APRIL 1991 SPHECOS A FORUM FOR ACUlEATE WASP. RESEARCHERS MINUTIAE FROM THE ty• of digger wasps had a slightly une­ MUD D'AUB ARNOLDS. MENKE, Edhor ven distribution while the •nesting Tony Nuhn, Assistant Editor com­ Systematic Entomology Labratory munity• had a more patchy distnbution. Still no official word from the old Agricultural Research Senrice,USDA Sphecid communHies were more di· BMNH regarding personnel changes, c/o National Museum of Natural History verse on patches w~h relatively low but as of last November, Nigel Fergus­ Smithsonian I1Stitution, Washington, DC 20560 plant diversHy and cover. Diversity de· FAX: (202) son (a cynipoidist) was put in charge 786-9422 Phone: (202) 382-t803 creased in response to watering and of Coleoptera. Nigel informed me that watering combined wHh mechanical iso­ Tom Huddleston is now in charge of lation and increased after removal oi Hymenoptera. By the time you receive the upper layer of soil and plants. this issue of Sphecos, Mick Day may RESEARCH NEWS no longer be employed at The Natural lynn Kimsey (Dept. of Entomology, Alexander V. Antropov History Museum (aka BMNH). (Zoological Univ. of California. Davis, CA 95616, Museum of the Moscow lomonosov George Eickwort of Cornell Universi­ USA) reports "I am revising the wasp State ty is the President-elect of the Interna­ University, Herzen Street 6, Mos­ family Tiphiidae for the world, and have cow K-9 I tional Society of Hymenopterists. The 03009 USSR) has described begun sorting all of our miscellaneous a new genus of Crabroninae Society's second quadrennial meeting from Bra­ tiphiid wasps to genus and species. In zil and has written a short is scheduled for August 11-17, 1991 at review of the addition, Dick Bohart and I wrote a neotropical Spi/omena Sheffield, England. Many fine speak­ including two monograph of the chrysidid wasps of new species. These papers ers have been lined up and this should are being the world, which will be published by published in journals be an excellent meeting (see an­ which will be Oxford UniversHy Press as of Novem­ translated nouncement on page 27 of this issue). into English. ber, 1990." Back issues of Sphecos are fast dis· Richard M. Bohart appearing from our shelves. The only (Dept. of Ento­ Joan Krlspyn (Gracewood State mology, Univ. of California, Davis, ones still available are I, 3-6, 9, I 0, 15, CA School & Hospital, Gracewood, GA 95616, USA) is proceeding 18-20. Only a few copies of I and 3 re· w~h a revi­ 30815 USA) writes "My son and I have sion of main. First come, first serve. South American Oxybelus and been working on a Bembix movie that All copies of Sphecos 20 were so far has sorted out some 45 species, is very pretty, though not incredibly mailed in September 1990, but those at least half of which are undescribed. penetrating.• going overseas were sent by surface He has two papers in press describing mail because of the high cost of air­ some new species of neanctic Soliere/la, Diomedes Quintero Arias (SmHhso­ and mailing. Some recipients experienced is finishing another paper on two nian Tropical Research lnstHute, Tup­ new species of nearctic a very long delay in trans~. Alex Antro­ Pemphrsdon. per Building, APO Miami, Florida pov and Alex Rasn~syn, both in the 34002-QOII) reports that Roberto Cam­ Istvan Karsai (Dept. USSR, didn, get their copies of Sphe­ of Zoology, bra has completed a rough draft of J6zsef Atlila Univ., Szeged cos until March of 19911 Did anyone Egyetem u. ·catalog of Mutillid Type Specimens in 2. - Pl.: 659, H-6722 HUNGARY) else experience a similar long delay in has the U.S. National Museum of Natural finished his PhD thesis receiving their copy of Sphecos 20? on the commu­ History," listing 285 holotypes, taxo­ n~y ecology We may have to use airmail for some of digger wasps on a mo­ nomic changes, synonomy. etc. of our overseas recipients in order to saic-like sandy grassland in the Kis· kunsag National Park, Hungary. 90 get~ to them in a timely manner. Mamoru Terayama (Biological la­ species were found, with Tachysphex boratory, Toho lnst~ute of Education, psammobius and T. pompi/iformis be· 1-41·1 Wakaba-cho, Chofu, Tokyo, 182 ing dominant. The "cursorial communi- 2 SPHECOS21 JAPAN) is preparing.a monograph of tirement. In 1949, Henry left the USDA ~ took one person only 30 years to the Bethylidae of East Asia. for North Carolina State University to bring order to a group w~h over 60,000 work on insects attacking tobacco. Ex­ species and approximately 2,800 avail­ Selkf Yamane (Dept. of Biology, Fa­ cept for a two-year interlude as an ad· able generic names. Enher on his own culty of Science,Kagoshima Univ., Kori­ viser to the Philippine government on or wnh the collaboration of others, Hen­ moto, Kagoshima 890 JAPAN) says "I pests of rice and corn (1952-1954), he ry produced the aforementioned four have started to revise the Taiwanese stayed in North Carolina until 1956. volumes of the world genera, five cata­ Eumenidae w~h Dr. J. Gusenle~ner, From 1956 to 1962 he received grants logs of the world fauna (excepting the and recognize ca. 45 species on this from the Dow Chemical Company to Western Palearctic), six volumes of not-so-large island." work on ichneumonid systematics. This comprehensive revisions of the Nearc­ opportun~y came about through the in­ tic fauna of various subfamilies (wnh a fluence of RR. Dreisbach, a Dow chem· seventh posthumous volume in prepar­ ist and amateur hymenopterist. ation), and numerous smaller papers. Henry and his family moved to Ann But Henry's contributions to sys­ Arbor, Michigan, where his research tematic entomology did not end with and collection were in~ially associated ichneumonids. I would like to call at· w~h the University of Michigan. The tention to some other interests and in­ OBITUARY collection and library were moved to a novations. private collection building on the home When Henry started his studies in Henry K. Townes, Jr. property of the Townes' in 1964. The the 1930's, many, ij not most, workers 20 Jan. 1913 • 2 May 1990 American Entomological Institute was relied upon the published literature for by established the same year as a non­ determinations, etc. Henry in~ially at­ David Wahl profit organization for the collection and tempted to idenmy the Cornell collec­ (American Entomological Institute library. Various grants were obtained tion's Tryphoninae in this manner but 3005 SW 56th Ave. from NSF and the National lnst~utes of found many gaps and much confusion. Gainesville, FL 32608) Heahh during the 1960's; the research He then began to travel to see types, to from these grants (and those from Dow compare specimens from his own col­ The death of Dr. Henry Townes has Chemical) was published in 1959-1978 lection with them, and to make detailed left the entomological commun~y much as three volumes of the Bulletin of the notes on what he saw. This was, in his diminished. His influence, by published U.S. National Museum and ten Me­ estimation, a good twelve of so years research and interaction with his peers, moirs of the American Entomologi· before this practice became common in was enormous. cal Institute (including the four volume North America. An appreciation of Henry's IHe and revision of the genera of lchneumoni­ Some of the readers of Sphecos work was published in 1982 by V.K. dae). may not be aware of Henry's work with Gupta (Contrlb. American Ent. lnst. From about 1933, Henry had been Aculeata. During his USDA service, he 20:1-14) and the interested reader is building up a collection of Hymenopte"' cataloged the pompilid subfamilies referred there for details. Briefly, Henry (with special emphasis on lchneumoni· Pepsinae and Ceropalinae, later revis­ was born in Greenville, South Carolina, dae) w~h the assistance of his wffe, ing them for the Nearctic. He later also enrolled at Furman University (in Green­ Marjorie Chapman Townes. In the late revised the world Rhopalosomatidae. ville) at the age of 16, and graduated in 1950's, Henry began using Malaise Henry always maintained a keen eye 1933 w~h a B.S. in biology and a B.A. traps for collecting, both on his own ex­ for aculeates and the American Ento­ in languages. His graduate studies were peditions and by supplying them to oth­ mological lnstnute's aculeate holdings at Cornell Univers~y (1933-1937) under ers to collect for him. By the late are approximately 90,000 specimens J.C. Bradley. It was Bradley who sug­ 1970's, the collection comprised more from around the world. Pompilidae are gested Henry work upon lchneumoni­ than 700,000 specimens of Hymenop­ especially well represented wnh 25,000 dae; Henry's original interests leaned tera and the question of what was to specimens. Taxonomy, however, was toward Chalcidoidea but Bradley dis­ become of nand the library preoccu­ not the only area where he had influ­ couraged him with the advice that chal­ pied the Townes. h was finally decided ence on aculeate studies. During his cidologists ruined their eyesight and to relocate the American Entomological North Carolina period, Henry suggest­ were prone to mental instability. Institute in Gainesville, Florida, where it ed the use of Po/istes for biological A number of jobs followed attainment would continue its existance as a fully control in tobacco. His work wnh Rob­ of the Ph.D., including a fellowship at independent organization dedicated to ert Rabb was one of the first to inten­ the Academy of Natural Sciences of systematics of Hymenoptera , w~h em­ sively investigate prey preferences for Philidelphia (1940-1941) to work on a phasis on the lchneumonoidea.