Meligethes saevus (Coleoptera: Nitidulidae) is here reported to be a spe- cialist on its food plant Onosmodium molle (Boraginaceae). The geographic distributions of these taxa are discussed. This is the first report of M. saevus from Wisconsin

Williams, Andrew H

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Valparaiso University

The Great Lakes Entomologist Volume 35 Number 1 - Spring/Summer 2002 Number 1 - Spring/Summer 2002 Article 16 April 2002 Food Plant and Distribution of Meligethes Saevus (Coleoptera: Nitidulidae) Andrew H. Williams University of Wisconsin Follow this and additional works at: https://scholar.valpo.edu/tgle  Part of the Entomology Commons Recommended Citation Williams, Andrew H. 2002. "Food Plant and Distribution of Meligethes Saevus (Coleoptera: Nitidulidae)," The Great Lakes Entomologist, vol 35 (1) Available at: https://scholar.valpo.edu/tgle/vol35/iss1/16 This Peer-Review Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Department of Biology at ValpoScholar. It has been accepted for inclusion in The Great Lakes Entomologist by an authorized administrator of ValpoScholar. For more information, please contact a ValpoScholar staff member at scholar@valpo.edu. 2002 THE GREAT LAKES ENTOMOLOGIST 93FOOD PLANT AND DISTRIBUTION OF MELIGETHES SAEVUS (COLEOPTERA: NITIDULIDAE)Andrew H. Williams1ABSTRACTMeligethes saevus (Coleoptera: Nitidulidae) is here reported to be a spe-cialist on its food plant Onosmodium molle (Boraginaceae).  The geographic distributions of these taxa are discussed.  This is the first report of M. saevus from Wisconsin. ____________________Beetles in the genus Meligethes (Nitidulidae) are often called “flower” or “pollen” beetles because the adults and larvae, where known, feed on pollen, and some are restricted to particular food plants (Parsons 1943, Osborne 1965).Meligethes saevus LeConte adults were found on Onosmodium molle A. Michaux (Boraginaceae) in a Wisconsin survey of the arthropod fauna using this locally rare, herbaceous perennial (Williams 1996).  Adults were collected from flower buds, from flowers and often from among damaged unfurling leaves at shoot tips over the periods 7 May to 1 August, 1993-96, at 29 sites in Buf-falo, Dane, Grant, Green, Iowa and Pierce Counties.  Many more observations of M. saevus on O. molle were made at these study sites than were vouchered by collections.  Solitary larvae were collected on 2 July 1996 from inside the tubular flow-ers of O. molle at one Wisconsin site where many M. saevus adults were present. These larvae resemble those of M. aeneus Fabricius depicted in Osborne (1965), bearing at the tips of their prothoracic legs setae characteristic of the subfamily Meligethinae (Böving and Craighead 1931), which in the Nearctic is represented only by the genus Meligethes (Parsons 1943).  Criddle (1928) collected M. saevus at Aweme, Manitoba, where he also collected O. molle (his plant specimen is at the Canadian Museum of Nature in Ottawa).  In July 1996, on a brief pilgrimage to the Criddle homestead at Aweme, I collected M. saevus adults from O. molle in Bottineau, Foster, Nel-son, Rolette and Towner Counties, North Dakota, and at two sites in southern Manitoba, one of which was only a few miles south of Aweme.  My own records of M. saevus on O. molle can be summarized as from 36 sites over a transect of about 600 miles, made on many occasions over several years.Meligethes saevus has been reported from Illinois and Tennessee west to Missouri, Iowa, Minnesota, Kansas, Nebraska, South Dakota, North Dakota, Manitoba (Aweme), New Mexico, Colorado, Montana and Alberta (Lethbridge) (LeConte 1859, Popenoe 1877, Horn 1879, Leng 1920, Criddle 1928, Criddle 1929, Parsons 1943, Blackwelder and Blackwelder 1948, Easton 1955, Arnett 1975, Kirk and Balsbaugh 1975).  I examined historic specimens from Illinois and Tennessee west to Iowa, Minnesota, Kansas, Nebraska, South Dakota, North Dakota, New Mexico and Colorado.  