon. We also participated. along RESEARCH: DIGITIZATION TCN: with UW-Madison Insect Diagnostician (and Northern range limit dynamics ofbeetles WES President) PJ Liesch, in the summer and host plants across the Great Lakes Grandparents University entomology major floristic tension zone, or as we call it for program. short, Shifting Biomes. If supported (fingers crossed), the grant would provide four years In June. Dan flew off to the annual meetings of funding - that earmarked for the WIRC of the Society for the Preservation of would largely support UW-Madison Natural History Collections (SPNHC: 18- undergraduate student hourly workers in 25 June, Berlin, Germany) to represent the capturing specimen collection event label WIRC along with the UW Natural History data from selected beetle families for Museums Council, as institutional member. inclusion in the cloud-based, ginormous data Dan also serves on the SPNHC Best set relating to beetles and plant taxa in and Practices Committee. around the ecological "tension zone" that runs through part of Minnesota, all of As some of you know, September brought Wisconsin and Michigan, and up part of the together the largest single assemblage of St. Lawrence waterway into New York. entomologists ever gathered at one point on the globe, when the .XXV International Dan was also most fortunate in 2016 to land Congress of Entomology met in Orlando - a UW-Madison Instructional Laboratory in conjunctions with the Entomological Modernization grant. The entomology Society ofAmerica, the Entomological Instructional Collections fall under the Society ofCanada, the Florida auspices of the WIRC, and as such, Entomological Society and the cabinetry, drawers, unit trays - and even Entomological Collections Network (ECN). pins, have historically been "pirated" from The WIRC was represented at the ECN the WIRC to support entomology meetings with a poster presentation: instructional labs and courses. This grant Brabant, Craig M. and Daniel K. Young. enabled us to purchase seven, 24-drawer The Wisconsin Insect Research Collection cabinets, 225 new USNM-style drawers, and - a dynamic and growing research more than 5, I 00 unit trays for the WIRC - collection. to offset those resources now devoted to the instructional labs. At the ICE meetings, Craig also delivered a research talk: During 2016, more than 13,000 new Taxonomic revision of the Neotropical specimens were added to the curated portion velvet ant genus Tallium Andre with of the WIRC - it's not even possible to discussion of two novel setal types enumerate the number of "bulk wet (Hymenoptera: Mutillidae). specimens" added from several inventory projects. We trained and supervised 12 As the WIRC continues to plug along on WIRC workers, student interns, and digitizing every drawer of its holdings - part volunteers in the WIRC (933 person hours of a now concluded, 4-year National Science last updated, I November). Foundation (NSF) supported, collaborative grant - we entered into a new NSF-TCN 3 As we enter 2017. we look forward to County in October 1946 (MCZ completing drawer digitization of the 102442). Hymenoptera. Diptera. Hemiptera. and reconfiguring the Lepidoptera holdings in • Microhisium parvulum (Banks, preparation for drawer scanning. We will 1895) has been reported from 13 also complete our WIRC Man;gement Wisconsin counties. In addition. the Policy Handbook and work on some of the Illinois Natural History Survey' s new protocols and support materials collection includes specimens identified at the beginning of this summary. collected from Wisconsin Dells in We also plan to initiate a new summer Columbia County in October 1949 WIRC Sponsored Collecting Expedition to (INHS 491633) and Ephraim in Door engage students in some of the field aspects County in August 1947 (INHS of taxonomy, while also continuing to grow Pseudoscorpion 95). A second lot the holdings of the WIRC. Hopefully, we collected at Wisconsin Dells in 1949 will be able to report back on that new (INHS Pseudoscorpion 98) includes initiative next year! 20 specimens, perhaps the 20 that Nelson (1984) indicated he had examined from the state. Additional Wisconsin Records of Pseudoscorpions • Chelifer cancroides (Linnaeus, 1758) has been reported from Dane, By Dreux J Watermolen Marathon and Portage counties. An Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources additional specimen in the Museum [email protected] of Comparative Zoology collection (MCZ 102255) was collected in a We know very little about Wisconsin's house in Black River Falls in pseudoscorpions.