Volume II, no. 2, Summer 1993Table of Contents
Ohio's tenebrionid fauna -
Chuck Triplehorn
Ohio's Tenebrionid FaunaThe old saying goes that "the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence." And so, for most of my career, I have spent a large portion of my time and energy on tenebs in our arid southwest (Eleodes, Asidina, Cryptoglossa, etc.), ocean beaches (Phaleria), Neotropics (Neomida, Platydema, Diaperis, Liodema, etc.). I seldom go looking for tenebs in Ohio, I suppose because I feel I know what is here and my chances of collecting anything very exciting are slim. Actually, Ohio has a relatively rich teneb fauna. I wrote my MS thesis, grandly titled "The Tenebrionidae of Ohio" in 1952 (never published) and recorded 79 species in 42 genera. Some of those are hypothetical and are not backed up by museum voucher specimens. Over the past 40 years, some of my hypothetical species actually turned up and there were also a few surprises - some totally unexpected. One factor that swells the Ohio teneb fauna is that quite a number are associated with stored grain and grain products (Tribolium, Tenebrio, Palorus, Gnatocerus, Alphitobius, Alphitophagus, Latheticus, and Cynaeus). I still enjoy poking through grain samples even though most of what I find are old familiar faces and most are pretty much cosmopolitan. Most collections of Ohio tenebs I examine are collected under bark, in old stumps, or in both bracket and fleshy fungi. The commonest Ohio species are undoubtedly Alobates pennsylvanica (DeGeer), Neatus tenebrioides (Beauv.), Xylopinus saperioides (Oliv.), Uloma imberbis (LeConte), Strongylium tenuicolle (Say), Bolitotherus cornutus (Panzer), Diaperis maculata (Olivier), Platydema excavatum (Say), P. ruficorne (Sturm), and Meracantha contracta (Beauv.). Although most (I hesitate to say all, but I think they are) of Ohio's tenebs are fully winged, a few of them come to lights. Very few of them are collected in pitfall traps (not true of the desert ones), and you don't get many by beating or turning stones (also not true in deserts). My time-honored technique for desert collecting consists of walking around at night with a head lamp (did you ever think about what a great target you present so equipped? That's how Nevermann was killed by the way). I don't do much of that in Ohio, but when I have, I'm always surprised at how productive it can be. Both living and dead trees yield lots of neat things. Now a word about the rarities, usually happened upon serendipitously (aren't most choice things collected thus?). Nothing is really rare if you know how, when and where to look. The following anecdotal notes have long fascinated me: The only Ohio records for a few species are from the published notes, backed up by museum specimens, of Charles Drury: Prateus fusculus (LeConte), Paratenetus fuscus (LeConte), Pentaphyllus pallidus (LeConte), Eutochia picea (Melsh.), Helops cisteloides (Germar), Strongylium crenatum (Maklin), and Adelina pallida (Say). A single specimen of Iphthiminus opacus (LeConte) was collected 27 October, 1967 on the side of a house in Clermont County by Ron Mathis. This is a boreal species, not rare in Michigan. I predicted that it should occur in northern Ohio (once again demonstrating that predictions can be dangerous). Upis ceramboides L. is represented by two specimens collected at Antwerp in Paulding County, 10 June to 10 July, (year not recorded but prior to 1950) by Otto Ehrhart. This one is about the size of Alobates but the elytra are spectacularly wrinkled. It is a holarctic species, common in Alaska, Canada and our northern states. There is only one Ohio record for Ammodonus fossor (LeConte), a pretty little beetle with squamose setae; it was taken by Harry Lee in Oak Openings (Lucas County) on 15 July, 1975. Lyphia tetraphylla (Fairm.) was recorded by Drury from Cincinnati. That was the only Ohio record until R.L. Berry picked one up in hickory firewood from Richland County in April, 1969. Bob Androw recently collected a specimen of Corticeus cavus (LeConte); the only other Ohio specimen I have seen was collected by W.C. Stehr in Carbondale in October, 1936. A large series of Haplandrus ater (LeConte) was found in a beehive in Fayette County. My guess is that it was a hive moved in from the south. Uloma punctulata (LeConte) is very common in our southern states but the only Ohio record is 81 specimens collected 23 October, 1966 by my brother John and me in Coopers Hollow, Jackson County, under slabs of pine at an abandoned sawmill. Perhaps the pine logs originated elsewhere. Tarpela micans (Fab.) is fairly common in Ohio, but T. americana (Beauv.) is represented by a single specimen (Meigs County, 27 June, 1936, E.S. Thomas), and T. venusta (Say) also by a single individual (Adams County, 8 July, 1954, R.E. Woodruff). The type locality of Platydema teleops is Blendon Woods Metropark. It was a big surprise when I discovered that species; it so closely resembles P. excavatum (Say), a common and widespread species. The European Blaps lethifera (Marsham) turned up in large numbers in horse stables at the Athens County fairgrounds in 1963. They were there (both adults and larvae) from at least June through October. It has also appeared in Coshocton, Logan, and Allen counties. Drury reported another European beetle, Blaps mucronata (Latr.), "running over the unpaved portion of cellar floors of the Cincinnati Society of Natural History