Ichneumoninae of Florida and Neighboring States

“Ichneumoninae of Florida and neighooring states” encompasses all of Florida except the southern tip of the peninsula, most of South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas, eastern Texas, eastern North Carolina, and smaller parts of western Tennessee, southeastern Missouri and southwestern Kentucky. This work contains keys for identification and full structural and chromatic descriptions of 50 genera and 135 species and subspecies of the subfamily Ichneumoninae. Of the 135 forms treated in this publication, 47 previously were not known to science. All known Ichneumoninae are specialized parasites of Lepidoptera. The female deposits a single egg in the body of the host, either in the larva or pupa. Adults are rovers and may travel fairly long distances in the course of their random flight. While most aculeate Hymenoptera occur in open, dry, and hot habitats, and do not avoid the direct radiation of the sun, Ichneumoninae are, in general, confined to the shade of forests and to areas with comparatively high humidity. Few species have adapted to drier locations, and in semiarid regions Ichneumoninae are almost entirely absent. Most species are active only during early morning and late afternoon, except on cloudy, overcast days. Presence of host species is not the only limiting ecological factor; climate and biotype appear to be of equal, if not greater, importance. Globally the lchneumoninae have proliferated in speciation only in the moderate and cool climates, diminishing as one approaches the tropics, except at higher elevations. In Ichneumoninae differences between the sexes are extraordinarily great in morphology as well as, sometimes, in coloration, affecting almost every part of the body. Often many specimens of 1 sex may be found before a single specimen of the opposite sex is discovered. Individual variations which occur within both sexes of a species further complicate an understanding of the taxonomy of the group.

The author, Gerd Herrmann Heinrich, is recognized as the world’s leading authority on the subfamily lchneumoninae, family Ichneumonidae. He is the author of 4 major publications on Ichneumonidae, 4 popular travelogs, 93 smaller but significant publications on Ichneumoninae, 3 publica tions on European mammals, 3 publications on the biology of the birds of Angola, and 2 publications on the systematics of the birds of Angola coauthored with Dr. S. Dillon Ripley, formerly of Yale University and currently Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution. In print is a publication (in Russian) on the Siberian Ichneumoninae being published in Moscow by the Russian Academy of Sciences.

Heinrich’s major publications were “The Ichneumoninae of Celebes” (German language, 1943, 265 pages, 7 plates of figures); “Les lchneumonides de Madagascar” (French language, 1938, 139 pages, 6 plates); “Synopsis of Nearctic lchneumoninae Stenopneusticae with particular reference to the Northeastern Region (Hymenoptera)” (English language, 1961-1962, 7 volumes, 886 pages, numerous illustrations); “Synopsis and reclassification of the lchneumoninae of Africa south of the Sahara” (English language, 5 volumes, 1,258 pages, numerous text figures). Heinrich has described 1,383 species and subspecies of lchneumoninae (N earctic:334, Africa:408, Madagascar:87, Celebes 156, Palearctic:398). Travelog books were about Heinrich expeditions, including 1 on the Celebes Island (1932), 1 on Burma (1940), and 1 on Persia (1933).

Gerd Heinrich was born in Berlin, Germany on 7 November 1896, son of a physician, Dr. Herrmann Heinrich and Margarethe von Tepper-Ferguson Heinrich, heir of a large agricultural estate in the German province (since 1918, Polish) of West Prussia. He was educated at home by a tutor until his 9th year, graduated “primus omnium” from the Askanische Gymnasium in Berlin in 1914, at the age of 17, planning, like his father before him, towa rd a career in medicine. His education was interrupted by the declaration of war between Germany and Russia. He entered the German Army in the cavalry and subsequently became a pilot in the German Air Force. Following World War I, the family estate became a part of Poland where Gerd married and lived with his family. Poland was invaded by Germany in 1939 and World War II began. A series of bizarre incidences followed, during which both he and his wife were, for a time, on the “death list” of the Gestapo, but through the aid of a close friend from World War I, who, meanwhile, had become a General in the German Air Force, he and his wife were rescued . Gerd, in an effort to survive, reentered the German Air Force over which the Gestapo had no authority. Near the end of World War II, leaving a ll that they owned in Russian-occupied Poland, he and his family escaped to West Germany under extremely dangerous circumstances. In 1951 they moved to the United States, and with the aid of Dr. Henry Townes, himself a world authority on ichneumonid wasps, became American citizens and settled on a little farm in Maine where Gerd and Hildegarde have continued to reside and where Gerd, assisted by his wife, has continued his dedicated studies of Ichneumoninae of the world.

Heinrich made a series of expeditions between 1927 and 1963, partly to collect birds and mammals for several European and North American museums, but extensive collections of Ichneumoninae were made on all of these field trips, which included the following: 1927, Northern Persia, Elburs Mountains (provinces of Ghilan, Masanderan, and Astarabad); 1930-1932, Celebes (Latimodjong Mountains, Menkoka Mountains, and Minahasa); 1931, Molucca Islands (Halmahera and Batjan); 1935, southeastern Europe (Balkan and Rhodope Mountains); 1937, Burma (Chin Hills with Mt. Victoria and Shan Plateau); 1952-1953, Mexico; 1953- 1955, West Africa: Angola (northeastern and southeastern provinces, Mt. Moco, Mt. Soke); 1957-1958, West Africa: Angola (northern and northwestern provinces); 1961-1963, East Africa: Tanganyika (Mt. Meru, Usambara Mountains, Uluguru Mountains, Livingston Mountains, Rungwe Mountains, Ufipa Plateau), Northern Rhodesia; 1963, South Africa.

At the age of 81, Gerd continues his studies of Ichneumonidae, studies which began with an early childhood interest in natural history. At the early age of 15, through the influence of Professor Heymons, 1 of the Custodian,s of Entomology at the Museum fur Naturkunde, this interest became concentrated on parasitic wasps of the family Ichneumonidae, a large, diverse, and at that time taxonomically poorly known group of insects. This lifelong interest has been one of virtually total commitment and dedication.

Howard V. Weems, Jr.
Editor

Bureau of Entomology
Division of Plant Industry
Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services
23 November 1977