I add new collection and phenological data on the North American earwigfly, Merope tuber Newman, and new county records for the red scorpionfly, Panorpa rufa Gray, and veined scorpionfly, Panorpa venosa Westwood, in Florida. Additionally, I report on a new Georgia county record for the extralimital species, Panorpa ferruginea Byers, the ferruginous scorpionfly, and speculate on its potential occurrence in Florida

Somma, Louis A.

English

Somma, Louis A. (2011): New collections and records for earwigflies and scorpionflies (Mecoptera: Meropeidae and Panorpidae) in Florida. Insecta Mundi 2011 (165): 1-4, DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.516057

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New collections and records for earwigflies and scorpionflies (Mecoptera: Meropeidae and Panorpidae) in Florida

Somma, Louis A. (2011): New collections and records for earwigflies and scorpionflies (Mecoptera: Meropeidae and Panorpidae) in Florida. Insecta Mundi 2011 (165): 1-

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CENTER FOR SYSTEMATIC ENTOMOLOGY, INC., Gainesville, FLNew collections and records for earwigflies and scorpionflies(Mecoptera: Meropeidae and Panorpidae) in FloridaLouis A. SommaFlorida State Collection of ArthropodsDivision of Plant IndustryFlorida Department of Agriculture & Consumer ServicesPO Box 147100Gainesville, FL 32614-7100Date of Issue: April 15, 2011INSECTAMUNDI A Journal of World Insect Systematics0165Louis A. SommaNew collections and records for earwigflies and scorpionflies (Mecoptera: Meropeidaeand Panorpidae) in FloridaInsecta Mundi 0165: 1-4Published in 2011 byCenter for Systematic Entomology, Inc.P. O. Box 141874Gainesville, FL 32614-1874 U. S. A.http://www.centerforsystematicentomology.org/Insecta Mundi is a journal primarily devoted to insect systematics, but articles can be published onany non-marine arthropod. Topics considered for publication include systematics, taxonomy,  nomencla-ture, checklists, faunal works, and natural history. Insecta Mundi will not consider works in theapplied sciences (i.e. medical entomology, pest control research, etc.), and no longer publishes book re-views or editorials. Insecta Mundi publishes original research or discoveries in an inexpensive andtimely manner, distributing them free via open access on the internet on the date of publication.Insecta Mundi is referenced or abstracted by several sources including the Zoological Record, CABAbstracts, etc. Insecta Mundi is published irregularly throughout the year, with completed manu-scripts assigned an individual number. Manuscripts must be peer reviewed prior to submission, afterwhich they are reviewed by the editorial board to ensure quality. One author of each submitted manu-script must be a current member of the Center for Systematic Entomology.Managing editor: Paul E. Skelley, e-mail: insectamundi@gmail.comProduction editor: Michael C. Thomas & Ian Stocks, e-mail: insectamundi@gmail.comEditorial board: J. H. Frank, M. J. PaulsenSubject editors: G.B. Edwards, J. Eger, A. Rasmussen, F. Shockley, G. Steck, Ian Stocks, A. Van Pelt,J. ZaspelPrinted copies deposited in libraries of:CSIRO, Canberra, ACT, AustraliaMuseu de Zoologia, São Paulo, BrazilAgriculture and Agrifood Canada, Ottawa, ON, CanadaThe Natural History Museum, London, Great BritainMuzeum i Instytut Zoologiczny PAN, Warsaw, PolandNational Taiwan University, Taipei, TaiwanCalifornia Academy of Sciences, San Francisco, CA, USAFlorida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, Gainesville, FL, USAField Museum of Natural History, Chicago, IL, USANational Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC, USAZoological Institute of Russian Academy of Sciences, Saint-Petersburg, RussiaElectronic copies in PDF format:Printed CD mailed to all members at end of year.Florida Center for Library Automation: http://purl.fcla.edu/fcla/insectamundiUniversity of Nebraska-Lincoln, Digital Commons: http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/insectamundi/Goethe-Universität, Frankfurt am Main: http://edocs.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/volltexte/2010/14363/Author instructions available on the Insecta Mundi page at:http://www.centerforsystematicentomology.org/insectamundi/Printed copies deposited in libraries (ISSN 0749-6737)Electronic copies in PDF format (On-Line ISSN 1942-1354, CDROM ISSN 1942-1362)Copyright held by the author(s). This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the CreativeCommons, Attribution Non-Commercial License, which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, dis-tribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author(s) and source are credited. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/10165: 1-4 2011New collections and records for earwigflies and scorpionflies(Mecoptera: Meropeidae and Panorpidae) in FloridaLouis A. SommaFlorida State Collection of ArthropodsDivision of Plant IndustryFlorida Department of Agriculture & Consumer ServicesPO Box 147100Gainesville, FL 32614-7100Louis.Somma@freshfromflorida.comAbstract. I add new collection and phenological data on the North American earwigfly, Merope tuber Newman, andnew county records for the red scorpionfly, Panorpa rufa Gray, and veined scorpionfly, Panorpa venosa Westwood, inFlorida. Additionally, I report on a new Georgia county record for the extralimital species, Panorpa ferruginea Byers,the ferruginous scorpionfly, and speculate on its potential occurrence in Florida.IntroductionMecoptera are a small assemblage of ancestral, largely understudied, and undoubtedly paraphyletictaxa of insects represented by fewer than 700 extant species arranged in as many as 33 genera and 9families worldwide, and the subject of vigorous systematic debate (Penny 1975; Willmann 1987;[Novokshonov] 1997; Kluge 2004; Byers 2005; Grimaldi and Engel 2005; Beutel and Baum 2008; Beutel etal. 2008, 2009; Dunford and Somma 2008a, b; Mickoleit 2008; Machado et al. 2009; Ren et al. 2009; Bicha2010; Friedrich and Beutel 2010; Minet et al. 2010). At least 12 species of mecopterans have been docu-mented from Florida (Dunford et al. 2007; Somma and Dunford 2008, 2009a, b; Somma 2010), represent-ing the families Meropeidae (one species), Bittacidae (4 species) and Panorpidae (7 species). Herein, Iprovide data on new collections and county records for Floridian Mecoptera. These new data are repre-sented by the families Meropeidae, Merope tuber Newman 1838; and Panorpidae, Panorpa rufa Gray1832 and P. venosa Westwood 1846. Additionally, I report on a southern Georgia county record for Panorpaferruginea Byers 1993, near the Florida/Georgia border, and speculate on its possible occurrence in north-ern Florida. My ultimate goal is to stimulate greater interest in studying Mecoptera in Florida.Methods and MaterialsI examined two M. tuber and identified an undetermined panorpid collected from the ApalachicolaBluffs and Ravines Preserve (ABRP), Liberty County, Florida, and deposited in the Bug Closet, Univer-sity of Central Florida Collection of Arthropods (UCFC). All UCFC specimens have individual accessionnumbers. Moreover, Wesley J. Bicha examined a specimen of panorpid in the Florida State Collection ofArthropods (FSCA) listed as undetermined (Alachua County, Florida) by Somma and Dunford (2008), andanother undetermined panorpid in FSCA collected from Georgia, and determined the species identifica-tions for each.Results and DiscussionMerope tuber Newman, the North American earwigfly, is one of two extant species of the familyMeropeidae (Byers 1973, 2005; Abbott et al. 2007; Dunford et al. 2008a, b). The distribution of this seem-ingly secretive meropeid is in eastern North America, from southeastern Canada to northern Georgia andsouthern Alabama, west to eastern Kansas, central Iowa and Minnesota, with more recently discoveredpopulations in Leon and Liberty counties in the Florida Panhandle (Byers 1973, 1993, 2002; Schiefer andDunford 2005; Cheung et al. 2006; Dunford et al. 2006, 2007, 2008a, b; Somma and Dunford 2007; N.Penny pers. comm. 2010).On 14 September 2008 a male M. tuber (UCFC 0402 713) was collected by Preserve staff with aMalaise trap set up on a seepage slope in a steephead ravine at ABRP, Liberty County, Florida (30.495183ºN,2 • INSECTA MUNDI 0165, April 2011 SOMMA84.978461ºW). On 28 December 2008 a female M. tuber (UCFC 0405 732) was collected from the sametrap and locality by Preserve staff. These two specimens represent the first individuals collected fromFlorida in approximately 12 years (Dunford et al. 2007). Moreover, the female M. tuber represents thelatest recorded season for which this species has ever been collected (Dunford et al. 2007).Panorpa rufa Gray, the red scorpionfly, is an elusive, xerophilous, autumnal-winter panorpidsparsely distributed throughout much of the southeastern United States, in sandy ecosystems east of theMississippi River, and previously known from eight counties in northern Florida as far south as Alachuaand Bay counties (Hagen 1861; Hine 1901a, b; Esben-Petersen 1921; Carpenter 1931; Byers 1954, 1993;Somma and Dunford 2008, 2009b).A female P. rufa (UCFC 0414 950) was collected by Preserve staff with a Malaise trap on 16 November2008 from ABRP, Liberty County, Florida (30.494725ºN, 84.97955ºW), in restored sandhills habitat domi-nated by longleaf pine, turkey oak and wiregrass. This specimen represents the first record for P. rufa inLiberty County; adding a ninth county from which this species has been