A Study of the Insects Inhabiting the Forest Floor in Certain Forest Types on Mount Toby, Sunderland, Massachusetts
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University of Massachusetts Amherst ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst Masters Theses 1911 - February 2014 1938 A study of the insects inhabiting the forest floor in certain forest types on Mount Toby, Sunderland, Massachusetts. Walter Michael Kulash University of Massachusetts Amherst Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.umass.edu/theses Kulash, Walter Michael, "A study of the insects inhabiting the forest floor in certain forest types on Mount Toby, Sunderland, Massachusetts." (1938). Masters Theses 1911 - February 2014. 3099. Retrieved from https://scholarworks.umass.edu/theses/3099 This thesis is brought to you for free and open access by ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst. It has been accepted for inclusion in Masters Theses 1911 - February 2014 by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst. For more information, please contact [email protected]. FIVE COLLEGE DEPOSITORY ij'i ))•' ■ /bu m j) ARCHIVES THESIS M 1938 K96 A Study of the Insects Inhabiting the Forest Floor in Certain Forest Types on Mount Toby, Sunderland, Massachusetts Walter M. Kulash Thesis submitted for the degree of Master of Science Massachusetts State College Amherst 1938 CONTENTS Page Introduction ..... 1 History ..... 3 Scope of the Work.. 6 Survey of the Environment ... 8 Methods and Technique . 16 Location of Collecting Plots. 16 Typical Sample of Forest Floor .. 16 Method of Collecting Samples.♦ ... 17 Laboratory Treatment - Historical .. 20 Description of Apparatus . 22 Preparation of Sample... 24 Heat Treatment • .... 25 Method of Counting the Collembola ... 29 Analysis of Data .....*....♦♦* 30 Insect-eating Animals on Mount Toby . 65 Insects Available as Food. 71 Forest Types Richest in Insect Food ..«•»•...»• 75 Summary . 79 Bibliography . 32 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Thanks are due to the members of the Entomology Department of the Massachusetts State College for making the completion of this work possible. Dr. C. P. Alexander and Dr. G. C. Crampton have made numerous valuable suggestions and determinations. Dr. Frank Shaw has made all the determinations of Mycetophilidae. Dr. Harvey Sweetman* s considerate help throughout the duration of the work was invaluable, and his suggestions made the final preparation of the manuscript a pleasant task. To Dr. R. E. Trippensee, of the Forestry Department of the Massachusetts State College, the writer is indebted for much valuable information pertaining to the wildlife of the Mount Toby Forest. Mr. Curtis of the Forestry Department spent much time and care in taking the forest type and*soil profile pictures used in this work. The writer is also indebted to the following specialists, for determinations in their particular groups: Dr. W. h. Anderson and Dr. A* G. Boving of the United States National Museum, Washington, D. C., coleopterous larvae; Mr. C. A. Frost, Arlington, Massachusetts, Coleoptera; Mr. C. T. Greene, United States National Museum, dipterous larvae; Dr. B. J. Kaston, Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station, New Haven, Connecticut, Aranea; and Dr. H. B- Mills, Montana State College, Collembola. To Mr. Joseph LoBello, Northampton, Massachusetts, the writer is indebted for help in translating the original Berlese articles from Redia. For help in preparing and correcting the preliminary copy of this work, the writer is indebted to Miss Mary Gobush, Northampton, Massachusetts. INTRODUCTION The Mount Toby forest is a 750 acre tract of wood¬ land located on the eastern end of the boundary between Sunderland and Montague*. A few acres in the south¬ eastern end of the forest are in the Leverett Township and the remaining area is in Sunderland*. This forest is owned by the Massachusetts State College, and is used for experimental and classwork purposes in forestry, and, more recently, for wildlife game management studies*. Of the various compartments or blocks into which the forest is divided, one block, Compartment D, has been set aside for classwork and experimental purposes in combined wildlife and forestry studies (Curtis and Trippensee, 1937)*. This Compartment has an area of approximately 61*1 acres* On the southeast it is bounded by Oak Ridge and Ox Hill, on the southwest by the base of Mount Toby, and on the northwest by the so- called Hubbard property. A well-defined trail from the Hubbard property to the base of the Compartment forms the northeastern boundary, while the eastern boundary is a swath cut through to the base of Ox Hill (Fig* 1)* MASSACHUSETTS STATE COLLEGE MOUNT '603 1000' /JO* /*a>Q Declination I4*-30'W IT? June \^3l x IS*fitJ f'lo'r >5or\ /<f©4 1591. *Q*< 9 ok IS OK Figure '10# \ //, '6 0* Cr<in berry \\\ pond x lephone Line mpartment A “ A To N Le.ve.rett In order to determine the best forestry and wildlife management procedures to carry out in this Compartment, various studies of the fauna and flora of the area have been undertaken* Of the numerous studies in progress during 1936-1938, brief mention may