Field Trip to Argentina 2006

21 February – 8 March 2006 Argentina is in the southern portion of South America. Here is shown a detail of the collecting route.

The group consisted of senior investigator Thomas J. Henry and PhD candidate Dimitri Forero from the PBI. With us were three colleagues from La Plata Museum, Pablo Dellapé, Diego Carpintero, and Maria C. Coscarón. Two colleagues from USA also joined us, David Rider and Merrill Sweet. Forero, Henry, Carpintero, Coscarón, Sweet, and Rider (left to right) Dellapé and Forero

We traveled extensively from La Plata and Buenos Aires to the western part of the Andes.

We started collecting in Cordoba, near Villa General Belgrano. The plant on the right is the host of a Cyrtotylus species. Nothing was known previously about host associations for this genus.

On this Prosopis (Fabaceae) we found some Dijocaria, an Orthotylinae genus with a couple of described species found only in Argentina.

The Miridae were collected using a beating net and aspirator as Tom is doing. We also tried some light trapping at some localities.

Near Alta Gracia we found on this Compositae some very small green Orthotylinae.

Near Mina Clavero, we found more plants in association with Cyrtotylus.

After collecting during the day we put the Miridae away in pill boxes, pressed the plants, and recorded the information in the database.

This Ruprectia (Polygonaceae) harbored a small Cyrtotylus and an Isometopinae in a locality beyond Mina Clavero. This habitat was slightly drier than previous localities.

In Catamarca we found a small Orthotylinae of the same color as the underside of the leaves of this plant.

Tom is showing David some of the Miridae collected. After recording the geographic coordinates, vouchers of the plants were collected and pressed later.

Near 3000 meters above sea level Tom is collecting in a grass-dominated landscape in Tucuman.

We found plenty Orthotylinae in Junellia (Verbenaceae) and Ademsia (Fabaceae) at this high altitude, mostly Araucanocoris and a small black Orthotylinae.

Lower in altitude and dryer, the landscape near Amaicha is perfect to collect more Miridae.

We found Hadronemella, Chileria (Orthotylinae), and Cafayatina (Halticini). Hyporrhinocoris, a nifty Orthotylinae dimorphic genus, is abundant in Larrea (Zygophyllaceae) bushes. Allionia incarnata (Nyctaginaceae), host of Cafayatina Larrea divaricata (Zygophyllaceae) host of Hyporhinocoris

Towards Cafayate, the ground is very sandy. Here we see a dry river bank and in the distance the snowy Andes.

More Hadronemella specimens were collected on this tree. This genus has a couple of species, but before the trip nothing was known about their host preferences.

On this Prosopis (Fabaceae) we found several green Orthotylinae specimens with a pale embolium.

Close to Cafayate, in Salta, we found a wetter slope and different plants. Among those was this Jatropha (Euphorbiaceae) associated with a bright red Phylinae.

On our way back to Buenos Aires we managed to stop near to the Rio Parana, where we collected a few Phylinae and Orthotylinae, despite of the extensive soy bean plantations and urbanization.

A small sample of some of the other insects we found in the trip

TRIP RESULTS: 31 localities 31 localities > 70 host plants > 70 host plants all new biological information all new biological information