Most of these specimens lack plant data, but six specimens at Iowa State University in Ames bear the data: “Ames, Iowa; June 14, 1892; on Onosmodium molle.” With data from 137 herbaria, I mapped the distribution of O. molle, which grows widely over the entire region delimited above and is the sole member of the genus Onosmodium growing in this region (Williams 1996).  This plant grows  1Department of Entomology, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI, 53706.1Williams: Food Plant and Distribution of <i>Meligethes Saevus</i> (ColeoptePublished by ValpoScholar, 200294 THE GREAT LAKES ENTOMOLOGIST Vol. 35, No. 1in gravelly or rocky calcareous prairies, barrens, openings, glades and bluffs (Williams 1996).  Though it ranges widely between the Appalachian and Rocky Mountains, it is most common in the central and western parts of it range, and becomes more rare in the east where its preference for sweet well-drained soils and abundant sunlight restrict its distribution.  It grows farther south and also farther east than M. saevus has been collected, and the beetle should be sought in these areas wherever O. molle grows so that we might more fully understand the beetle’s distribution.Two old reports suggest M. saevus may also feed on a closely related plant. Gibson (1919) reported M. saevus on Mertensia paniculata (Aiton) G. Don (Bor-aginaceae) in Manitoba, where, quoting J. B. Wallis, the species, ‘occurred along the line of the Hudson Bay Ry., wherever its food plant grew.’  Gibson (1919) also reported Carr’s 1915 record of M. saevus at Edmonton, Alberta, which is farther north than O. molle occurs (Williams 1996).  These more northern reports are probably referable to Meligethes canadensis Easton.  This species was described in 1955 from paratypes that included some collected by Carr at Edmonton in 1910 and 1919 and some that had earlier been labelled M. saevus (Easton 1955). The suspected relationship between M. canadensis and Mertensia paniculata requires confirmation in the field.My specimens have been deposited at the Wisconsin State Herbarium and the Insect Research Collection of the University of Wisconsin - Madison. Plant nomenclature herein follows Gleason and Cronquist (1991).  This is the first report of M. saevus larvae and adults using O. molle and of M. saevus from Wisconsin.ACKNOWLEDGMENTSThis work was part of my MS thesis research which could not have been completed without the assistance of E. Williams, R. Christoffel, D. Young, R. Kowal and T. Vale.  I am grateful to E. Moore, who financed my trip to Manitoba with the admonition, “Follow your beetle,” and to M. Price for bibliographic help. Essential to mapping O. molle were the data shared by curators of 137 herbaria (see Williams 1996).  I am also grateful to curators of 65 insect collections: Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia; Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Ottawa; American Museum of Natural History, New York; Arizona State University, Tempe; California Academy of Sciences, San Francisco; Carnegie Museum of Natural History, Pittsburgh; Cincinnati Museum of Natural His-tory, Cincinnati; Clemson University, Clemson; Colorado State University, Ft. Collins; Cornell University, Ithaca; Dayton Museum of Natural History, Dayton; Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago; Harvard University, Cambridge; Illinois Natural History Survey, Champaign; Iowa State University, Ames; Kansas State University, Manhattan; Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History, Los Angeles; Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge; Michigan State University, East Lansing; Milwaukee Public Museum, Milwaukee; Mississippi State University, State College; Montana State University, Bozeman; New York State Museum, Albany; North Carolina Dept. of Agriculture, Raleigh; North Carolina State University, Raleigh; North Dakota State University, Fargo; Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff; Ohio State University, Columbus; Oklahoma State University, Stillwater; Oregon Dept. of Agriculture, Salem; Oregon State University, Corvallis; Pennsylvania State University, University