Cedar Creek
Ecosystem Science Reserve
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INSECT SAMPLING AND IDENTIFICATION
The most extensive collecting of CCESR insects has been conducted in its
abandoned fields and experimental grasslands. More than 30 fields have
been routinely swept for insects four or more times per year since 1987.
Insects have also been collected in several of the major
Cedar
Creek experiments, where plant productivity and diversity have been
experimentally manipulated. A limited amount of pitfall trapping has been
conducted in old fields, savanna, marsh and woods. Some D-vac sampling
of insects in experimental grassland plots has also been conducted. Insects
collected in non-field habitats has been more or less a haphazard affair.
I seldom go anywhere without my net or pooter and collect any interesting
critters encountered. Light trapping has been limited, but an LTER intern,
Sue Seabolt, did a fine job of light trapping for moths near the lab. Other
modes of collecting (malaise traps, Berlese funnel extraction, removing
bark, etc.) have received minimal effort. Aquatics, with the exception
of the Odonata, have also received minimal attention.
With the exception of a few groups, most identifications have been made
by myself, and in many groups these identifications must be regarded as
tentative. John Luhman kindly identified nearly all the Ichneumonids and
Braconids. Phil Clausen has examined the Ephydridae, Cerambycidae, and
a miscellany of troublesome Coleoptera. John Lattin has examined all the
Hemiptera excepting Miridae which were examined by Michael Schwartz. Robert
Dana, Michael Sabourin, Susan Weller have looked at many of the Macro Lepidoptera.
I hope this listing will prove a stimulus for other specialists to examine
material in the collection, or better yet, come to Cedar Creek to collect
groups that have been relatively ignored.
John Haarstad
East Bethel, Minnesota
March, 1998