Review of the Cratichneumon of Arizona

There are 66 species of Cratichneumon known from North American but only two known from Arizona, Cratichneumon arizonensis (Viereck, 1905) and Cratichneumon russatus (Cresson, 1877). Cratichneumon arizonensis has only been recorded from Arizona, while C. russatus is widespread throughout the western U.S. and Canada and is also fairly common. There are at least an additional 6 undescribed species in Arizona, mainly the mountains in the southesast. I'm currently getting started on an paper that would include descriptions of the new species, a key to the Cratichneumon of Arizona, and high-quality images of each species.

Right now, I am in the initial stages of gathering specimens (both from institutions and specimens donated to me), databasing specimens (in a custom filemaker pro database) and associating sexes. I do have about 6 species, including the two described species, that I have delimited morphologically and where the sexes can be unambiguously associated. I'm currently working on their descriptions for those species. I might have to use genetic data to associate some of the species where sexual dimorphism is more exteme. The major challenge is a lack of specimens for some species which hinders both sex association based on morphology or genetics.

This paper would be part of my larger goal of describing and popularizing the biodiversity of Ichneumoninae in North America. For me, it's exciting but unfortunate that these usually large, colorful wasps are so poorly-known. There are probably several hundred undescribed species in the western U.S and many of the described ones haven't been documented since their original descriptions in the late 19th or early 20th centuries. A further issue is that a majority of species throughout NA (including the eastern U.S. and canada) aren't adequately documented, both in terms of their distribution or being identifiable by non-experts which are few. This makes it hard to work on their taxonomy, biology, behavior, ect. and lowers public and scientific interest in them.

I know the typical iNat user is focused on field observations, but I hope this post highlights how important collecting specimens still is. My idea for this project came from pinning samples sent to me by a coleopterist in SE Arizona. I then checked the USU collection and found additional specimens which are mainly from the '60s and 70's and a not very specific location. Unfortunately, most other institutional collections aren't very useful to me because ichneumonids aren't usually collected or mounted, or if they are then they aren't sorted and available to be loaned. So for this project, a single coleopterist collecting in SE Arizona will be supplying the highest-quality specimens that will be used for any possible genetic work and as holotypes. For a longer-term project on the Ichneumon of Utah (or something similar), an amateur coleopterist, Dan Cavan, will be providing the vast most of the specimens and from localities that hadn't been sampled before. Given that he's so important to the project and will probably do some targeted collected, I would like to have Dan as a coauthor on the paper.

If anyone would like to help out with collecting Cratichneumon in Arizona for this project or collecting ichneumonids in other areas, it would be a great help!

Regardless, I hope this post was interesting for anyone who might be curious about taxonomic/ biodiversity research.

Edit:
Just for fun, here is a choropleth of Cratichneumon species richness by state. It's a continuous scale with pale yellow being a single species and deep red being 25 species. Grey indicates there are no recorded species.

Publicado el marzo 4, 2022 06:31 TARDE por bclaridge bclaridge

Observaciones

Fotos / Sonidos

Observ.

bclaridge

Fecha

Junio 12, 2019 a las 07:31 MAÑANA MDT

Descripción

Cratichneumon arizonensis male. Collected with hand net.

Fotos / Sonidos

Observ.

bclaridge

Fecha

Julio 14, 2019 a las 01:39 TARDE MDT

Descripción

Undescribed Cratichneumon male. Cratichneumon AZ2 in my collection. I'm not actively working on it my I'm starting to plan a review of the Cratichneumon of southern Arizona or something similar.

Collected in VFIT from 4-24.vii.2019 by W. B. Warner.

Fotos / Sonidos

Observ.

bclaridge

Fecha

Julio 14, 2019 a las 01:44 TARDE MDT

Descripción

This is the corresponding female to this male: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/106876626

Collected in VFIT from 4-24.vii.2019 by W. B. Warner.

Fotos / Sonidos

Observ.

bclaridge

Fecha

Julio 14, 2019 a las 06:29 TARDE MDT

Descripción

Undescribed Cratichneumon male. Cratichneumon AZ3 of BC collection.

Collected in VFIT from 2-24.vii.2019 by W. B. Warner.

Fotos / Sonidos

Observ.

bclaridge

Fecha

Julio 14, 2019 a las 03:32 TARDE MDT

Descripción

Undescribed Cratichneumon female.

Collected in VFIT from 4-24.vii.2019 by W.B. Warner.

Fotos / Sonidos

Observ.

bclaridge

Fecha

Julio 14, 2019 a las 03:35 TARDE MDT

Descripción

Undescribed Cratichneumon male. Same species as: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/107141136

Collected in VFIT from 4-24.vii.2019 by W.B. Warner.

Fotos / Sonidos

Observ.

bclaridge

Fecha

Julio 14, 2019 a las 03:46 TARDE MDT

Descripción

Undescribed Cratichneumon female.

