PROC. ENTOMOL. SOC. WASH. 105(11. 2003. pp. 131-1.^7 SYMPHYTA (HYMENOPTERA) SPECIES RICHNESS IN MIXED OAK-PINE FORESTS IN THE CENTRAL APPALACHIANS John S. Strazanac, David R. Smith, Rachel A. Braud. Cynthia J. Fritzler. and Linda Butler (JSS. RAB. CJF. LB) Plant and Soil Sciences, West Virginia Univeisity, Morgantown, WV 26506-6108, U.S.A.: (DRS) Systematic Entomology Laboratory, PSI, Agricultural Research Service. U.S. Department of Agriculture, ''/c National Museum of Natural His-torv. Smithsonian Institution. Washinston, DC 20360-0168, U.S.A. Abstract. — Malaise trap sampling in the George Washington National Foi"est, Augusta Co., Virginia, and the Monongahela National Forest in Pocahontas Co., West Virginia, in the central Appalachian Mountains over a five-year period at 36 sites resulted in the collection of 155 species in eight families of Symphyta. Tenthredinidae were the most species rich with a total of 121 species and Pergidae were the inost abundant with a total of 4,529 specimens. A comparison with other long-term. Malaise trap-based sawfly sur-veys in diverse habitats indicates that there is a relationship between the number of spec-imens identified and species richness documented. Key Words: Symphyta, species richness, central Appalachian Mountains Among insects, larvae of Symphyta are second only to caterpillars (Lepidoptera) as the most commonly encountered foliage-feeding holometabolous insect group. With the exception of one family, the Orussidae. all Symphyta are phytophagous, the major-ity feeding externally on foliage. While many studies on the diversity and biology of sawflies have been focused on certain economic species and on coniferous pest species, only a few studies have taken a broader approach to the group. Smith and Barrows (1987) sampled sawflies with Mal-aise traps over a six-year period in urban environments. Smith (1991) documented the diversity of Macrophya (Tenthredini-dae) sampled over a five-year period in the Piedmont of central Virginia. Sawflies have been included in other Malaise sampling studies that examined total abundance, in-cluding coinparing trap design in Ontario (Darling and Packer 1988) and general sampling in New York (Matthews and Mat-thews 1970). A nuiTiber of unpublished sur-vey reports from Maryland and Virginia has been generated by one of us (DRS) for comparison. The sawfly species collected during our five-year study were taken in the central Appalachian Mountains in mixed oak-pine forests. This study is part of a larger effort to document potential non-target impacts froin aerial application of Bacillus tluiriiigiensis Berliner variety kiirstaki and Gypchek® in gypsy moth inhabited oak-pine fV)rests in the central Appalachians. Materials and Methods Eighteen 200 ha study plots were set up in the central Appalachian Mountains with nine each in the George Washington Na-tional Forest (GWNF) and Monongahela National Forest (MNF) (Fig. I). The GWNF plots were in Augusta Co., VA,
BioStor
