Kirk Larsen

The Luther Entomological Research Collection: Documenting Northeast Iowa's Insect Biodiversity

by KIRK LARSEN, Professor of Biology

Our Luther College mission statement refers to embracing diversity, presenting knowledge into a larger world, and practicing “joyful stewardship of the resources that surround us” where “river, woodland, and prairie meet.” These phrases intersect perfectly with my ongoing research program of the entomology research laboratory in the biology department where our goal is to provide students meaningful research experiences in insect ecology and opportunities to actively explore entomology as a subdiscipline of biology, with the purpose of contributing to our knowledge of and leading to the conservation of insect diversity in northeast Iowa. The driftless region where we reside in Northeast Iowa is “where river, woodland, and prairie meet,” and to be able to steward “the resources that surround us” we first need to understand and know the biodiversity that surrounds us. Over the past 29 years, the Luther Entomological Research Collection (LERC) has grown into a significant and unique repository of insect diversity in Northeast Iowa. The collection contains a number of specimens approximately 50 years old collected by Luther biology students back in the 1970s. Building the research collection necessarily requires “collecting” insects. When ethical and responsible collection practices are used, collecting poses no threat to insect populations but is extremely valuable from scientific and educational perspectives. During research surveys, if we can identify insects in the field to species, they are released live. Insects are taken only when close examination is required for identification and confirmation. Since it is estimated insects outnumber us by about 200 million to one, collecting a few dozen or a couple hundred specimens for research or class projects has negligible impacts on insect populations, particularly when compared with the negative effects on insects of windshields and radiators on the front of our fossil-fuel propelled vehicles! Collecting insects is also a hands-on, experiential activity that helps students better understand and develop a connection to the biodiversity of the environment around us. Famous scientists like Charles Darwin and E.O. Wilson started out collecting insects when they were kids. The process of collecting insect specimens (ever try to get a wasp that might sting you from a net into a collecting jar?) reveals to

students habitat characteristics, insect behavior, and the interactions of the specimen with plants or other animals. Capturing their first tiger beetle, which are masters of escape and literally taunt their potential captors after escaping the net, is always an adrenaline rush for students. Collecting is also necessary because most insect species must be examined under a microscope to identify them to species. Having specimens available is crucial to document the presence and ongoing trends of insect populations for ecological studies, and to see their response to climate change or management and stewardship practices. Without specimens in hand, we’d have no clue about the majority of over 1,200 species of butterflies, moths, and beetles we have here in Northeast Iowa—for many of these, all we know about them is their name! In Genesis 2:19, Adam was commanded to name the animals, Dorsal surface of a specimin of Catocala relicta, the "white under- and in the ancient Hebrew culture wing" moth from the Luther Entomological Research Collection, naming required an intimate knowlillustrating the specimen, a 5 mm size scale, and the important edge of the characteristics and features locality label, identification label, and LERC accession label. This of the person or object to be named. image is part of the online LERC database and is searchable in Knowledge of plants or animals is also SCAN. necessary for us to be good caretakers

Kirk Larsen

of those organisms, and is crucial in our role as stewards of the environment around us. Natural history collections provide an important record of life on earth and possess data that are often locked away with the specimens in the cabinets, unless specimen records are made available online. The Luther Entomological Research Collection is a repository of voucher specimens of published research articles, housing specimens from studies of carrion beetles (Coyle and Larsen 1998), butterflies (Larsen and Bovee 2001, Powers and Larsen 2014, Stivers et al. 2019), ground beetles (Larsen and Williams 1999, Larsen et al. 2003, Schuh and Larsen 2015), scarab beetles (Worthington and Larsen 2010), aquatic insects (Wittman et al. 2013, McDermond-Spies et al. 2014), and numerous other types of insects. A recent study by biology student Lena Schmitt (Schmitt and Larsen 2021) found over 470 species of moths living in the planted tallgrass prairies and oak woodlands right here on Luther College property. Additional surveys of bees have found the federally-endangered rusty patched bumble bee (RPBB) in several of our planted tallgrass prairies, and RPBB queens are likely spending the winter protected in our oak woodlands, then getting nectar from the spring wildflowers in those woodlands before moving into our prairies that burst into their summer glory. The Luther Entomological Research Collection (the LERC), one of the three primary collections of the Hoslett Museum of Natural History in the Valders Hall of Science, is an important repository of Northeast Iowa insect biodiversity, and includes many state record specimens (insect species not previously found in Iowa or documented in any collection). Having grown from about 2,800 specimens in 1996, the Luther Entomological Research Collection now contains well over 12,000 accessioned specimens in 170 drawers housed within 16 cabinets hidden in a storage room in Sampson Hoffland Laboratory. Over 1,200 different insect species have been identified in the collection, and 75% of the collection is georeferenced, allowing precise locality data for the majority of specimens in the collection. Most of the species identifications are from numerous past and current insect biodiversity surveys by Luther biology students performed in the tallgrass prairies, forests, streams and other habitats on campus and nearby in northeast Iowa. A total of 20 publications (to date) in the peer-reviewed scientific literature have produced voucher specimens found in the LERC. Visits both in person and virtually by a number of researchers from around the country have resulted in collaborations, and some groups of insects have been identified by experts in their field, providing new information on species distribution patterns not previously known. Each individual specimen has a unique catalog number which is associated with a record in our collection database. Several hundred specimens have now been photographed, and these closeup photographs help document the biodi-

