CHRYSOMELA newsletter Dedicated to information about the Chrysomelidae
Report No. 34 October 1997
INSIDE THIS ISSUE Camino 2-Editor’s Corner de 2-Notes Up Front 3-The Scientific Method . . . Cantar 4-Systematics in Africa Nature 4-XXI ICE General Program Trail, 5-Aulacoscelis feeding on cycads 6-Research Activities (cont.) Cerro 6-Literature (Available or Needed) Azul, 6-Exchange those Duplicates 7-Insects in African Economy . . . PANAMA 7-Specimens (Available or Needed) Donald Windsor takes a 8-Timarcha djerbensis Pic Lives! moment to collect some 8-A Photo Rerun insects while looking for Aulacoscelis on cycads in 9-Literature on the Chrysomelidae the forests of Panama. 11-Phone, FAX, & Email October ’97 June 1997. (full story on page 5.)
Research Activities and Interests
Maria F. Barberena (San Juan, Puerto arctic region. Actually, working on the Thi Dap Dang (Hanoi, Vietnam) Con- Rico) Working on Master degree (under classification of the great genus Chrysoli- tinues work and publication on faunal, the advice of Catherine Duckett). Work- na and carrying on the writing of the Chry- biological and populations of Vietnam ing with two species of the alticine genus somelinae of French Fauna. Willing to Chrysomelidae. Aspicela this year (A. discoidalis and A. identify Palearctic Chrysomelidae except Roy A. Crowson (Glasgow, UK) Phy- viridicollis) and plans to continue work on Alticinae, Hispinae and Cassidinae. logeny, biology and palaeontology of Chry- the genus as a Master's thesis (see Request Andrzej O. Bienkowski (Moscow, someloidea and allied groups. for Specimens). Russia) Currently working on a review of Astrid Eben (Mexico, Mexico) Chem- Grace F. Barroga (Laguna, Philippines) Chrysolina subgenera. At present, re- ical ecology and evolutionary ecology of Finished MS thesis in June (Venus J. Ca- viewed the place of Chrysolina within the plant/insect and of tritrophic level interac- lilung, Advisor) and plans to work on the subtribe Chrysolinina (with key to the gen- tions. Currently doing postdoc research Galerucine fauna of the Philippines. Inter- era) and prepared diagnosis of several sub- on chemical ecology of parasitoids (Hy- ested in revising the genera Aulacophora genera. menoptera: Braconidae) of Anastrepha and Monolepta beacause of their pest sta- Caroline S. Chaboo (Ithaca, USA) In- (Diptera: Tephritidae). Future plans in- tus in the Philippines. terested in morphology and systematics; clude project on evolution of diabroticite Jean-Claude Bourdonné (Alés, evolution, behavior and biogeography; (Luperini) host plant associations, espe- France) Systematics and biology of Chry- Coleoptera; Chrysomelidae: Cassidinae. cially with Cucurbita spp. in Mexico. somelinae and Galerucinae from the Pale- Entering Ph.D. program (News and Notes). continued on page 6
CHRYSOMELA no. 34, October 1997 1 THE EDITOR'S ¥Insect and Spider Collections of the ESA Job Listings World. This web offering is a subset of the The Entomological Society of America publication by Arnett & Samuelson, et al. CORNER job listings: and provides codens and collections names. Terry N. Seeno, Sacramento http://www.entsoc.org/career.htm The names have linking buttons to collec- tions pages, where available, or the institu- Items of Interest tional home page. A form to update or add NSF on the Web collections is available. The web address for The National Sci- ¥More? You bet, including images, staff ence Foundation is: http://www.nsf.gov/ The Bishop Museum Website and program information, and even educa- This address came to me courtesy of tional activities such as endangered and Charles J. O'Kelly, NSF Program Direc- This is one of the best sites for all items alien species pages. Neal Evenhuis and tor, Systematic Biology, one of our newest related to Pacific Rim natural history, es- Gordon Nishida have done an excellent colleagues to receive the newsletter. pecially entomology. Here are just a few job of presenting and providing material. Charles has a web address of his own: of the things that you may find interesting: The site is both useful and easy to use. http://megasun.bch.umontreal.ca/pro- ¥The Hawaiian