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The Lepidopterists' News

Volume 8                                             1954                                       Numbers 3-4

A GUIDE TO COLLECTING THE PLANT-BORING LARVAE OF THE GENUS PAPAIPEMA (NOCTUID^E)

by Sidney A. Hessel

The prime purpose of this paper is to offer selected data in simple and readily referable form in order to stimulate Society members to embark upon the study of the fascinating and beautiful North American noctuid genus, Papaipema Grote. There is very much remaining to be learned and reason to believe that undiscovered species still await careful and fortunate workers; this is probably especially true in the western states.

No attempt has been made to cover the widely scattered literature for all of the facts. The fine original papers of the pioneer workers in the field must be read to learn the intimate details of the respective species and to appreciate the thousands of hours of search, keen observation, and painstaking labor necessary for their discovery. Although the material in this presentation is assembled in part from these, it is more particularly compiled from direct notes contributed for use in this paper by Henry Bird, Otto Buchholz, Frank Morton Jones, Roy Latham, Joseph Muller, and Alex K. WyATT. Their splendid and prompt co-operation is most gratefully acknowledged. Included among these contributors are the authors of most of the original papers referred to. The very extensive published material of HENRY Bird stands at the head of the Papaipema literature.

It was not until this paper was near completion that an article strikingly similar in purpose and contents, published by Mr. WyATT (1916), nearly forty years ago, was brought to my attention. In view of the elapsed time and the comparative unavailability of the earlier publication it was nevertheless considered desirable to complete the project in its new form.

Species are not included in the table when little or nothing is known of the early stages. A complete taxonomic list, with authors' names, is available in McDunnough's "Check List" (1938). The known range of the species is also omitted because of the concentration of records at favorite collecting points of the relatively few workers, the difficulty of examining and compiling the fragmentary information, and the certainty of wide extension of known ranges as a result of new work. Dyar's List (1902) offers considerable information on distribution but much has been added since then. It also furnishes the source of the original descriptions of most of the species. In general, a species should be looked for anywhere in the range of its food

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* Small larvae have been found in STARRY CAMPION (Silene stellata), MAY APPLE (Pod commonly in BOTTLE-BRUSH GRASS (Hystrix patula); will mature in iris but require sev

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HESSEL: Collecting Papaipema Larvse                 Vol.8: nos.3-4

plant. Such information is easily obtainable from the popular botanical handbooks. Latin plant names follow Gray's Manual of Botany, 8th Edition, 1950, by Fernald. Common names are from the same source if available, otherwise from Britton & Brown, Illustrated Flora of Northern U. S. and Canada. The best colored plates of Papaipema imagoes are to be found in the works by Seitz (1930) and Hampson (1910), especially the former.

As the field work forming the basis of the data was accomplished primarily in the states of the East and Middle West, the material is, of course, representative primarily of that area. Its usefulness need not be so restricted, however, as the patterns indicated with respect to the various types of plants may be projected to similar species in the search of any flora for the tell-tale signs of Papaipema presence. If not the same species, at least most of the genera of host plants mentioned are represented across the country as well as in many other parts of the world and are worthy of particular attention in starting the search for Papaipema. The dates, compiled as they are, from data of different years, originating over a wide and diverse area and including observations under other than undisturbed natural conditions presumably show a considerably wider range than would likely be experienced in any given locality in a .single or even many years.

Collecting equipment may be very simple; almost essential, however, are a narrow trowel, preferably sharpened on the edges, and a stout pocket knife. Glass or tin containers and carrying apparatus are necessary. The collector will vary these according to taste and experience and whether or not transportation is readily at hand for heavier loads. Plants must be kept fresh. Often they may be potted (paper pots are handy) and loaded in a car almost on the spot. If material, especially large roots, must be carried along on foot a vasculum is helpful. Sphagnum moss, sometimes at hand in the field, or brought along, is very useful in maintaining a moist condition.

In general, Papaipema larvae may be recognized when young by their dark ground color with dorsal and sub-dorsal white lines; later they become translucent with the markings very faint or absent. Because of the difficulty in keeping many species of food plants fresh it may be desirable to permit the larvae to develop in their natural habitat as long as possible. Plants may be marked in the field and collected at a later date. It often happens in the course of examining a plant and finding a larva that it is disturbed and leaves its burrow. Wyatt (1916) points out that an attempt to induce it to return is a waste of time. From my much more limited experience I can confirm this. He offers the ingenious solution of placing the individual larva in a narrow tube which may be placed over the end of a new plant, obliging the larva to cease its exhausting wandering and to enter and feed at a proper position. For those species pupating in burrows care must be taken that drying and shrinking plant tissues do not pinch or crush the pupa. The latter may be removed for safety and placed on a moist sphagnum bed or, if the plant is maintained in fresh condition, they may, of course, be left undisturbed.

Failure to locate larvae in a good development of food plant may often be explained by the burning over of the area sometimes as long ago as

1954

The Lepidopterists' News

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fifteen or twenty years. Roy Latham points out with respect to P. frigida that mice at times almost annihilate a colony, especially if it had been a particularly heavy infestation. This may also apply to other species. Parasites, too, take their toll, but these should be considered prizes reared out carefully, and passed along to competent authorities.

Late July is the best season to begin your search. Be alert to anything queer about the condition of a plant, look for further clues, close in on the culprit, and sentence him to life imprisonment; and don't forget that notebook! Besides a contribution to lepidopterology it is likely that you will find the work the most fascinating form of "whodunit" you have yet experienced.

References

Dyar, H.G., 1902. A List of North American Lepidoptera and Key to the Literature of this Order of Insects. Bull. U.S. Nat. Mus. 52: 723 pp.

Hampson, G.F., 1910. Catalogue of the Lepidoptera Phalcence in the British Museum (vol.9). British Museum Nat. Hist., London.

Kwiat, Alex [Wyatt, A.K.I, 1916. Collecting Papaipemae (Lep.). Ent. News 27: 228-234.                                                                                         **

Seitz, A., 1930. Macrolepidoptera of the World, vol. 1, American Noctuides.

Nettleton Hollow, Washington, Conn., U.S.A.