DECEMBER 1993 SPHECOS A FORUM FOR ACULEATE WASP RESEARCHERS $$$ SEND MONEY $$$ ARNOLDS. MENKE, Edhor grant so that he can study North Ameri­ TERRY NUHN, Assislant Editor can Trypoxylon (Trypoxylon) as a part PLEASE! Syslematic Enmmology Laboratory of his revision of the Holarctic species Agricultural Research Service, USDA --editor.] rJo National Museum of Natural Hismry As of December 16 I have not re­ Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC 20560 ceived my budget for FY94, but the FAX: (202) 786-9422 Phone: (202) 382-1803 Celso Ollvelra Azevedo (Universi­ dad Federal do Espirito Santo, Dept. feeling of leadership is that in all likeli­ - E-MAL (lnlllmat): [email protected] ~ hood it will be very small, and thus in­ Biologia, Av. Marechal Campos 1468, sufficient to pay for reproduction of one Maruipe, 29040-090 Vit6ria, ES, Brasil) issue of Sphecos. Thus your editor is DOS machine to a Macintosh, so you writes: •1 am now working as a teacher going to pay for this issue out of per­ might want to include an explanatory of zoology at the Universidad Federal do sonal funds (Ouchi). In order to recoup note to help us with these. Terry's ad­ Espirito Santo and am presently work­ my outlay (591 dollars) for Sphecos 26, dress is: ing on my Ph.D. program, a systematic I would appreciate contributions from the TNUHN @ASRR.ASRUSDA.GOV. and biogeographical revision of the ne­ readership. If each of you sends $5 (or otropical Dissompha/us (Hymenoptera, whatever you can afford) that should de­ Bethylidae).• fray my expense for issue 26, and hope­ fully provide money for issue 27, and Eduardas Budrys (Institute of Ecol­ possibly also 28. I know of no easier way ogy, Akademijos 2, Vilnius 2600, Lithu­ to resolve this problem, and I hope that anian Republic) is developing a comput­ most of you regard this rag as sufficient­ er database of the Pemphredoninae: ly wonderful that you will come through •My database already takes up over 5 with monetary aid. Hyou send your con­ RESEARCH NEWS MB of disk space (I say •my• but most tribution with a personal check, please of the data, especially bibliography are make it payable to Arnold Menke. Thank Alexander Antropov (Zoological Mu­ really Wojciech's [Pulawski]). It consists youl seum of Moscow Lomonosov State of 19 relationally linked data tables Univ., Herzon Street, Mowcow, 103009, (SPECIES, NOMSPEC, GENERA, NOTICE Russia) reports: •1 intend to submit an NOMGEN, AUTHORS, MUSEUMS, application for a long-term grant from SPECREF, GENREF, CHARS, ITEMS, We now have a link to the Internet. the International Science Foundation in MATERIAL, etc.) and contains not only Terry has a logon with the USDA com­ September [1993]. I am planning to re­ the bibliography for each species of puter at Beltesville, Maryland, and can view the Palearctic Belomicrus [one Pemphredoninae, but also addresses of receive E-MAIL and download files to his paper is listed in Recent Literature and authors, data about museums and col­ own computer. Those of you who wish two others are in press] as a project. lections, types, collected material, col­ to contribute to Sphecos with an article The ISF conditions imply that the work lecting localities, morphometric data of written on a computer and have access is to be completed in two years and measured specimens, list of characters to the Internet can choose to send it via mainly in the territory of the former So­ and states of each character, and even E-MAIL instead of mailing us a floppy viet Union, and I want to use this op­ descriptions of species in the DELTA disk. We can handle both ASCII files portunity to visit some places in the program format (the last can be used and word processing documents, just Central Asian republics as well as the for cladistic analysis, too). The database as long as we know the format of your BM(NH) to study type material.• [Alex­ is in PARADOX 4.0 format. Morphomet­ document. Diacritics sometimes don't ander is also applying to the Smithsoni­ ric data are analysed using the spread­ convert very well when going from a an Institution for a short term visitor sheet QUATTRO PRO for WINDOWS 2 SPHECOS26 compare the (the last program can immediately input years ago and on information we ex­ phy etc. He wishes also to to­ data from PARADOX data tables and changed when that unhappy colleague phylogenetics of these two genera, output them back). I hope that by joint was so remarkably active. So American gether with Dynatus and Trigonopsis, efforts of sphecidists a data base of all Crossocsrus are also in my mind, but since they form a natural group (former­ Sphecidae can be created. I would like not for the coming months. I must also ly called 'Podiini') within the Sceliphrini. to contact everybody working on wasp please Krombein with some Sri Lanka Michael Ohl (Kiel) wishes to take this taxonomic databases to standardize material.