Big Thicket

SURVEY AND INVENTORY RESULTS
RUI Collaborative Research Microbiological Survey & Inventory:
Gregarines Parasitizing Aquatic and Riparian Insects of the Texas Big Thicket
NSF Grants 0340774 and 0340782

The following data summarize our first year activities. Detailed surevy results and images will be released in the Spring 2006 site update.

Localities Sampled: During Year 1 we sampled 6 sites representing 5 of 9 proposed Big Thicket Ecosystems as follows:

Beech-Magnolia-Loblolly Pine
            Double Lake, Sam Houston National Forest, San Jacinto Co, TX
   (March, May, August 2005)
Longleaf Pine Upland
            P Creek, a first order stream in the Big Sandy Creek Unit [BSCU],
   Big Thicket National Preserve [BTNP], Polk Co., TX
   (December 2004)
            Big Sandy Creek, a third order stream in the BSCU, BTNP, Polk Co., TX (December 2005)
Oak-Gum Floodplain
            Harmon Creek, a second order stream 9.6 km north of Huntsville,
   Walker Co., TX
   (February, December 2005)
Palmetto-Hardwood Flats
            Little Pine Island Bayou, Lance Rosier Unit, BTNP, Hardin Co., TX
   (May, August 2005
Slash Pine Monoculture
            Cook’s Ranch, Sam Houston National Forest, 12.8 km east of Huntsville,
   Walker Co., TX (May, August 2005)

Insect Survey: We collected 4,057 insects representing 9 Orders, 51 Families, 116 genera, and 186 species. 1,845 insects were prepared as permanent museum specimens for deposition in the Sam Houston State University and Texas A&M University Insect Collections.

Gregarine Survey: We processed 2,025 insects in the gregarine survey, dissecting and examining postmortem 1,876 insects representing 112 host morphotaxa across 9 orders, 33 families, and 42 putative genera. To document host diversity, we prepared 149 permanent symbiotype specimens for identification and subsequent museum deposition. Of the 1,876 hosts examined, 454 were infected by at least 1 gregarine species (24.2% overall prevalence). We prepared 585 permanent slide preparations of gregarine parasites from 338 individual hosts for deposition in the HWML, University of Nebraska State Museum, UNL, Lincoln,NE as well as 73 samples of gregarine tissue representing 19 gregarine morphotaxa for subsequent molecular analysis. In addition, 1,632 digital images of gregarines were captured for taxonomic analysis and WWW distribution.

We have made substantial progress based on estimates of feasible host diversity for gregarine sampling presented in our proposal. In the first year, we have sampled 128% of projected insect orders (9 of 7) and 100% of projected host morphotaxa (112 of 111). Gregarine diversity is less than projected: we have recovered 47 morphotaxa of which 40 are new putative species (85%). In our proposal we estimated that a sample of our current size would yield 182 morphotaxa, of which 72% would be new to science.

Dr. R. E. Clopton