Mesynodites project, Rio Bravo, Belize project, LSAM Expeditions, Great Smoky Mountains Coleoptera Project
Left, two American burying beetles (Nicrophorus americanus) enjoy a meal of ripe chicken gizzard; right, an insect-like japygid dipluran. These arthropods have been the subjects of recent Louisiana surveys.
The greatest gaps in understanding the insect fauna of Louisiana is our ability to characterize diversity in natural ecosystems, especially habitats within those systems that harbor the great diversity of cryptic organisms that require specialized techniques to collect and study. Many of our naturally occurring forests, savannahs, and wetlands are in eminent danger of disappearing before their diversity has even been adequately characterized. We have initiated surveys of selected habitats in Louisiana that are poorly represented in collections nationwide to provide a more thorough representation of the insect biodiversity in Louisiana. Major research projects funded through a grants from the Louisiana Board of Regents and the Louisiana Nature Conservancy include surveys of insect faunas in longleaf pine savannahs and mixed mesophytic hardwood forest in south Louisiana. These habitats are critically endangered throughout their limited ranges and are high on the list of priorities for conservation managers in Louisiana. Work in Louisiana and neighboring states has documented many beetle species that are unique to these habitats and we are expanding these investigations to include additional groups of arthropods (e.g., japygid diplurans, above right) of Louisiana.
Past research has demonstrated that insect surveys can influence decisions about preserving unique and endangered habitats in the state. The unusual Trichoptera fauna of Schoolhouse Springs in Jackson Parish was reviewed by John Morse (Clemson University) and Cheryl Barr (University of California, Berkeley), and a new species was described. The springs are the type locality for five caddisfly and one stonefly species, and at least 43 species of caddisflies have been captured in or beside them. Cheryl Barr also worked with the Louisiana Nature Conservancy and the Louisiana Natural Heritage Program on the justification for the purchase and protection of this unique aquatic insect habitat. We intend to expand this effort by producing insect biodiversity data that can be incorporated into decision making processes that identify and protect sensitive and threatened components of Louisiana's environmental landscape.
Monitoring of the state fauna for newly introduced pest species in collaboration with other members of the Department of Entomology Faculty resulted in the documentation of several new potential pests for the state since 1995. The hairy maggot blowfly (Chrysomya rufifacies) is an Australasian species that has become established in Louisiana via Texas. A neotropical leaf-footed bug (Leptoglossus zonatus) was recently identified from Plaquemines Parish, where it was causing economically significant damage to citrus. Monitoring and specimen screening continues for the Mexican stalk borer (Eureoma lofteni) which could potentially enter the state's southwestern sugarcane growing region from Texas. A project funded by the University of California, Riverside was conducted to survey for parasitoids of the sharpshooter leafhopper (Homalodisca coagulata) in the Baton Rouge area in connection with biological control efforts in California.
Monitoring for invasive pests in collaboration with other faculty in the Department will remain a top priority for the LSAM and may very well increase in importance with increasing economic cooperation and trade between the U.S. and Latin America. Moreover, if long range projections of a warming climate prove correct, the number of neotropical species becoming established in the southern U.S. will increase. These factors reinforce the need for strong neotropical representation in the LSAM collections.
Projects on the staphylinid fauna of the southern U.S. by C. E. Carlton include a revision of the genus Reichenbachia (at least ten species in Louisiana), new species descriptions of pselaphine staphylinids from Louisiana and adjacent states, and a survey of pselaphine staphylinids from selected habitats in Louisiana..
The LSAM has been involved in the All Taxon Biodiversity Inventory (ATBI) at Great Smoky Mountains National Park for seven years and now serves as a sorting center for Coleoptera specimens collecting in the park as part of that ambitious project (see related web pages). New species and novel discoveries that have come to light as a result of Coleoptera studies in the southeastern United States include the description of a new species of the fungus beetle family Endomychidae and the first record of the larva of the languriid beetle tribe Loberini, represented in Louisiana by Loberus impressus. The Smokies project has resulted in the discovery of an endemic species of flightless forest litter-inhabiting chrysomelid leaf beetle, a new genus and species of pselaphine staphylinid, and approximately 30 other species of beetles in various families that are new to science.
Studies on the beetle family Histeridae are being led by former graduate student Alexey Tishechkin, who completed a Ph.D. working on the Mesynodites genus complex of the hister beetle subfamily Hetaeriinae (see Mesynodites dissertation). These beetles are specialized associates of various ants and termites, especially army and leafcutter ants, and are the largest group of organisms (approximately 300 species) to fit exclusively into this specialized lifestyle. They are most diverse in the neotropical region, with a few species in North America. His dissertation work focused on a group of genera that have not been adequately resolved previously and includes cladistic and ant host co-evolutionary analyses. He has now expanded that avenue of research with collaborator Michael Caterino at the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History to produce a generic revision of the entire subfamily Hetaeriinae. Dr. Tishechkin is also working on faunal surveys of the hister beetle fauna of Louisiana.
Andrew Cline joined the LSAM during 2000 and embarked on a study of the nitidulid beetle genus Pocadius and its fungal hosts, which are mainly puffball mushrooms (Lycoperdales). His dissertation research resulted in a global revision of the genus, phylogenetic placement of the genus and its sister taxa within the subfamily Nitidulinae and an analysis of beetle and host fungus associations.
Erin Grindley Watson’s doctoral research focused primarily on the use of insects in determining time of death of Louisiana wildlife species. It included documentation of development rates, species composition and faunal succession patterns of all necrophilous insects associated with Louisiana Black Bear (a threatened species), Whitetail deer, alligator, and swine (experimental control). This research provided the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries with an additional method for postmortem interval estimation of suspicious wildlife deaths, and ultimately, to incriminate poachers.
Three graduate students are currently conducting research in the LSAM. Master's candidate Stephanie Gil is examining Coleoptera succession in recently killed sections of trunks of southern red oak and loblolly pine trees in West Feliciana Parish Louisiana. Ph.D. candidate Mike Ferro is conducting research on the ecology and faunel succession of dead wood-associated beetles in Great Smoky Mountains National Park and Louisiana. Ph.D. candidate Matthew Gimmel is preparing a revision of the world genera of phalacrid beetles.