Growing the Frost’s representation of Hymenoptera is one of our top five priorities, and that means tons of collecting. We were a couple weeks late in getting our Malaise traps up this year, but I don’t think we missed too much. This trap in Pine Grove Mills went up on 7.iv.2013, in a nice flyway on a steep hill:
No trees had flushed out yet, and there weren’t any flowers. It was a warm day, though, and flies (Diptera) seemed to be everywhere. A week later we examined the haul and found tons of insects – the vast majority of which are flies:
Note that this image above was taken after removing about 70% of the flies. Also note that there are several Hymenoptera in there! We collected Ceraphronidae, Colletidae, Cynipidae, Encyrtidae, Ichneumonidae, Megaspilidae, Pteromalidae, Platygastridae, Scelionidae, Tenthredinidae—all in about 12 specimens. Wow. Expect a lot more posts about our efforts over the next several months! In the meantime, do you have any specimens you want to donate to the Frost? Let me know (adeans@psu.edu; 814-863-2863)
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