[LEPS-L:8046] How many years?

Michael Gochfeld gochfeld at eohsi.rutgers.edu
Thu Nov 30 07:57:30 EST 2000


In reading T. Eichlin's note on the Chestnut Borer was it actively sought year after year or even intermittently in the places where it was finally rediscovered.

We are following two sites that formerly had colonies of Leonard's Skipper (Hesperia leonardus) where none have been recorded in two and six years. Both sites still exist although management practices (increased mowing) have occurred.  How many years would one need to monitor these sites (late August visits) before accepting that the species is gone.
    And if it were to show up there in the future, what criteria would be useful for distinguishing between: recolonization and "it was there all along but we missed it".   M. Gochfeld

Thomas Eichlin wrote:

> The chestnut borer, Synanthedon castaneae (Busck) (Sesiidae), was thought to have gone extinct along with the greatly declined American chestnut; the last borers having been collected in 1936.  However, using specific sex attractants to survey for clearwing moths in the southeastern U.S. in 1985, we rediscovered the moth in N. Carolina, S. Carolina, Georgia and Alabama, apparently utilizing other species of Castanea. Obviously, it was there in the Appalachian woodlands all along but unobserved. Sometimes you just have to look harder.


 
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