Terrestrial Arthropod You can check out the entomology site at: tists/cjocv.html Checklist; it not only lists the taxa, but the http://www.bishop.hawaii.org/bishop/ distribution and residency status for native ento/ento.html and alien Hawaiian terrestrial arthropods. The Insect WebServer The Hawaii Biological Survey address is: ¥Available through the checklist or as a The ecological database of the World's http://www.bishop.hawaii.org/bishop/ separate file are ‘Species of Concern’ (or Insect Pathogens (EDWIP) produced by HBS/hbs1.html the old C2 designation for candidate en- David Onstad at the University of Illinois dangered or threatened species). The en- and the Illinois Natural History Survey: CHRYSOMELA tries for the candidate species include label http://insectweb.inhs.uiuc.edu/ data from all the specimens in the Museum Numbers 31-33 of CHRYSOMELA have collection (ca. 40,000) and literature cita- been on the WWW for the past three The Latest in ICE XXI tions extracted from published sources for months. Initial problem with the address- each candidate species, including the gray ing, firewalls and such have been cor- Decio Luiz Gazzoni (Londrina, Brazil) literature. rected and seem to be repaired. The ad- President of the XXI International Con- ¥The Directory of Pacific Entomolo- dress: http://www.cdfa.ca.gov/plant/ gress of Entomology, invites you to visit gists. The original directory was pub- ppd/publication.htm will get you to the the ICE XXI homepage at: lished by the Pacific Science Association, Plant Pest Diagnostics publications page http://www.embrapa.br/ice was updated by Geoff Scudder (Universi- for selection of a PPD publication. We If you have additional questions regard- ty of British Columbia), and provides use- plan to add three issues to the site before ing the event, please call or email. General ful contact information. the end of the year (#34, 30 and 29). Program details are given on page 4.
Bohumila (Mila) de Bêchyné is expe- ter in Sacramento on September 25-26. riencing poor health. All of her friends Vilma Savini will be working at the wish her a speedy recovery. NOTES Smithsonian Institute (Washington, USA) Grace F. Borranga finished her MS on Heikertingerella for three weeks begin- thesis in June and plans to continue work Up Front ning October 16, 1997. on Galerucinae. J. S. Yadav reports that Prof. H. R. Caroline S. Chaboo is starting a Ph.D. Catarina states for collecting. Maria Hel- Pajni celebrated his 65th birthday on June program (Quentin Wheeler, advisor) in ena Galileo and Luciano Acevedo Moura 22, 1997. His colleagues throughout the morphology and systematics of were extremely helpful in assisting in the world wish Professor Pajni well. Chrysomelidae at Cornell University. permit process. Catherine will be collect- Catherine Duckett recieved an 18 ing and rearing chrysomelids with Luciano Corrigenda: CHRYSOMELA 33:6 month NSF Research Planning Grant in the field. Caption error (left, bottom photo) The (RPG) to rear oedionychine larvae in Bra- John Lawrence, enroute to various en- person with Pierre Jolivet is Seniz Kis- zil during the first 3 months of 1998, and tomology facilties on a round-the-world mali (Bornova, Turkey) and not Miriam will be visiting Rio Grande do Sul and Sta. trip, visited the Plant Pest Diagnostics Cen- Becker (Porto Alegre). (see page 8.)
The Newsletter CHRYSOMELAÐFounded 1979Ð is published semiannually in April and October by the California Department of Food & Agriculture, Plant Pest Diagnostics Center, 3294 Meadowview Road, Sacramento, CA 95832-1448. E-mail: [email protected]; telephone (916) 262-1160; FAX (916) 262-1190. This newsletter is sent to students of the Chrysomelidae to encourage the exchange of ideas and to disseminate information on these insects. Editor: Terry N. Seeno, Sacramento. Advisors: Catherine Duckett, San Juan; Brian D. Farrell, Cambridge; R. Wills Flowers, Tallahassee; Elizabeth Grobbelaar, Pretoria; Pierre Jolivet, Paris and Gainesville; Chris Reid, Townsville; Ed Riley, College Station; G. Al Samuelson, Honolulu; Eric H. Smith, Lynchburg; Charlie L. Staines, Edgewater; and Kunio Suzuki, Toyama.