be made of only a few* One investigator, as part of his Master's work, is engaged in a grouse study with the purpose in view of determining the validity of the grid sample method of grouse census* A study of the flora on a mil-acre basis in this area has been partially completed* During the past year, porcupine food studies have been in pro¬ gress* Two students, for their individual problems in wildlife management, have carried on, for one school year, studies of two species of rabbits in the area* Another has been working on the feeding habits of chickadees with particular reference to their influence on gypsy moth egg abundance* Regular classwork has included studies of food habits of deer and rabbits, grouse populations, and forest type mapping. The work described in this paper is an attempt to determine the type and amount of insect life in the forest floor, especially those insects available for wildlife 3 purposes* The problem itself can be resolved into two divisions* One division, ecological, is concerned with the game species, the environment, the method of collecting and treatment in the laboratory* The second division, taxonomic and systematic, is concerned with insect determination, lists of species obtained, and analyses of data* HISTORY Numerous workers have undertaken various studies of ecological habitats* One of the earlier workers, who listed insects according to the stratum of the forest in which they were found, was Ratzeburg* In 1866 he published the first part of his work dealing with injury done to forest trees in Germany* Under the various species of trees he lists the injurious insects found in the following zones or strata: (1) In or on the leaves, flowers, or fruit. C2) In or on buds, shoots, or branches* (3) In or on stems* (4) In or on roots. — 4 Later workers used a method of studying the environment of the forest on the basis of several strata, such as the soil, leaf (or forest floor)* herb and shrub strata * Weese (1924) used this method, listing the species found in an elm-maple forest in Illinois * Blake (1926) used this same plan, contrasting the species found in the same Illinois elm-maple forest with those of a Maine coniferous forest* Other workers have undertaken similar ecological studies in various plant habitats, among whom may be men¬ tioned Smith (1928), who followed Weese*s and Blake*s methods in the study of a deciduous forest succession* For reference purposes, the bibliography lists others who studied the various environmental strata* Another method of ecological study of a certain plant area has been to investigate the fauna of only one environ¬ mental stratum* The data thus obtained can be used in comparing the fauna of that stratum with other strata of the same or different plant areas* Tullgren (1917,1918) was among the earliest workers to study the forest floor stratum in this manner* He was followed by Pillai (1921) and von Pfetten (1925), both working in Bavaria* Bornebusch (1930), a Danish worker, used Tullgrenfs modification of Berlese's method* Tragardh*s work (1928,. 1932) on the forest floor in Swedish forests was more extensive than that of the earlier workers and is to be noted for the large numbers of animals collected in various types of forest floor. Snell (1933) made a study of humus insects but does not give a description of the humus studied, nor state to what depth her collections were made* Ulrich (1933) used the forest floor stratum as the basis for his comparison of insects in spruce, beech-oak, and beech types in Prussia* Johnston (1936), working on the macrofauna of certain coniferous and hardwood types in the Harvard Forest at Petersham, Massachusetts, listed the insects and other life according to the various layers of the forest floor and soil strata in which they were found* His collections were made to a depth of 14 inches and included not only the organic layer (forest floor) but also the dark enriched stratum and the light enriched stratum of the soil proper. SCOPE OF THE WORK Forest Floor* In the present study, the forest floor is the only stratum under consideration* • This stratum has been called by various names, and in order to define clearly what is meant by forest floor, the following description is included (Fig* II)• The term "profile,” as applied to soil investigations* includes everything that is to be observed in a vertical cut through the soil exposing the various horizons (Glinka, 1927)* In northern New England the regional distribution of coniferous forest is approximately coinci¬ dent with the distribution of the leached or podsol soils* South of this northern coniferous forest is a hardwoods region characterized by a different climatic soil formation, the brown forest soils of which, with few exceptions, develop a characteristic mull profile* Between these two forest zones is a transition zone in which both types of soil occur and it is possible to find types intermediate between the extreme podsol and mull conditions (Griffith et al*, 1930)* The most complex arrangement of strata is to be found in the podsol profile which is typical under the white pine-hemlock type of forest in this region* 4 A„ LITTER ZONE 0 Aq duff zone A„ HUMUS ZONE 0 A.