versity present in our collection. With only about 12,000 specimens to go, photographing them and getting images posted will take many years! Although our collection is small by some standards (e.g. the U.S. National Entomological Collection at the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History houses over 35 million specimens), the LERC has a unique role documenting the insect biodiversity of the driftless region in northeast Iowa, southeast Minnesota, and southwest Wisconsin, and has unique records that provide important biodiversity information for this area, and we want to and should share these data with the broader scientific community. Digitized collections greatly enhance the ability of scientists to conduct research on biodiversity and answer some of the most fundamental questions for biodiversity researchers like myself—questions such as how species are distributed spatially, temporally, and ecologically. The answers hidden in collection data may help us better understand the consequences of habitat loss and ongoing global climate change. The primary goal of my sabbatical this past spring was to upload the Luther Entomological Research Collection to an online database called Symbiota, and connect our collection to an online data portal through the Symbiota Collections of Arthropods Network (SCAN, https:// scan-bugs.org) which provides access to over 65 million specimen records from insect collections at museums and institutions An endangered rusty patched bumble bee (RPBB) Bombus affinis, visiting a Culver's root flower in Gateway Prairie during July 2021. Specimens of the RPBB are in the collection from before it was listed. Today, we document RPBB digitally and do not collect it due to its endangered species status. primarily in North America. A major task during my sabbatical was reorganizing and rearranging the collection to get all specimens arranged appropriately within the collection. This task required the use of the entire entomology teaching lab and research lab space. With the help of four biology students this past spring semes-

IMAGES COURTESY OF THE AUTHOR

ter, we were able to complete the major reorganization of the collection, upload the database to Symbiota, and add numerous new specimens to the collection. Through SCAN, our collection is also now visible on the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) specimen portal (www.gbif.org) which has over 1.5 billion specimen records from collections worldwide. In April, I was able to travel to the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to visit their entomology department. They also use Symbiota, the program that we use to share our biodiversity information with researchers around the world. During that visit I confirmed that our insect collection accession and digitization methods were the same as those used by collections literally hundreds of times larger than the LERC. This project will significantly enhance my teaching by allowing students now to access data from the LERC for class exercises and projects. This project may also provide a source for new biodiversity research questions, inspiring future study and field surveys that will involve our students in our natural areas, while giving current students opportunities to participate in monitoring and documentation of globally significant but local biodiversity. A drawer of sphinx or hawk moths from the LERC. The white-lined sphinx moths found in the lower right quarter of the cabinet are common evening pollinators in the Decorah area during the late summer.

Works Cited

Coyle, D.R & K.J. Larsen. 1998. Carrion beetles (Coleoptera: Silphidae) of

Northeastern Iowa: a comparison of baits for sampling. Journal of the Iowa

Academy of Science 105(4): 161–164. Larsen, K.J. & J.A. Bovee. 2001. Changes in the butterflies (Lepidoptera) of

Winneshiek County, Iowa after 90 years. Great Lakes Entomologist 34(1): 43–54. Larsen, K.J. & J.B.Williams. 1999. Influence of fire and trapping effort on ground beetles in a reconstructed tallgrass prairie. Prairie Naturalist 31 (2): 77–88. Larsen, K.J., T.W. Work, and F.F. Purrington. 2003. Habitat use patterns by ground beetles (Coleoptera: Carabidae) of northeastern Iowa. Pedobiologia 47: 288–299. McDermond-Spies, N., D. Broman, A. Brantner, and K.J. Larsen. 2014. Family-level benthic macroinvertebrate communities indicate successful relocation and restoration of a Northeast Iowa stream. Ecological Restoration 32(2): 161-170. Powers, N.M. & K.J. Larsen. 2014. Butterflies (Lepidoptera) on hill prairies of Allamakee County, Iowa: A Comparison of the Late 1980s with 2013. Great Lakes Entomologist 47(3-4): 129-143. Schmitt, L. and K.J. Larsen. 2021. Moths of oak-hickory forests and planted tallgrass prairies on Luther College natural areas in Decorah, Iowa. Journal of the

Lepidopterists’ Society 75(1): 49-64. Schuh, M. & K.J. Larsen. 2015. European buckthorn (Rhamnus cathartica) invasion reduces ground-dwelling insect abundance and diversity in northeast

Iowa forests. Environmental Entomology 44(3): 647-657, DOI: 10.1093/ee/ nvv050. Stivers, E.K., J.T. Wittman and K.J. Larsen. 2019. A comparison of adult butterfly communities on remnant and planted prairies in northeast Iowa. Journal of the

Lepidopterists’ Society 73(4): 268-274. Wittman, J., A. Weckwerth, C. Weiss, S.

Heyer, J. Seibert, B. Kuennen, C. Ingels,

L. Seigley, K. Larsen & J. Enos-Berlage. 2013. Evaluation of land use and water quality in an agricultural watershed in the United States indicates multiple sources of bacterial impairment.

Environmental Monitoring and

Assessment 185: 10395-10420. Worthington, R.J. & K.J. Larsen. 2010.

An annotated checklist of scarab beetles (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae) from Northeastern Iowa. Great Lakes

Entomologist 43: 84-97.