A leaf litter sieve is a piece of equipment used by entomologists, in particular by coleopterists (beetle collectors) (Cooter 1991, page 7) as an aid to finding invertebrates in leaf litter.
A typical leaf litter sieve consists of a gauze with holes of approximately 5 to 10 mm width. The entomologist places handfuls of leaf litter into the sieve, which is placed above a white sheet or tray. The sieve is shaken, and insects are separated from the leaf litter and fall out for inspection. Charles Valentine Riley details use of a simple sieve with a cloth bag. [1] A more complex combination sieve is described by Hongfu. [2]
Entomology is the scientific study of insects, a branch of zoology. In the past the term "insect" was less specific, and historically the definition of entomology would also include the study of animals in other arthropod groups, such as arachnids, myriapods, and crustaceans. This wider meaning may still be encountered in informal use.
Ross Harold Arnett Jr. was an American entomologist noted for his studies of beetles, and as founder of the Coleopterist's Bulletin.
Insect collecting refers to the collection of insects and other arthropods for scientific study or as a hobby. Most insects are small and the majority cannot be identified without the examination of minute morphological characters, so entomologists often make and maintain insect collections. Very large collections are conserved in natural history museums or universities where they are maintained and studied by specialists. Many college courses require students to form small collections. There are also amateur entomologists and collectors who keep collections.
John Lawrence LeConte was an American entomologist of the 19th century, responsible for naming and describing approximately half of the insect taxa known in the United States during his lifetime, including some 5,000 species of beetles. He was recognized as the foremost authority on North American beetles during his lifetime, and has been described as "the father of American beetle study".
Alpheus Spring Packard Jr. LL.D. was an American entomologist and palaeontologist. He described over 500 new animal species – especially butterflies and moths – and was one of the founders of The American Naturalist.
Charles Valentine Riley was a British-born American entomologist and artist. He was one of the first individuals to use biological pest control and authored over 2,400 publications. He convinced Congress to create the United States Entomological Commission and was among the founders of the American Association of Economic Entomologists.
Economic entomology is a field of entomology, which involves the study of insects that benefit or harm humans, domestic animals, and crops. Insects that cause losses are termed as pests. Some species can cause indirect damage by spreading diseases and these are termed as vectors. Those that are beneficial include those reared for food such as honey, substances such as lac or pigments and for their role in pollinating crops and controlling pests.
The Mymaridae, commonly known as fairyflies or fairy wasps, are a family of chalcidoid wasps found in temperate and tropical regions throughout the world. The family contains around 100 genera with 1400 species.
The Great French Wine Blight was a severe blight of the mid-19th century that destroyed many of the vineyards in France and laid waste to the wine industry. It was caused by an aphid that originated in North America and was carried across the Atlantic in the late 1850s. The actual genus of the aphid is still debated, although it is largely considered to have been a species of Daktulosphaira vitifoliae, commonly known as grape phylloxera. While France is considered to have been worst affected, the blight also did a great deal of damage to vineyards in other European countries.
Henry Guernsey Hubbard was an American entomologist and horticulturist. He was both a field entomologist and an applied entomologist. He is most noted for the work he did to identify and control the agricultural pests in the Florida citrus industry. He was also an early pioneer in the study of cave insects.
Albert Koebele was an economic entomologist and a pioneer in the use of biological controls to manage insect pests.
A Berlese funnel, also known as Tullgren funnel,Berlese trap, or Berlese-Tullgren funnel, is an apparatus used to extract living organisms, particularly arthropods, from samples of soil. The Tullgren funnel works by creating a desiccation gradient over the sample such that mobile organisms will move away from the dry environment and fall into a collecting vessel, where they perish and are preserved for examination. The illustration shows how it works: a funnel (E) contains the soil or litter (D), and a heat source (F) such as an electric lamp (G) heats the litter. Animals escaping from the desiccation of the litter descend through a filter (C) into a preservative liquid (A) in a receptacle (B). This illustration is merely a schematic, since usually the soil sample will not be crumbled and poured into the funnel. In fact, the soil sample is placed on a mesh sieve that will allow the soil animals to pass but should retain most of the soil particles.
Mary Esther Murtfeldt was an American entomologist, botanist, botanical collector, writer and editor. She undertook research on the life histories of insects, describing several species new to science and wrote extensively on entomology. Murtfeldt created a collection of plant specimens that contributed to the scientific knowledge on the plants of Missouri.
Syneta is a genus of leaf beetles in the subfamily Synetinae. There are about 11 described species in Syneta. The genus is entirely holarctic in distribution, with species appearing in North America, Siberia, East Asia and Northern Europe.
Ross Taylor Bell was an American entomologist with particular interest in the invertebrate natural history of Vermont, United States, and carabid beetles. Together with his wife, Joyce Bell, his work at the University of Vermont was largely taxonomic, where they described more than 75% of the rhysodine species known to science. Ross also wrote a number of seminal papers in his chosen field.
Ampelomyia viticola, the grape tube gallmaker, is a species of gall midge found in the eastern United States and Canada. It produces green or bright red galls on new world grape vines.
Coleothorpa is a genus of case-bearing leaf beetles in the family Chrysomelidae. The group is largely composed of species that were originally placed in the genus Euryscopa; some authorities have suggested placing these species into the genus Coscinoptera but the most recent revisions prefer to retain it as a separate genus.
Luperini is a tribe of skeletonizing leaf beetles in the family Chrysomelidae. There are more than 30 genera and 500 described species in Luperini.
Hong-Fu Chu was a Chinese entomologist known for his pioneering work in establishing entomology in China. He was a specialist on insect immatures and was among the pioneers in the use of chaetotaxy in the classification of lepidopteran larvae.