A Faunal Treatment of the Cerambycidae of Montana
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2013-03
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Abstract
The Cerambycidae, or longhorn beetles, are significant pests of forests, ornamental plants, and wood products. Fewer than 50 Montana species records have been published and the distribution data are extremely limited. An unpublished 1936 thesis records 94 species from the state. Most subsequent records remain in generally unavailable gray literature. Additionally, numbers of unidentified specimens have accumulated in the Montana Entomology Collection (MTEC), mostly from Western Montana. In 2010, we started the five-year Montana Wood Borer Project, with special emphasis on eastern Montana. The 6300 cerambycid specimens in the MTEC represent 137 species from 55 of the 56 Montana Counties, a 46% increase in species from the 1936 survey. Analysis of these data using the Chao1 Estimator predicts another 23 species remain to be discovered. This recent work has yielded an additional 184 first-time county records, to a total of 854, a 22% increase in species known from various counties. These new records represent major range extensions of species from the Eastern Hardwood Forests, Great Plains and Pacific Northwest. Overall, the sheer increase in the Cerambycidae known from Montana demonstrates that the geography of the State brings both eastern and western elements together into a diverse profile.
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