A long-term ecological research initiative in northeast Iowa tallgrass prairies to evaluate the effects of prescribed burning on prairie insects was begun in 1993. During the course of this work we discovered 13 ground beetle species (Coleoptera: Carabidae) (Table 1) not previously reported from Iowa (Bousquet and Larochelle 1993)

Larsen, Kirk Jon

Purrington, Foster Forbes

English

University of Northern Iowa

The Journal of the Iowa Academy of Science: JIASVolume 104 | Number Article 81997Research Note: Records of Thirteen GroundBeetles (Coleoptera: Carabidae) New to IowaFoster Forbes PurringtonOhio State UniversityKirk Jon LarsenLuther CollegeCopyright © Copyright 1997 by the Iowa Academy of Science, Inc.Follow this and additional works at: http://scholarworks.uni.edu/jiasPart of the Anthropology Commons, Life Sciences Commons, Physical Sciences andMathematics Commons, and the Science and Mathematics Education CommonsThis Research is brought to you for free and open access by UNI ScholarWorks. It has been accepted for inclusion in The Journal of the Iowa Academyof Science: JIAS by an authorized editor of UNI ScholarWorks. For more information, please contact scholarworks@uni.edu.Recommended CitationPurrington, Foster Forbes and Larsen, Kirk Jon (1997) "Research Note: Records of Thirteen Ground Beetles (Coleoptera: Carabidae)New to Iowa," The Journal of the Iowa Academy of Science: JIAS: Vol. 104: No. 2 , Article 8.Available at: http://scholarworks.uni.edu/jias/vol104/iss2/8Jour. Iowa Acad. Sci. 104(2):50-51, 1997 RESEARCH NOTE Records of Thirteen Ground Beetles (Coleoptera: Carabidae) New to Iowa FOSTER FORBES PURRINGTON1 and KIRK JON LARSEN2 1Department of Entomology, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio 43210 2Department of Biology, Luther College, Decorah, Iowa 52101 A long-term ecological research initiative in northeast Iowa tall-grass prairies to evaluate the effects of prescribed burning on prairie insects was begun in 1993. During the course of this work we dis-covered 13 ground beetle species (Coleoptera: Carabidae) (Table 1) not previously reported from Iowa (Bousquet and Larochelle 1993). We focused on ground beetles because this large taxon is among the most numerous and important insect families (Harris and Whit-comb 1974), primarily as predators of other invertebrates (Whit-comb and Bell 1964; Loreau 1990). The range of habitats colonized by carabids is wide, but most north temperate zone species are ep-igeal and not found far from stable, open water. Many species of carabids are highly selective and often restricted to a particular hab-itat (Thiele 1977; Evans 1983). This selectivity makes carabids well suited to be used as bioindicators of changes within terrestrial com-munities (Freitag 1979; Evans 1983; Dufrene et al. 1990; Paoletti et al. 1991). Pitfall traps were the primary method utilized to obtain baseline information on the ground beetle fauna. We conducted surveys at five different tallgrass prairie sites and neighboring agricultural, old field, and wooded habitats in Clayton, Howard, and Winneshiek Counties. At each site, 12 pitfall traps were set out for weekly ex-posures on a monthly basis. Pitfall traps were constructed from 473 ml (16 oz) plastic 9 cm dia cups dug 12 cm into the ground so the lip of each cup was level or slightly below the surface of the ground. Each cup was filled with approximately 50 ml of propylene glycol diluted 1: 1 with water and a few drops of liquid dish detergent added to reduce surface tension. A small funnel constructed from a 207 ml (7 oz) plastic casual cup insert was then set into each trap. One record species was collected while blacklighting. This trapping effort has resulted in the capture of more than 95 species of ground beetles, 12 of which are new records for Iowa (Table 1). In addition, we report one new Iowa species collected in 1973 located in the Luther College (Decorah, Winneshiek County, Iowa) insect collection. The collecting method and habitat for that species in unknown. Voucher specimens of all species are held in the research insect collection of the Sherman Hoslett Museum of Natural History at Luther College. Most of the state record species we found generally fit the habitat associations described by Lindroth (1961-1969), Purrington et al. (1989), and Will et al. (1995). One species, Stenolophus rotundicollis, is recorded for the first time west of the Mississippi River. Two other beetles, Bembidion postremum and Agonum fidele, species typically found along river banks, were found in a wooded habitat within 100 m of the Upper Iowa River. Agonum fidele is relatively common in North-eastern Iowa, found in large numbers at many of our research sites. The one beetle found in the Luther insect collection, for which we Table 1. Thirteen ground beetle (Coleoptera: Carabidae) species newly recorded from Iowa with location, habitat and method of collection information. Taxa are arranged according to their phylogenetic position, from basal grade to most derived. COLLECT-HABITAT ING SPECIES DATE SITE & LOCATION TYPE METHOD Loricera pilicornis (F.) 23 June 1994 Chipera Prairie, Winneshiek Co. tallgrass prairie pitfall trap Bembidion postremum Say 2 August 1994 Decorah, Winneshiek Co. riparian woods pitfall trap Pterostichus melanarius (Illiger) 16 August 1993 Anderson Prairie, Winneshiek Co. tallgrass prairie pitfall trap Pterostichus adstrictus Eschscholtz 17 June 1994 Effigy Mounds, Clayton Co. woods pitfall trap Pterostichus corvinus (Dejean) 6 August 1994 Chipera Prairie, Winneshiek Co. tallgrass