Collected in VFIT from 4-24.vii.2019 by W.B. Warner.

Fotos / Sonidos

Observ.

bclaridge

Fecha

Julio 31, 2019 a las 04:02 TARDE MDT

Descripción

Cratichneumon russatus male.

This species is widespread and fairly common in western North America.

Comentarios

Excellent project, I wish I was in a position to help out. Good luck.

Publicado por gcsnelling hace alrededor de 2 años

Awesome post and images! I'm very excited that you are working on this and it's great to have someone sharing this with the iNat community. As someone who does general collecting throughout California, I'd definitely be up for trying to help out. Unfortunately, I probably won't be able to collect in AZ anytime soon, although I do get to SE California regularly.

I had two questions/comments - feel free to message me separately if you don't want to answer them here.

What's the best way to find ichneumonines to collect in the first place? I know that they're out there, perhaps even abundant at times, but I've been a bit surprised at how few I find with my usual methods (beating and sweeping vegetation, looking on flowers, some aerial net captures of things flying around). Short of Malaise traps, which I set up only rarely, how does one most efficiently find these wasp?

Short of tagging you (or someone like J. Hoskins) on every ichneumonid, do you have any tips/hints for non-experts for dentifying specimens to this tribe or with keys to genera, for example? I'm aware of the Wahl online key to subfamilies, which ain't easy to use but I've made some progress with... Any shortcuts to pegging an ichneumonid as Ichneumonini or Cratichneumon? :)

Publicado por kschnei hace alrededor de 2 años

Thanks, Gordon (@gcsnelling)! You know, I do get a decent number of ants in Malaise traps if you're interested in Utah ants.

Publicado por bclaridge hace alrededor de 2 años

Hi Ken, I love talking about collecting ichs and don't mind sharing some thoughts here. Also, you might not be able to get any Cratich from Arizona but any Californian material would be really valuable. I remember that one weird Phaeogenini that you posted that I hadn't seen before. The color on it was pretty weird. Plus, I'm thinking about mainly focusing on regional taxonomic works and maybe could do something on California eventually. With so many species and really patchy collecting, I don't think it's practical to revise all the species of some genus in the Nearctic. Many species seem to be localized to on or a few ecoregions in the west anyways.

To be honest, I struggle with actively collecting ichneumonines too. It sounds like you're doing all the right things. Sweeping, paying attention to flowers, catching things flying by. That's pretty much what I do when I go on a hike or do any patient collecting. Even if you're out somewhere for a while you really only see ichneumonines occasionally and typically it's a male zipping around looking for females. In Malaise or other passive flight intercept traps there will be maybe one of a few species and are quite common but then many represented by singletons or a few specimens. It's the classic problem of the high peak and a long tail. In Logan Canyon where USU insect collection curators collected for years, there are species that either I've collected but never seen in the USU collection or there are only one or two specimens in the USU collection. But getting back on subject a little more, I think the time of year and the habitat matters a whole lot. Most species are probably univoltine so they probably pop up, mate, and find hosts and are gone within a short window, at least with a local area. I don't know much about seasonality in California but I imagine it might be even more extreme there depending on when you see a decent amount of moisture.

Certain habitats are better than others too. I've had the most success in a really open aspen stand with lots of forbs. Riparian areas with lots of moisture work well too. You'll also see them in dense forests but more infrequently. The worst places are really arid areas.

Publicado por bclaridge hace alrededor de 2 años

As far as identifying ichs, I think the best thing you could do is to study the CAS collection of pinned specimens and essentially make a reference database in your head. If you have identified specimens in front of you, the best exercise is to take specimens backward through the subfamily key. Once you do that enough times you'll actually understand the characters. I pretty much spent a whole semester doing that to learn subfamilies and some tribes. You can also learn a heck of a lot by doing extensive comparisons on iNat and BG. It seems like this is what @richardlbaxter did. I've been impressed with how much he has seemed to learn.

Luckily, there is actually a pretty good key to Nearctic ichneumonine genera (Heinrich, 1960; title below). I should have enough images of most of the major genera up that you should be able to use it with reasonable success, at least with pinned specimens under a scope. IDing from field photos is more of building up that database in your head. I'm trying to visit CAS for a week in May and I would be more than happy to help you figure these things out in person. It's pretty invaluable to have someone around to ask questions to. I think the Heinrich paper is open access but let me know if you need a copy.

Synopsis of the Nearctic Ichneumoninae Stenopneusticae with Particular Reference to the Northeastern Region (Hymenoptera) Part1: Introduction, Key to Nearctic Genera of Ichneumoninae Stenopneusticae and Synopsis of the Protichneumonini North of Mexico

Publicado por bclaridge hace alrededor de 2 años

Wonderful - thanks so much for all that info, Brandon! I do have that paper... I hope we can meet up in May if you make it to CAS - please let me know your schedule once you have things arranged - I will probably try to take a day off work.

Publicado por kschnei hace alrededor de 2 años

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