Taxacom: Entomological collecting at altitudes higher than 4, 500 m (more than 14, 500 feet)?

Fri Apr 22 15:50:39 CDT 2022

Hi everyone,

Earlier today Michael Heads was asking about a great collector that lived in Sichuan and as part of Michael's email I noticed that he was asking about a locality at around 4,800 m (15,900 feet).

It reminded me of a (admittedly, somewhat silly) question that I have been meaning to ask to this list for a while. Have any entomological collections ever made at altitudes higher than 4,500 m (~14,500 feet)? I am not asking for observations of something seen flying (which I know there are quite a few observations of bumble bees and I believe even one Lepidoptera that were seen flying at really high altitudes in the Himalaya) but rather more "solid" collecting such as traps, or netting...

The main reason is a bit silly, as I am interested in having some "records" for my pet group of parasitoid wasps (Braconidae). Especially the subfamily Microgastrinae which are caterpillar (Lepidoptera) parasitoids. As far as I know there is a potential to have some species occurring at altitudes a bit over 4,500 m. But I have not found any solid evidence yet. Based on specimens housed here in the Canadian National Collection, I described in 2018 a species of Microplitis from four specimens collected in Colorado (Mount Evans)  at altitudes between 3,658 m (holotype) and 4,267 m (paratypes) (link to paper here in case someone is interested in seeing the species, which I named as "altissimus" to refer to the altitude it was collected: https://nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fzookeys.pensoft.net%2Farticles.php%3Fid%3D22869&data=05%7C01%7Ctaxacom%40lists.ku.edu%7C0a287fd4050445f1129408da24a1c39d%7C3c176536afe643f5b96636feabbe3c1a%7C0%7C0%7C637862575196836664%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=%2FW9kxguaoNFDQKOP4CZvCC6qTNAX6Qlrn5NdxgIwk%2Bs%3D&reserved=0) . There is a road that reaches the summit of that mountain and thus it is relatively easy for collectors to access that mountain and collect at such altitude (the mountain peak reaches 4,350 m or some 14,200 feet, but I have not seen any specimen from higher than 4,267 m). Similarly, I am describing now a new species in the genus Dolichogenidea collected in Ecuador and Peru at 4,000-4,100 m, but here it falls a bit short of my previous species "record". And I cannot find any historical reference higher either. Thus, at least until this point I have failed to find any evidence of collecting for parasitoid wasps at altitudes higher than 4,200 m or so.

However, I believe that there must be some collecting done at higher altitudes, as probably the main limitation is the logistical and physical demands of reaching such places. But I am pretty sure that there are many places in the Andes, close to the Equator, where some vegetation can be found way over 4,300 m (in fact, more like close to 5,000m), and thus any entomological expedition done there should have collected parasitoid wasps. Same could apply to Africa (I would assume that Kilimanjaro would be a good guess? But there are also a few other possibilities), and perhaps to Himalaya. The record for the highest tree line is discussed in many places (I believe that South America wins that one) but actually even if only grasses that would be sufficient for potentially having caterpillars and therefore, parasitoid wasps attacking them. After all, in the northermost locality in the world (Alert, Ellesmere Island, Canada, 82°30′N) with a brutal artic environment, there are many species of parasitoid wasps. So, I gather that finding them at altitudes of around 4,500 would be reasonable.

Which brings me back to my question if anyone in this list knows about such potential entomological expeditions that have happened at that (or higher) altitude.

Thanks a lot for any info you can share! And my apologies for such a long and probably silly post...
Cheers,
Jose

--
José L. Fernández-Triana, Ph.D.
Research Scientist, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada
Canadian National Collection of Insects (CNC) 
960 Carling Avenue, Ottawa, Ontario, K1A 0C6, CANADA 
Phone: 613-759-1034. Email: jose.fernandez at canada.ca 
Alternative email : cnc.braconidae at gmail.com

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-----Original Message-----
From: Taxacom <taxacom-bounces at lists.ku.edu> On Behalf Of Michael Heads via Taxacom
Sent: Friday, April 22, 2022 6:14 AM
To: Taxacom <taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu>
Subject: Taxacom: Sichuan localities

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Dear Colleagues,

David Crockett Graham lived in Sichuan most of his life and was a legendary collector there (he donated about 400000 specimens to the Smithsonian). I’m trying to find the whereabouts of one of his collection localities in western Sichuan: Zya Ha Pass (altitude 15900 feet). This is near Yin Kuan Tsai and Yu-Long-Si, but I don’t know where these are either.

   It seems that there are maps of his collection treks on pp 246-251 of Walravens (2006). If anyone has access to this book I’d be very grateful for copies of the maps.

Walravens, H. (ed.). 2006. David Crockett Graham (1884-1961as zoological collector and anthropologist in China. Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden.

Thanks,

Michael

--
Dunedin, New Zealand.

My books:

*Biogeography and evolution in New Zealand. *Taylor and Francis/CRC, Boca Raton FL. 2017.
https://nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.routledge.com%2FBiogeography-and-Evolution-in-New-Zealand%2FHeads%2Fp%2Fbook%2F9781498751872&data=05%7C01%7Ctaxacom%40lists.ku.edu%7C0a287fd4050445f1129408da24a1c39d%7C3c176536afe643f5b96636feabbe3c1a%7C0%7C0%7C637862575196836664%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=FSFzZfJqOKCF3o9%2FaFCmwYSBqWlDg9wrg97On%2FHkOjI%3D&reserved=0

*Biogeography of Australasia:  A molecular analysis*. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. 2014. https://nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.cambridge.org%2F9781107041028&data=05%7C01%7Ctaxacom%40lists.ku.edu%7C0a287fd4050445f1129408da24a1c39d%7C3c176536afe643f5b96636feabbe3c1a%7C0%7C0%7C637862575196836664%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=Dpg%2Bv%2FgJkpojs296LDPYzvFDGIS6IwR1NyQqYM8Sn1w%3D&reserved=0

*Molecular panbiogeography of the tropics. *University of California Press, Berkeley. 2012. https://nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ucpress.edu%2Fbook.php%3Fisbn%3D9780520271968&data=05%7C01%7Ctaxacom%40lists.ku.edu%7C0a287fd4050445f1129408da24a1c39d%7C3c176536afe643f5b96636feabbe3c1a%7C0%7C0%7C637862575196836664%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=3erWGinaL335lAwJUmVxlHxQo97Y9ZibtVg%2BCKm9CZU%3D&reserved=0

*Panbiogeography: Tracking the history of life*. Oxford University Press, New York. 1999. (With R. Craw and J. Grehan).
https://nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fbooks.google.co.nz%2Fbooks%3Fid%3DBm0_QQ3Z6GUC&data=05%7C01%7Ctaxacom%40lists.ku.edu%7C0a287fd4050445f1129408da24a1c39d%7C3c176536afe643f5b96636feabbe3c1a%7C0%7C0%7C637862575196836664%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=8tk%2Bj6E%2FXYVz6bVQyJSa84fNxLalAqTkH8GSCnKWkCM%3D&reserved=0
<https://nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fbooks.google.co.nz%2Fbooks%3Fid%3DBm0_QQ3Z6GUC%26dq%3Dpanbiogeography%26source%3Dgbs_navlinks_s&data=05%7C01%7Ctaxacom%40lists.ku.edu%7C0a287fd4050445f1129408da24a1c39d%7C3c176536afe643f5b96636feabbe3c1a%7C0%7C0%7C637862575196836664%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=oA1apCC0Lc1EkkdnvYify4lryyIfqVv6X5AcofCT6Jc%3D&reserved=0>
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