Discover Life in America

John Pickering - 11 February, 1999

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