Ant Nature Quest
Date: Thu, 11 Feb 1999 18:43:49 -0400 To: scover@oeb.harvard.edu, mkaspari@ou.edu, ewilson@oeb.harvard.edu From: pick@pick.uga.edu (John Pickering) Subject: ATBI: Ant Nature Quest Cc: kesco@arches.uga.edu, devore@fas.harvard.edu, darwinsom@aol.com, guerrero@pick.uga.edu, khorton@oeb.harvard.edu, Keith_Langdon@nps.gov, becky_nichols@nps.gov, Chuck_Parker@nps.gov, msharkey@byron.ca.uky.edu, skillen@pick.uga.edu Ed, Mike, & Stefan, The ATBI plans to target ants in its Nature Quest to start our pilot field season. The goal is for volunteers to sample 1,000+ sites within GSMNP. We plan to build distribution maps for the species that we can process and identify by our December meeting. It will be interesting to see what proportion of the species in Cole's checklist we can get in a few days of extensive sampling. And, what new ones we will get. I hope that you guys are interested in participating at one level or another. I'd be delighted if you could actually participate in the field work and trust that you'll be interested in seeing at least some of the material that we collect. Please let me know if there is any chance of you making the event, 27-31 May, and I'll rustle up funds to cover your expenses. Ed & Stefan, we've discussed you coming this spring. Would these dates fit your plans, or do you want to come at another time? Mike, could you do this as part of your Coweeta/UGA visit? Who else from the ant community should we encourage to participate? We would welcome any advice you might give us regarding trapping methods and specimen handling. What would you suggest for 1,000 supervised boy-scout level volunteers? Hot dog baits? Sugar baits? Hunt & peck with forceps? Digging? Aspirators? Diurnal versus noctural sampling? Think about it. We want to standardize our collecting across sites using methods that can be replicated and that exclude observer bias and experience. We also want to get as many species from each site as possible. Hence, we probably wish to use multiple methods. Kitty Esco is developing the ant protocols that we'll use and plans to test them on school children in Athens before the Nature Quest. We need to succeed at sending our classes home to sample their yards for ants before we attempt the mountains. If she calls seeking advice, please help her. Also, I plan to press you for ideas to help us develop sorting protocols that minimize the time experts like yourselves need to spend on common specimens. This summer, I propose to start development of an interactive Web-based identification guide to help school children sort ants to some meaningful level below family. Ultimately, I envision us using a tiered identification system in which school children and their teachers first identify the easy material using an interactive key. Our sorting center personnel can then check their work and identify additional species. I plan to develop remote diagnostic capabilities with our sorting centers putting photographs of unknown morphospecies on the Web for you guy to examine and decide if they should send you the specimens. Stefan, you offered to clean up the names in Cole's study. Any chance of getting this done before April? If it would help, Kitty could get you an electronic copy of his checklist and you could then update it. Ed & Stefan, my wife plans to attend the National Science Teachers Association meeting is Boston this March and I may join her. Would you be available between 24-28 March? Ideally, I would like to visit you at the MCZ on the 26th. Hope to see you all soon. Cheers, Pick _________________________________________________________ John Pickering Institute of Ecology, University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602-2602 Office: 706-542-1115 Messages: 706-542-3379 Laboratory: 706-542-1388 FAX: 706-542-3344 e-mail: pick@pick.uga.edu Home: 706-353-7076 Web sites: <www.discoverlife.org> <http://dial.pick.uga.edu> _________________________________________________________
Discover Life in America | Science | Nature Quests | Pickering - 11 February, 1999 |