Museum," and that a subsequent survey of basements in Cincinnati revealed many infestations of the beetle. That was in May, 1927 (the year I was born) and the beetle has not been seen in Ohio again. Should these two species of Blaps be considered part of Ohio's fauna? Prior to 1938, Cyraeus angustus (LeConte) was known only from the type specimen collected in debris at the base of a yucca plant in California. In 1939, in showed up in a Seattle, Washington flour mill. Since then, it has been found all over; the first Ohio record was April 1954 (J.N. Knull) but in 1958, I found large numbers in a grain elevator at Maumee. Later we even found it in insect cultures at Ohio State University, happily sharing dog biscuits with Frank Fisk's cockroaches. When I was selecting a group of insects in which to specialize, Professor J.N. Knull steered me onto Tenebrionidae. At that time, you could count the Western Hemisphere teneb workers on one hand. I pretty much had them all to myself for a decade or so and then a number of enlightened souls decided to get into the act, all to the better since John Doyen, John Lawrence, Don Thomas, Ralph Aalbu, etc. have produced some outstanding papers. A lot of people look down on faunal treatments, but that route is an excellent way to identify where taxonomic problems lie. It was through my MS thesis, on the darkling beetles of Ohio, that I selected the Diaperini as a group that needed work (it still does). I am attracted to a group in which there are new things to be described, synonyms and homonyms to straighten out, and the (real or imagined) obligation to set everything in proper order. I really don't like to publish papers beginning with "A new species of...." Sometimes you can justify such a paper because someone needs a name to use, you find a new species in a recently revised group, or you are building stepping stones to an anticipated magnum opus, completion of which is not in the foreseeable future. Most of the time you open a can of worms in describing a new taxon if you have even minimal curiosity. A number of my revisions ( Phaleria, Neomida, Diaperis, Zopherus, Asidina, Talanus, Strongylium, and Megasida) started out innocently enough. My thirty year love affair with Eleodes has produced very few published words, but the information I have in my head (and in voluminous notes) will someday bear fruit. Museums around the world will then, at last, get their specimens back. These specimens are now occupying about 30 USNM drawers and many more boxes. The truth is, there is no formula for the best way to collect tenebs. They turn up in some of the most unlikely places and at least some kinds may be collected using every technique and device known to humankind--light and pitfall traps, sticky board, Berlese samples, beating squares, etc. Some of my best finds have been made when I was doing something other than looking for beetles (fishing, gardening, attending horse races, chopping wood, moving the lawn or just out for a stroll). I've always been blessed with excellent vision (especially peripheral) and I'm always looking at the ground. I find lots of money in addition to beetles (a $20.00 bill once) and it is unlikely that I'll ever inadvertently walk over a cliff. One of the bad things about advancing age is that one can easily recall things that happened 40 years ago as though it were yesterday but you have difficulty remembering what happened yesterday. Another is that you tend to digress, reminisce and ramble as I just did for the past several paragraphs. I'll just bet there are more tenebs that will eventually turn up in Ohio. Who will be the one to add the next species? - Chuck Triplehorn Dicaelus Dinner HabitsA warm spring night is one of my favorite times. Strap on the headlamp and roam about picking up scurrying, shiny black jewels that are easily spotted on the leaf litter. This year has had a good start to the collecting season with several such nights. Recently Bob Androw and I were out cruising the woods in southern Ohio one night and having a great time picking up a good variety of Dicaelus species; both Dicaelus dilatatus Say and D. teter Bonelli were common, a few D. Purpuratus Bonelli were collected and only pairs or singles of D. politus Dejean and D. elongatus Bonelli were found. Carabus limbatus Say was so common as to be a distraction. A few Pterostichini were collected such as Cyclotrachelus sodalis (LeConte), while Pterostichus ohionis Csiski was also collected in good numbers. A variety of other "beetles of the night" such as tenebrionids, lucanids and even cerambycids (see Bob's article this issue) were collected. During this productive evening Bob and I were able to observe the beetles in action. One of the most interesting habits to observe is feeding. I observed C. limbatus feeding on broken snails (crushed from my first pass through the area), slugs and worms. D. dilatatus also was found to be feeding on snails but had opened the can of escargot itself. The D. dilatatus feeding on snails is no surprise since Ball (1959, The Licinini of N.A.) reported the related species D. purpuratus having been observed feeding on snails. However, I was somewhat surprised when I found D. dilatatus feeding on a scarab. The prey was a Phyllophaga species which was still alive and a D. dilatatus female was trimming the legs back to the femur. Repeated palpating and antennating of the prey with rapid rotating of the prey's body, and