Park; Purdue University, West Lafayette; Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto; Rutgers University, New Brunswick; South Dakota State University, Brook-ings; Southern Illinois University, Carbondale; Texas A & M University, College Station; Université du Québec, Chicoutimi; University of Alberta, Edmonton; University of Arizona, Tucson; University of Arkansas, Fayetteville; University of British Columbia, Vancouver; University of California, Berkeley; University 2The Great Lakes Entomologist, Vol. 35, No. 1 [2002], Art. 16https://scholar.valpo.edu/tgle/vol35/iss1/162002 THE GREAT LAKES ENTOMOLOGIST 95of California, Davis; University of California, Riverside; University of Colorado, Boulder; University of Connecticut, Storrs; University of Delaware, Newark; University of Idaho, Moscow; University of Kansas, Lawrence; University of Louisville, Louisville; University of Minnesota, St. Paul; University of Missouri, Columbia; University of Missouri, St. Louis; University of Nebraska, Lincoln; University of Oklahoma, Norman; University of Vermont, Burlington; University of Wisconsin, Madison; University of Wyoming, Laramie; Utah State University, Logan; Virginia Polytechnic Institute, Blacksburg; Washington State University, Pullman; and the personal collections of Edward G. Riley and Shawn M. Clark.LITERATURE CITEDArnett, R. H., Jr. 1975. Nitidulidae, Family 78. pp. 1-18. In: R. H. Arnett, Jr. (ed.), Check-list of the beetles of North and Central America and the West Indies, vol 5, Ladybird beetles and related groups. Flora & Fauna Publications, Gainesville, FL.Blackwelder, R. E. and R. M. Blackwelder. 1948. Fifth supplement to the Leng catalogue of the Coleoptera of America, North of Mexico. Lane Press, Burlington, VT.Böving, A. G. and F. C. Craighead. 1931. Illustrated synopsis of the principal larval forms of the order Coleoptera. Brooklyn Entomol. Soc., Brooklyn, NY.Criddle, N. 1928. Entomological record, 1927. pp. 92-103. In: 58th annual report Entomol. Soc. Ont. Ont. Dept. Agr., Toronto, Ont.Criddle, N. 1929. Entomological record, 1928. pp. 110-124. In: 59th annual report Entomol. Soc. Ont. Ont. Dept. Agr., Toronto, Ont.Easton, A. M. 1955. Revision of the Nearctic species of the beetle genus Meligethes (Niti-dulidae). Proc. US Natl. Mus. 104(3339):87-103.Gibson, A. 1919. Entomological Record, 1918. pp. 97-123. In: 49th annual report Entomol. Soc. Ont. Ont. Dept. Agr., Toronto, Ont.Gleason, H. A. and A. Cronquist. 1991. Manual of vascular plants of northeastern United States and adjacent Canada. 2nd ed. N. Y. Bot. Garden, Bronx, NY.Horn, G. H. 1879. Revision of the Nitidulidae of the United States. Trans. Amer. Entomol. Soc. 7:267-336.Kirk, V. M. and E. U. Balsbaugh, Jr. 1975. List of the beetles of South Dakota. SD St. Univ. Agr. Exp. Sta. Tech. Bull. 42. Brookings, SD.LeConte, J. L. 1859. Coleoptera of Kansas and eastern New Mexico. Smithson. Contrib. Knowl.11:1-58.Leng, C. W. 1920. Catalogue of the Coleoptera of America, North of Mexico. Cosmos Press, Cambridge, MA.Osborne, P. 1965. Morphology of the immature stages of Meligethes aeneus (F.) and M. viridescens (F.) (Coleoptera, Nitidulidae). Bull. Entomol. Res. 55:747-759.Parsons, C. T. 1943. Revision of Nearctic Nitidulidae (Coleoptera). Bull. Mus. Comp. Zool. 92(3): 1-278, 13 pl.Popenoe, E. A. 1877. List of Kansas Coleoptera. Trans. Kans. Acad. Sci. 5:21-40.Williams, A. H. 1996. Conservation of the plant Onosmodium molle A. Michaux (Boragi-naceae) and the beetle Longitarsus subrufus LeConte (Chrysomelidae) in Wisconsin. MS thesis. Univ. of Wisconsin, Madison, WI. Available from: University Microfilms, Ann Arbor, MI; Order #1382083.3Williams: Food Plant and Distribution of <i>Meligethes Saevus</i> (ColeoptePublished by ValpoScholar, 2002

Food Plant and Distribution of \u3ci\u3eMeligethes Saevus\u3c/i\u3e (Coleoptera: Nitidulidae)

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Food Plant and Distribution of \u3ci\u3eMeligethes Saevus\u3c/i\u3e (Coleoptera: Nitidulidae)

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