Thank You Cerceris Volunteers!

September 9th, 2008

Hi to all of you who helped me look for Cerceris this year.

I just wanted to let you know that the Cerceris season is over for the year.  This was our first year working with this beast and I think we accomplished a lot and learned a lot.  At the beginning of the year we had no idea what to expect since we only knew of a couple of specimens collected in Maine by MES members.

However, we now have located 29 definite colonies in central and southern Maine, with another half dozen that we hope to verify next summer.  The map linked here shows the Cerceris colonies and areas where we looked but didn’t find any.  Thank you SO much to all of you who helped me look.  And a special thanks to all of you who looked and didn’t find any colonies.  Information about where they are NOT is just as important to me – and you didn’t even get the fun of finding a colony.  Despite the horrible stormy weather this summer, we even got some EAB monitoring (biosurveillance) done, both by MFS staff and by some of you. 

So thank you all very much.  I (and the ash trees of Maine) appreciate your time and effort. Please contact me if you are interested in monitoring Cerceris colonies in 2009.

Colleen

Colleen Teerling
Entomologist, Maine Forest Service
Insect and Disease Lab
50 Hospital St. Augusta, ME 04344
ph: (207) 287-3096