2 CHRYSOMELA no. 34, October 1997 post-Darwinian taxonomy, seeks to con- qualities of classification and reduces it struct classifications which reflect the true from a tool communicating evolutionary history of evolution and group organisms information to a mere handle used to iden- THE with a shared evolutionary history to- tify taxa. gether (Wiley 1981, Mayr and Ashlock Classification based on phylogeny con- 1991). veys maximum information to all workers FORVM Most systematists recognize shared, de- about all aspect of biology of the two rived (advanced) characters as the markers groups. Classification based strictly on The Scientific of Darwinian descent with modification phylogeny is democratic as it does not and, as such, use these markers to define favor any particular discipline (ecologists, Method and the natural groups. If a group is natural, it is morphologists, molecular biochemists, Predictive Value monophyletic (represents all the descen- etc.); all aspects of the organisms biology of Classification dants of a common ancestor), and predic- are accurately communicated. The predic- tions can be made based on the morphol- tive value of classification based on phy- Catherine N. Duckett, San Juan ogy, behavior, physiology, development, logeny to all biologists is the strongest In the last four issues of CHRYSOMELA, cellular structure and molecular biology of argument for phylogenetic classification— there has been considerable debate about any member of the group about the same in other words ‘one classification fits all.’ the taxonomic status of the “bruchids,” a characteristics of another member of that This is also the strongest argument demonstrably monophyletic group group; even if those characteristics were against an ecologically based classifica- (Kingslover 1995). In the course of this not used in formulating the phylogeny tion, which may have very limited value to discussion three main themes have (Hennig 1966, Wiley 1981, Mayr and non-ecologists/morphologists. emerged as the primary motivators for Ashlock 1991). Moreover, these predic- The democratic nature of the taxonomic decisions: ecological distinc- tions should be more accurate in their predictiveness of phylogenetically based tiveness of the group, taxonomic stability reflection of all aspects the biology of that classification is also a strong argument and the predictive value of classification group than the predictions made by study- against retaining flawed classification for to comparative biology. ing any member of another group (no “taxonomic stability.” Taxonomic stabil- I would like to step back a little, to matter what ecological or morphological ity is only valuable insofar as a given remove this discussion from the context of similarities this other group has, it will not classification communicates useful infor- any individual taxon and focus on the share all the hidden physiological and bio- mation to the community. As the scientific purpose of systematics and taxonomy. chemical characteristics of another member community becomes increasingly diverse There seems to be confusion in the minds of the original taxon). These comparisons in its interest about the biology of organ- of some readers about the purpose(s) of are the embodiment of the scientific method isms, only classifications which predict classification. Let’s begin with a discus- as applied to systematics, and gives great the most aspects of the most organisms sion of the nature of systematics/taxonomy predictive power to systematics and classi- will be useful. and its predictive qualities, then look at the fications derived from systematic studies. Moreover, as classification is the prod- roles of ecological distinctiveness and taxo- Because phylogenetic systematics has uct of the scientific method (those which nomic stability in establishing and main- the strength to predict characteristics of propose hypotheses and test these hypoth- taining classifications. unstudied organisms, it conveys maximum eses with congruence to real data), classi- Firstly, systematics is the study of bio- information to other biologists. All biolo- fication based on the scientific method logical diversity and interrelationships gists who want to accurately communicate may need to be altered as new data are between taxa (Wiley 1981, Mayr and with other workers should use classifica- obtained and old hypotheses are falsified. Ashlock 1991, both p.6); biological classi- tions based on phylogeny. This classifica- Therefore “taxonomic stability” is not a fication (taxonomy) is a sub-field of sys- tion presumes that a natural group will scientifically defensible argument. tematics, and is a product of the need for always be classified in a higher category In summary, biological classification is humans to have names to identify taxa and which also contains its sister taxon (Mayr an outgrowth of systematics and the scien- facilitate through shared names or group- and Ashlock 1991). This means that indi- tific method, which seeks to communicate ings, understanding of their relationships viduals of equivalent rank within a taxo- the evolutionary hierarchy by means of a with one another (Wiley 1981, Mayr and nomic grouping (e.g. species in a genus, series of groupings. Members of a given Ashlock 1991). genera