Insects" from Atlas of the Sand Hills

University of Nebraska - Lincoln DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln Papers in Entomology Museum, University of Nebraska State October 1998 "Insects" from Atlas of the Sand Hills Brett C. Ratcliffe University of Nebraska-Lincoln, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/entomologypapers Part of the Entomology Commons Ratcliffe, Brett C., ""Insects" from Atlas of the Sand Hills" (1998). Papers in Entomology. 44. https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/entomologypapers/44 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Museum, University of Nebraska State at DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. It has been accepted for inclusion in Papers in Entomology by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. Insects Brett C. Ratcliffe Curator of Entomology University of Nebraska State Museum What is life? It is the flash of the firefly do the job nor adequate resources devoted sects in the Sand Hills tolerate drier and in the night. It is the breath of a buf- to such an undertaking. No one knows, windier conditions and greater solar ra- falo in the winter time. It is the little therefore, how many species of insects diation. They have also been successful shadow which runs across the grass occur in Nebraska, although the number in surviving the periodic fires that are so and loses itself in the sunset. undoubtedly reaches the thousands. necessary for maintaining native grass- However, a number of specific in- lands. In fact, the mosaic of habitats par- —Crowfoot, 1890, Blackfoot sect groups in Nebraska have been sur- tially created by fire has probably con- Confederacy Spokesman veyed, including in the Sand Hills. These tributed to increased insect diversity in range from simple checklists to exhaus- the Sand Hills. Introduction tive monographs; some are old and largely With the introduction of row crops outdated, while others are new and very grown as monocultures (growing a single More than a hundred years after usable. Unfortunately, it is possible in a crop in the same place many years in a Crowfoot's brief, but eloquent statement single chapter to give only a limited over- row), often with irrigation, a few insect about the nature of life, our knowledge view of the insects in the Sand Hills, not species that formerly occurred in the Sand of the insects of the Sand Hills, though so much because we still lack baseline Hills in relatively low numbers now oc- greatly advanced, is still so fragmentary data, but because we already have so casionally reach economically damaging that many species remain as only little much; volumes could be devoted to it. levels (Wedberg and others, 1975). On shadows running across the grass. Imag- Such is the nature of dealing with a group the other hand, some formerly success- ine. One out of every four living things of organisms numbering, perhaps, 10 mil- ful species have now disappeared from on Earth is a beetle! Add in all the re- lion species. native prairie because of the severe dis- maining insects, and it becomes clear that Because the Sand Hills are, for the turbance caused by agriculture. a biotic survey for all the insects of any most part, a treeless landscape of grass- given region is an immense undertaking. covered sand dunes, most of the insects In fact, a survey of all the insects in any are adapted to sandy habitats and a dry, Insect Natural History one state in the nation has never been suc- continental climate, as well as to the kinds cessfully completed because there are of plants and other animals that live there. Insects are, directly or indirectly, an simply not enough insect researchers to Unlike most forest-adapted species, in- important part of our everyday lives. The endangered American burying beetle gets ready to go to work on a dead kangaroo rat (see sixth paragraph of section on Coleoptera). Honeybees (Apis mellifera L.) have become important pollinators of alfalfa and other fruit- and vegetable-producing plants, but they are not native to North America. Consider, for example, that one acre of red clover contains about 216 mil- lion individual flowers, and every one of these must be visited by an insect before Fig. IN-2. Minute springtails often occur in it will produce seed (Borror and others, huge numbers in moist soil, especially around 1989). Honeybees provide most of the Sand Hills lakes. pollinating necessary for these plants, thus greatly increasing seed yield. who wish to see vertebrates in Fig. IN-1. Though solitary, andrenid bees can Without insect pollinators, many of tomorrow's national parks need to be abundant in spring and often nest together the prairie plants would disappear and give serious consideration to the in the ground where vegetation is sparse. with them the animals that rely on them. place of insects in the food and com- And so would begin the collapse of most petition webs leading to those verte- Most people don't