collected in Florida.Panorpa venosa Westwood, the veined scorpionfly, is principally a coastal and eastern Georgianspecies that has recently been discovered in Baker and Leon counties, northern Florida (Byers 1993;Somma and Dunford 2008; W. Bicha pers. comm. 2009). This suggests an overall Coastal Plains distribu-tion. Habitat for P. venosa collected by W. Bicha (pers. comm. 2010) in Baker County, Florida, was theupper leaf surfaces of a Japanese Honeysuckle thicket inside the edge of mixed hardwood forest on theoutskirts of Glen St. Mary.An adult female P. venosa in FSCA was collected with a Malaise trap from the J. & E. Turf Farm,north of LaCrosse, in the Santa Fe River floodplain east of State Route 121, Alachua County, Florida(29.8942ºN, 82.4044ºW), on 19-26 July 1996 by G. J. Steck and B. D. Sutton. This specimen was errone-ously listed as collected in 1986 and described as an undetermined member of the P. virginica speciesgroup by Somma and Dunford (2008). The trap was periodically partially immersed in rising river waterwhile in use (G. Steck pers. comm. 2010). This specimen is a county record, approximately 42.5 kmsouthwest of the nearest recorded locality for specimens collected from Baker County in late November(Somma and Dunford 2008; W. Bicha pers. comm. 2010), and represents the southernmost record for P.venosa in continental North America.Panorpa ferruginea Byers, the ferruginous scorpionfly, is indigenous to west-central Georgia,extreme northeastern Mississippi, and much of eastern Alabama as far south as Wing, Covington County,approximately 3.2 km from the border of Okaloosa County in the Florida panhandle (Byers 1993). Thepreferred habitat of this panorpid is dense undergrowth in pine woods mixed with a scattering of hard-woods, and a ground cover of pine needles (Byers 1993).A male P. ferruginea housed in FSCA was collected by E. I. Hazard on 12 November 1962 from anunspecified locality in Lowndes County, Georgia. This is a first county record for this species and approxi-mately 243 km south-southeast from the nearest record in Georgia (Byers 1993). Lowndes County, Geor-gia, shares its southern border with Hamilton County in northern peninsular Florida. The records for P.ferruginea in southernmost Alabama and southernmost Georgia suggest that this species eventuallycould be found in northern Florida if searched for in suitable habitat.Somma and Dunford (2008, 2009b) have previously emphasized the dearth of information on andcollecting of mecopterans in Florida. Important new data on distribution and phenology of Mecoptera wasderived from a mere five specimens reported herein, and clearly underscores the need for further inten-sive collecting. Undoubtedly P. ferruginea will be added to Florida’s indigenous fauna in the future. Thestate of Florida could be the “undiscovered country” for North American Mecoptera.AcknowledgmentsAs usual I am greatly indebted to Wes Bicha (Oliver Springs, Tennessee) for carefully examining andidentifying the FSCA panorpids in this study, reviewing the manuscript for this publication, and provid-ing important insights based up his remarkable expertise. Stuart M. Fullerton and Shawn Kelly (Depart-ment of Biology, University of Central Florida) graciously allowed me to examine UCFC Bug Closetspecimens collected by the diligent Preserve staff of ABRP, and provided additional data. Gary J. Steck(Curator of Diptera and Minor Orders, FSCA) and Bruce D. Sutton (Curator of Diptera, FSCA) unstintinglyINSECTA MUNDI 0165, April 2011 • 3 NEW FLORIDA MECOPTERA RECORDSprovided invaluable data for the P. venosa specimen in this study. I am gratified that Norman D. Penny(California Academy of Sciences) took the time to critically review the manuscript for this publication. Ithank Gerhard Mickoleit (Zoologische Schausammlung der Universität, Tübingen) and Beverly Pope(DPI Librarian) for providing important literature cited in this study. This is Entomology ContributionNo. 1185, Bureau of Entomology, Nematology and Plant Pathology, DPI, Florida Department of Agricul-ture & Consumer Services, which also houses the P. venosa and P. ferruginea specimens examined, andprovided technical and library support for this research.Literature CitedAbbott, I., T. Burbidge, and A. Wills. 2007. Austromerope poultoni (Insecta, Mecoptera) in south-west Western Australia: Occurrence, modelled geographic distribution, and phenology. 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The phylogenetic system of the Mecoptera. Systematic Entomology 12: 519-524.Received November 17, 2010; Accepted February 1, 2011.

New collections and records for earwigflies and scorpionflies (Mecoptera: Meropeidae and Panorpidae) in Florida

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