in a sub-family) will be more closely taxon are assumed to be more closely Secondly, modern biological classifica- related to all members of that taxonomic related to each other than to members of tion is the product of the scientific method, grouping than they are to any member of any other taxon, hence the predictive value in which formation of testable hypotheses any other taxon. of classification to comparative biology. (phylogenetic trees or cladograms) create Moreover, failure to classify sister taxa Because phylogenetic classification is a a theoretical framework which endeavors in groupings of equivalent rank leads to scientific discipline, it proposes classifica- to predict the characteristics of new phe- species which can be most closely related tions based on hypotheses (phylogenetic nomena (in the case of systematics, new to a given member of another taxon than trees) which are testable with new data. taxa) (Hennig 1966, Maddison and they are to a given member of their own Inherent in the possibility of testing, a hy- Maddison 1992). Modern taxonomy, or taxon. This totally disrupts the predictive pothesis is the falsification of that
CHRYSOMELA no. 34, October 1997 3 World Chrysomelidae XXI International Con- gress of Entomology What’s Happening in Systematics in General Program Southern Africa? August 20-26, 2000 Beth Grobellaar, Pretoria
In August 1995 BioNET-INTERNA- ¥ Information and communication services. To all enotmologists who may attend TIONAL, a global network for biosystem- ¥ Training in biosystematics at all levels. this congress, the XXI ICE Organizing atics, met to hold its first Global Work- ¥ Establishment and rehabilitation of exist- Committee has approved the general pro- shop in Cardiff, Wales. A Formulation ing resources. gram for the Congress, as follows: Workshop for the southern African region ¥ Development and application of new followed in September 1995, in Pretoria, technologies. ¥Opening session - August 20: [1800- South Africa. It was attended These four areas were 1900] by delegates from the South- designated to meet the fun- ¥Welcome Cocktail - August 20: [2000- ern African Development damental requirements for 2200] Community (SADC) coun- capacity building in taxono- ¥12 plenary sessions:[0800-0915] (two tries, namely Angola, Botswa- my in the region. The meet- per day) na, Lesotho, Malawi, Mauri- ing was hosted by the Plant ¥276 Symposia: [0930-1200, and 1500- tius, Mozambique, Namibia, Protection Research Institute 1800] South Africa, Swaziland, Tan- (PPRI). The Biosystematics ¥Lunch: [1205 - 1300] zania, Zambia and Zimbabwe. Division, one of a number of ¥Poster session: [1000-1800] (Authors At this workshop, areas divisions in the PPRI, offers present at the sessions between 1330- were identified in which a Southern Afri- expertise on the biosystematics of insects, 1430) can Network (SAFRINET) could operate nematodes, mites, spiders and fungi. Due ¥Insect exposition: Opening August 20: to promote the objectives of BioNET-IN- to its active involvement in taxonomic [1915] (open to the participants 0800- TERNATIONAL. The goals of this orga- work, this Institute was nominated by the 1800 Monday-Saturday) nization are to enable developing coun- NACI’s to be the Network Co-ordinating ¥Photo Salon: Opening August 20: tries to become realistically self-reliant in Institute (NECI), with Dr. Connal Eardley [1930] (open to participants 0800-1800 the skills and technologies required for at the helm. Monday-Saturday) inventorying, monitoring and accessing Southern Africa is fortunate to have a ¥Entomological software demonstra- their biodiversity. Strategies were also long history of biosystematic endeavour, tion: Opening August 20: [1945] (open outlined, in terms of each country’s com- placing it in the priviledged position of to participants 0800-1800 Monday-Sat- mitment to the Convention on Biological having both good Museums and highly urday; software will be demonstrated Diversity, that could lead to the achieve- trained taxonomists. But the vast number according to the times arranged with the ment of these goals. of invertebrates and microorganisms in organizing committee). SAFRINET was officially constituted the region require far greater expertise ¥Congress dinner: August, 24: [2000- by the SADC in Lesotho in August 1996 than that which is currently available. Thus, 2300] and is, therefore, a SADC government SAFRINET is a welcome initiative which ¥Closing session: August 26: [1800] owned partnership. The first SAFRINET will help the region move towards self Yours, business meeting was held in Pretoria in sufficiency and encourage interaction be- December, 1996. Here SADC countries tween taxonomists, both regionally and Decio Luiz Gazzoni were represented by a member elected further afield. Caixa Postal 231 from their National Co-ordinating Insti- For further information please contact 86001-970 Londrina - BRAZIL tutes (NACI’s). Business at this meeting the SAFRINET Co-ordinator, Dr. C. D. Phone (+55)43-3716213 primarily involved finalization of the im- Eardley, Plant Protection Research Insti- Fax (+55)43-3716100 plementation of donor funded programmes, tute, Private Bag X134, Pretoria, 0001, XXI ICE Home Page: pertaining to the following activities: South Africa. http://www.embrapa.br/ice