150 years in the making: first comprehensive list of the ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) of Virginia, USA.

Due to Virginia's geographic location, topographic variability, and diversity of physiographic provinces, the state ranks as one of the most biodiverse areas in the US. Virginia's myrmecofauna, however, has been insufficiently studied and is not well known. Here we present the first comprehensive list of the ants of Virginia and provide county-level distributions for all taxa. With taxonomic updates taken into account, review of published records revealed that 130 species have been reported from the state. We add another 34 species based on newly collected materials, review of museum and personal collections, and online databases. At present, 164 species and morphospecies, including 15 ant exotics, are known to occur in the state. Another 12 species are provisionally excluded from the list as they represent distribution anomalies, or are based on erroneous records. The work presented here is an initial step towards a more complete treatment of the identification, taxonomy, and natural history of the ant fauna of Virginia.

An unusual case of ingestion of a moth cocoon in a 14-month-old girl.

We present a case report of a 14-month-old girl who ingested a moth cocoon, which resulted in dramatic symptoms of irritability, drooling, and anorexia. Direct laryngoscopy, bronchoscopy, and esophagoscopy under general anesthesia revealed copious, tenaciously adherent, barbed hairs embedded in her tongue and buccal mucosa. Removal of the hairs with irrigation, suction, and brushing was unsuccessful and was eventually abandoned. In the following 48 hours, the girl recovered uneventfully with supportive care. The hairs were subsequently identified as coming from the hickory tussock moth (Lepidoptera: Arctiidae: Lophocampa caryae), which is ubiquitously distributed throughout much of North America. This is the first detailed case report of ingestion of an L caryae cocoon.

The impact of wetland vegetation drying time on abundance of mosquitoes and other invertebrates.

Vegetation management for constructed treatment wetlands often involves knocking down emergent vegetation with heavy equipment and inundating the dead vegetation after a period of drying. Such practices create favorable conditions for larval mosquitoes. We studied the relationship between length of the drying period for an emergent macrophyte, Typha sp., and the abundance of aquatic invertebrates in replicated 0.18-m3 wading pools. The mosquito, Culex tarsalis, was significantly more abundant in pools containing vegetation aged for 2 wk before inundation compared to pools containing vegetation aged 5 wk, freshly cut vegetation, or without vegetation. Potential larval mosquito food resources (particles between 2 and 61 microm in equivalent spherical diameter) in the 2-wk aging treatment did not differ significantly from the other treatments during the 5-wk experiment. The abundance of other larval culicids, nonculicine Diptera, and potential mosquito predators (i.e., Dytiscidae and Aeshnidae) did not differ significantly among the vegetation aging treatments.

Biology and ecology of higher Diptera from freshwater wetlands.

Although studies of freshwater entomofauna frequently do not include the biodiversity and ecological roles of higher Diptera, cyclorraphous flies are often numerous and species rich in wetlands. Seventeen families are commonly found in freshwater wetlands, with Ephydridae, Chloropidae, Sciomyzidae, Sphaeroceridae, and Scathophagidae being among the most important in terms of population size and species richness. Difficulty with sampling cryptic larval habitats and species identification challenges may account for the exclusion of acalyptrate and other dipterans from wetlands ecology studies. Large populations are facilitated by the high productivity of freshwater wetlands and the high intrinsic rate of increase characteristic of many species. Higher dipterans exist in all freshwater wetland types, are microhabitat selective, and play significant roles in food webs. The varied strategies for food acquisition and patterns of spatial and temporal distribution limit ecological overlap among the higher Diptera.