attempts to bite the main body were observed. Finally it found the soft area of the cervix and delivered the terminating bite. Bob also made a similar observation but on this occasion a Diplotaxis species was the prey. Presently I have a pair of D. dilatatus in a terrarium and they seem to be feeding quite well on Tenebrio molitor Linneus adults and larvae. By collecting some of the snails from the same area I may be able to observe how the D. dilatatus goes about opening the "can". In the meantime I will continue to stomp about in the dark to find out more about carabids and their dinner habits. - Kip Will Centrodera sublineata LeConte in OhioThe cerambycid genus Centrodera LeConte is represented in Ohio by three species, C. decolorata (Harris), C. sublineata (LeConte), and C. quadrimaculata (Champlain & Knull). The genus is part of the more primitive section of the subfamily Lepturinae, and is characterized by slender beetles with the pronotum armed with lateral spines, and possessing large, coarsely faceted eyes, an adaptation to their nocturnal habits. Most are of a somber color, often shades of brown, another characteristic common to many nocturnal species. Centrodera decolorata (Harris) is a large beetle, 20-30mm in length, with dark brown elytra and a reddish-brown head and pronotum. Adults are nocturnal, and are commonly attracted to lights early in the summer. It occurs throughout the state, but is more common in the southern part. Centrodera quadrimaculata (Champlain & Knull) presents an interesting case. It was described from Ohio (originally in the genus Anthophylax from several specimens taken at Rockbridge in Hocking County and from "Clear Creek", a likely reference to the area through which Clear Creek runs, separating Hocking and Fairfield counties. It is interesting that the species has not been seen since, as Clear Creek runs through the Barnebey Center property and the area has seen much collecting activity for years. Centrodera sublineata LeConte is a smaller species, 10-18mm in length, being uniformly dark brown, with grayish pubescent vittae on the elytra. It too is nocturnal and comes to lights. Until this spring I had never collected the species in Ohio, but had taken it at lights in Georgia in March of 1984. I have seen several specimens from West Virginia, collected in April, and a series in the Carnegie Museum was collected in Alabama in March. This very early flight period may be the reason for its general rarity in collections. This spring's stretch of very warm nights enticed us to blacklight much earlier than ever before and the results were are interesting. On May 1, I took a male of C. sublineata at blacklight at Scioto Trail St. Pk.. On May 2, two more males were taken by Kip Will at blacklight in the same area. A third trip was made by Kip and me on May 6, on which night a nice series was taken. A male was collected shortly after our arrival, when Kip, using a headlamp, spotted it moving along a downed log. Soon thereafter I found two adult females on a standing, decayed tree trunk. We assumed the beetles would be attracted to the blacklight, but after several hours, none had arrived at the sheet. At this point, as it was getting late, I decided to try the headlamp method again. In a very short time I had collected a series of females, but no more males were seen. All of the females were found on decayed, standing trunks of what appeared to be locust, Robinia sp.. The trees had been dead for some time, but even in their state of decay they were quite solid and dry. The diameters of the trunks at ground level were from four to ten inches. The heights of the trunks varied from six to about fifteen feet. The females were seen ovipositing in the base of the trees, usually no more than a foot off of the ground, using natural crevices in the wood to hide the eggs. Several females seen were not active and appeared to be hiding in the wood crevices. A large black spider was very common on the trunks, and one was seen feeding on a female Centrodera. The females that were not actively ovipositing may have been laying low to avoid this potential predator. All specimens taken at blacklight were males, possibly attracted to the light while on the wing searching for females. While several females were collected from the trees in plain view of the blacklight, they seemed to show no affinity for the lights. The activity of ovipositing may "override" the tendency to fly to lights, or the females may be less likely to fly than the males, or they may be less attracted to lights than are the males. In observing C. sublineata, several ideas came to mind. The method of collecting them was rather novel for me. I have often used a headlamp for collecting carabids, tenebrionids, etc., but I had not concentrated on cerambycids in this manner. It is possible that C. quadrimaculata may exhibit some of the same behaviors and therefore may be collected in the same manner as C. sublineata. The nearest relatives to C. quadrimaculata are the Californian species C. spurca (LeConte), C. autumnata Leech, and C. dayi Leech. All of these are readily attracted to lights, and use a variety of conifers as hosts. It is possible that C. quadrimaculata utilizes the hemlocks in the Clear Creek drainage area and examination of these trees may lead to a re-discovery of the species. Hopefully some of these questions may be answered as this year's collecting proceeds. - Bob Androw |