recognize the signifi- of the complex food chain where insects brates (Janzen, 1987). cance of the relationship between insects feed on other insects; where fish, birds, and humankind. Few realize that insects and mammals feed on insects and each Without insect scavengers to recycle are far more beneficial to our lives than other and so on. wastes, pastureland, rangeland, and prai- they are harmful. Why this misunder- The yucca moth (Tegeticula rie would be decimated as grasses became standing? It results mostly from media yuccasella [Riley], family Prodoxidae) is smothered by ever-increasing amounts of coverage of the more sensational, nega- the sole pollinator of the many yucca feces (solid waste) from livestock and tive aspects of insects (killer bees, crop plants in the Sand Hills. Both moth and wild animals. The sandy soils of the Sand pests, science fiction monsters, or "creepy plant rely on each other exclusively for Hills have been continually enriched by crawlies" in your home) and from a criti- their existence. Female moths insert their the action of dung beetles (Scarabaeidae), cal absence of education in our elemen- eggs into the ovary of the yucca flower other beetles, and flies that bury feces of tary and secondary schools about inver- and then force a wad of pollen they have animals. Aeration and enhancement of tebrates. Consequently, most Americans collected from other yuccas into the long, nutrients in the soil by dung beetles pro- are actually afraid of most insects and do funnel-shaped stigma (the very end of the motes the growth of forbs (broadleaf not appreciate their value economically, pistil typically sticking out of the center herbs), shrubs, and wind-pollinated ecologically, or aesthetically. of the flower and receiving the pollen). grasses. Bison and then cattle relied on Insects are incredibly important in The moth larvae eat some of the develop- these plants for food, food made possible, our lives. While it is true that just a very ing seeds that result from cross fertiliza- in part, by scavengers. All life on the prai- few can cause substantial losses to our tion, but enough seeds are left uneaten to rie is intricately interconnected. agriculture and structures and a few oth- ensure survival of the yucca. Insect predators and parasites are ex- ers transmit diseases to us and our live- Actually, two-thirds of all flowering tremely important in controlling many in- stock and crops, the vast majority are ei- plants depend on insects for cross polli- sect pests that would otherwise attack our ther directly or indirectly beneficial to hu- nation and, hence, survival. Insects and crops. Mantids and the reddish-orange mankind. In fact, without insects, the plants have co-evolved over millions of (spotted or not) ladybird beetles are of- Sand Hills prairie, with its associated years to develop these special, mutual re- ten mass-reared and deliberately released plants and animals, would not exist as we lationships. Many flowers have special to prey upon pest insects, while other know it. structural features to ensure that insects naturally occurring predators such as Insects are invaluable pollinators. In will pollinate them. We would do well to ground beetles and aphidlions (aphid fact, the pollinating services of insects are remember that the annual economic ben- predators) are working on our behalf. worth about $19 billion annually in the efits in the United States resulting from Many minute wasps and flies are valu- United States (Borror and others, 1989). just insect pollination is greater than the able parasites of aphids, cutworms, and Almost any plant on the prairie with con- losses from all kinds of insect damage weevil larvae that often cause economic spicuous flowers is insect pollinated, combined. damage to crops and fodder. The larvae whether it be by butterfly, moth, beetle, Without insects as food, most of our of parasitic insects develop inside the fly, or bee. Insects that prey upon polli- song birds and game fish would disappear. body of their host and consume it. This nators also become inadvertent pollina- relationship results in the death of the host tors themselves when they carry pollen Insects are major connectors between but not before the parasite completes its from one flower to the next while hunt- different species in their habitat, in- own life cycle. ing. Wild bees and bumblebees are the cluding species that have long been One of the principal reasons for the most important pollinators of prairie in the eye of the conservation com- biological success of insects is their rapid flowers in the Sand Hills. The large munity. By consuming large quanti- rate of reproduction. This helps them bumblebees are social insects (like hon- ties of plants and plant parts on the adapt to changing climates and habitats eybees), whereas wild bees are all soli- one hand, and by being consumed in through vast stretches of time.

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