prairie pitfall trap Myas cyanescens Dejean 3 August 1994 Hickory Ridge, Winneshiek Co. woods pitfall trap Pentagonica picticornis Bates 6 October 1993 Decorah, Winneshiek Co. tallgrass prairie blacklight Stenolophus fuliginosus Dejean 16 April 1996 Anderson Prairie, Winneshiek Co. tallgrass prairie pitfall trap Stenolophus rotundicollis (Haldeman) 13 June 1994 Decorah, Winneshiek Co. old field pitfall trap Synuchus impunctatus (Say) 17 June 1994 Effigy Mounds, Clayton Co. woods pitfall trap Agonum fidele Casey 2 August 1994 Decorah, Winneshiek Co. riparian woods pitfall trap Agonum palustre Goulet 6 August 1994 Hayden Prairie, Howard Co. tallgrass prairie pitfall trap Agonum retractum LeConte 15 September 1973 Decorah, Winneshiek Co. unknown unknown IOWA PRAIRIE GROUND BEETLES 51 do not have habitat or collecting method data, Agonum retractum, is typically found in mature forests and is not hygrophilous (Lindroth 1961-1969). Flight capability in some taxa of Carabidae is under genetic con-trol and selected by certain habitat attributes (flight dimorphic spe-cies); others are invariably flightless or always flightworthy (Darling-ton 1943; Liebherr 1988). This has implications for the colonization of isolated habitats such as tallgrass prairie remnants and distribu-tional dynamics at the margins of fauna! ranges; our new records may portend large scale environmental shifts in the upper Midwest. However, it is premature to identify definitive habitat preferences and other ecological preferences for most of these species as capture rates were in some cases only a single specimen. Continuing ecolog-ical research at these Northeastern Iowa prairie sites will document population trends and allow more robust discussion of local com-munity interactions involving the entire ground beetle complement. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Field sampling was accomplished with the assistance of Luther College students Lea Schweitz and Jason Williams. This study was supported by Student/Faculty Collaborative Research and Anderson Faculty Development grants from Luther College, a Faculty Research grant from the Great Lakes Cluster of the Pew Science Program, Pew Charitable Trust, and a Partnerships for Wildlife grant from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service awarded to Luther College by the Wiscon-sin DNR. The assistance of Daryl Howell, Endangered Species Co-ordinator with the Iowa DNR, Rodney Rovang, Resource Manager with Effigy Mounds National Monument, and Dave Oestmann with the Winneshiek County Conservation Board is gratefully acknowl-edged. We thank Neil Bernstein, David Horn, Cathy Drake, and several anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments on earlier drafts of the manuscript. LITERATURE CITED BOUSQUET, Y. and A. LAROCHELLE. 1993. Catalogue of the Geade-phaga (Coleoptera: Trachypachidae, Rhysodidae, Carabidae including Ci-cindelini) of North America north of Mexico. Memoirs of the Entomo-logical Society of Canada 167: 1-397. DARLINGTON, P.). 1943. Carabidae of mountains and islands: data on the evolution of isolated faunas, and on atrophy of wings. Ecological Monographs 13: 36-61. DUFRENE, M., M. BAGUETTE, K. DESENDER and J.-P. MAELFAIT. 1990. Evaluation of carabids as bioindicators: a case study in Belgium, Pages 377-381. In: The Role of Ground Beetles in Ecological and En-vironmental Studies, N.G. Srork, ed. Intercept, Andover, Hampshire, UK. EVANS, W. G. 1983. Habitat selection in the Carabidae. The Coleopterists Bulletin 3 7: 164-167. FREITAG, R. 1979. Carabid beetles and pollution, Pages 507-521. In: Carabid Beetles: Their Evolution, Natural History, and Classification, T.L. Erwin, G.E. Ball, D.R. Whitehead, and A.L. Halpern, eds. Junk, Bosron, Massachusetts. HARRIS, D. L. and W. H. WHITCOMB. 1974. Effects of fire on popu-lations of certain species of ground beetles (Coleoptera: Carabidae). Flor-ida Entomologist 57: 97-103. LIEBHERR,]. K. 1988. Gene flow in ground beetles (Coleoptera: Carab-idae) of differing habitat preference and flight-wing development. Evo-lution 42: 129-137. LINDROTH, C. H. 1961-1969. The ground-beetles (Carabidae excl. Ci-cindelinae) of Canada and Alaska, Pt. 1-6. Opuscula Entomologica, Sup-plements 20, 24, 29, 33, 34, 35; Lund. LOREAU, M. 1990. Competition in a carabid beetle community: a field experiment. Oikos 58: 25-38. PAOLETTI, M. G., M. R. FAVRETTO, B. R. STINNER, F. F. PURRING-TON, and ). E. BATER. 1991. Invertebrates as bioindicarors of soil use. Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment 34: 341-362. PURRINGTON, F. F.,]. E. BATER, M. G. PAOLETTI, and B. R. STIN-NER. 1989. Ground beetles from a remnant oak-maple-beech forest and its surroundings in northeastern Ohio (Coleoptera: Carabidae). Great Lakes Entomologist 22:105-110. THIELE. H.-U. 1977. Carabid Beetles In Their Environments. Springer-Verlag, New York. WHITCOMB, W. H. and K. BELL. 1964. Predaceous insects, spiders, and mites of Arkansas cotron fields. Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Sta-tion Bulletin 690: 1-84. WILL, K. W., F. F. PURRINGTON, and D. ]. HORN. 1995. Ground beetles of islands in the western basin of Lake Erie and the adjacent mainland (Coleoptera: Carabidae, including Cicindelini). Great Lakes En-tomologist 28:55-70. 

Research Note: Records of Thirteen Ground Beetles (Coleoptera: Carabidae) New to Iowa

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Research Note: Records of Thirteen Ground Beetles (Coleoptera: Carabidae) New to Iowa

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