• further and work out the phylogenetics data structure, etc. [You might be inter­ of the entire subfamily Sphecinae. • ested in the BIOTA information system Alex Rasnltsyn (Arthropoda Labora­ described on p. 4 • editor.] tory, Paleontological Institute, Russian Rolf Witt (AG Terrestrische Okolo­ Academy of Sciences, Profsoyuznaya gie, Fachbereich 7, University Olden­ Derek Daly (133 Linner Road, Speke, Str. 123, Moscow, Russia, 117647) is still burg, Postfach 2503,26129 Oldenburg, Liverpool l24 300, Great Britain) is in­ completely engaged in administering the Germany) says: •in the next two years terested in Vespu/a vu/garis, particulary program by Mr. George Soros to sup­ I'll be busy with my doctoral thesis, that in foraging behaviour and relatedness port biologists in the former Soviet Un­ deals with the distribution and indicator among nestmates. ion, using 4,000 individual grants in bio­ function of the Sphecidae. ■ ~ diversity of $500 each, to be distributed Julio Antonio Genaro (25 no. 466, in open competition. This takes almost Olaf Zimmermann (Journalistenburo Vedado 12300, Cuidad de La Habana, all his (Alex) time leaving practically Zimmermann & Franken GBR, Lurripen Cuba) writes: •1 am describing a new none for research. However, Alex hopes Str. 228, D-41065 MOnchengladbach, species of Lophostigma (Mutillidae). that he will be able to finish this pro­ Germany), an author, is writing a book This genus is known only from Central gram by the New Year and to return to entitled •Die sozialen Faltenwespen and South America. Also, I have other his earlier projects now in suspension. (Vespoidea). • interesting mutillids that are perhaps Among these are: (i) The History of In­ new for the West Indies.• sects (two multiauthored volumes in English, with the first one reviewing the Edllberto Giannotti (Dept. Zoologia, systematic, phylogenetic and paleonto­ Inst. Biociencias, Univ. Estadual Paulis­ logical history of the insect orders be­ ta, Caixa postal 199, Rio Claro, SP, ing nearly ready). (ii) Revision of the Brasil, 13.560-900) reports: •1 am en­ Cretaceous Sphecidae known from im­ gaged in research on social wasps, pression fossils, with numerous new de­ HELP NEEDED mainly Po/istes and Mischocyttarus, scriptions (with WoJ Pulawskl, nearly concerning their biological cycles, be­ haH-ready). (iii) An analysis of the insect Work Progress on Tachysphex havior, foraging, and their role in the fauna of the Dominican amber based in pachuman/(Sphecldae: Larrlnae) ecosystem. I just defended my doctoral particular on the Smithsonian collection by dissertation on Po/istes /anio in Novem­ (with Don Davis and possibly other con­ Mark O'Brien & Frank Kurczewskl ber, 1992. ■ tributors, nearly ready). Possibly (de­ Museum of Zoology, Uniwrsity of Michigan, pending on the availability of a grant Ann Arbor, Ml 48109-1079 and Jean Leclercq (Faculte d'Agronomie applied for to the International Science Environmental & Forest Biology, SUNY Science & de Gembloux, rue de Bois-de-Breux, Foundation) he also has a new project: College of Environmental Forestry, Syracuse, NY 13210-2na 190, B 4020, Liege -• Jupille, Belgium) The Worldwide Database of the non­ says: •Last year and this year up to Quarternary Fossil Insects, to be com­ Over the last decade, we have been February, I was busy (too busy for any­ pleted by the staff of the Arthropoda La­ studying the behavior, ecology, and thing else) with my book with Jacques boratory, Paleontological Institute, Rus­ of Tachysph11x pBChumani Bltsch, Faune de France, Sphecida11 I: sian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, distribution Krombein. During the past 3 years, we Generalites, Crabronina11, and with two Russia have greatly increased the number of parallel papers recording data on the observations, have added many new distribution of European Crabronini. The KatsuJI Tsunekl (Asahigaoka 4-15, localities to its distribution, and have trav­ book has more than 300 pages and is Mishima, Japan 411 ), who is now 85 elled several thousand miles searching due to be published in September, 1993, years old, writes: •At present I am tack­ for new sites. We are concentrating our while the other two papers are due to ling a revision of Sph9COd11s in Japan efforts in Michigan for, until this sum­ appear before the end of 1993. (possibly my final work.)9 mer, the only known populations were •Having written these papers, I spent situated in New Jersey and Michigan. much of my time last spring studying Colin Vardy (Dept. of Entomology, An extension of the Michigan popula­ Crabronini, including hundreds of North The Natural History Museum, Cromwell tion was discovered this summer in American specimens, received on loan Road, London SW7 5BD UK) writes: northwestern Ohio (Lucas Co.), which from the Snow Museum (Lawrence, Kan­ •1 would like to place on record my in­ was a nice range expansion. The New sas) and from the Florida Deptartment tention of revising the sphecid genus Jersey population had been studied pre­ of Agriculture (Gainesville); I got as far Podium.