This page provides links to tables of pollinator information for various flowers found in Putnum Park or nearby. This is a work in progress which has just started.
I have started with observations of the entomologist Dr. Sigmund Graenicher (1855 – 1937), who carried out field work at various locations in Wisconsin, and the entomologist Charles Robertson (1858 – 1935), whose field observations were made in Carlinville, Illinois. Robertson also reports some data from Wisconsin. Robertson collected the work of many of his individual publications in book form (Robertson, 1928), which unfortunately did not include an index of the flora observed. I have prepared such an index correcting spelling variations and updating the name revisions that have occurred. Click here for this index. The data of Graenicher and Robertson should be regarded as historical. Some of the pollinators referenced in Graenicher’s published work do not appear to be still present in Wisconsin. Examples include …. There are at least 388 bee species in Wisconsin (Wolf and Ascher, 2008). In some reference sources, bee names will be given in a format with the subgenius indicated in parentheses, for example, Bombus (Bombias) auricomus.
To assist the reader, the following comments will help clarify the information found in the tables. Occasionally one will see an entry such as Andrena sp. or Andrena spp., where only the genus is provided and the abbreviation sp. for species (singular) or spp. for species (plural) is given. This signifies that the species (singular) was not positively identified or that different species (plural) were observed and not individually identified. Keep in mind that it is necessary to examine some bee species under a microscope to make a positive identification of the species. Some bees can be as small as 4 mm (0.16 inches) in length, making definitive species identifications a difficult assignment. It is also important to note that the genus may have undergone a name revision, so the particular species observed may actually belong to a different genus.
All the flowers encountered in Putnam Park have a common name. The same is not true for pollinators. In some cases, there is no common name for a particular pollinator. In other cases, there is a generic name like “a thread-waisted wasp” or “a cellophane bee”, which would be used to describe multiple species in the same genus; Ammophila for the former example and Colletes for the latter case. Sometimes this approach is used for species in the same family, for example, in more than one genus of the family Crabronidae, species are called a square-head wasp, or sometimes a square-headed wasp.
In everyday usage the term synonym is used where one word can replace another word with approximate retention of the same meaning. In biology, the term synonym is used in a different sense. It refers to previous names, valid or invalid, that a particular species may have had in the past. A species has only one valid scientific name, and all the synonyms are invalid names. That of course does not mean that synonym names are never used. Since the field work of Graenicher and Robertson is not recent, it should not be a surprise to the reader that for a particular observation, either the plant name or the pollinator name, or sometimes both, have undergone a revision. Synonyms are listed as part of the author citation. You can click on each citation to find the reference details. Graenicher’s and Robertson’s published work can be located online via the Library of Congress, and in some cases, elsewhere on the web.
To view all the pollinator data organized in alphabetical order by the scientific name of the pollinator: Click here
To view all the pollinator data organized in alphabetical order by the scientific name of the flower visited: Click here
To view the pollinator data for bees organized in alphabetical order by the scientific name of the bee: Click here
To view the pollinator data for bees organized in alphabetical order by the scientific name of the flowers visited: Click here
To view the pollinator data for wasps organized in alphabetical order by the scientific name of the wasp: Click here
To view the pollinator data for wasps organized in alphabetical order by the scientific name of the flowers visited: Click here
To view the pollinator data for flies organized in alphabetical order by the scientific name of the fly: Click here
To view the pollinator data for flies organized in alphabetical order by the scientific name of the flowers visited: Click here
To view the pollinator data for sawflies organized in alphabetical order by the scientific name of the sawfly: Click here
To view the pollinator data for sawflies organized in alphabetical order by the scientific name of the flowers visited: Click here
To view the pollinator data for butterflies organized in alphabetical order by the scientific name of the butterfly: Click here
To view the pollinator data for butterflies organized in alphabetical order by the scientific name of the flowers visited: Click here
To view the pollinator data for moths organized in alphabetical order by the scientific name of the moth: Click here
To view the pollinator data for moths organized in alphabetical order by the scientific name of the flowers visited: Click here
To view the pollinator data for beetles organized in alphabetical order by the scientific name of the beetle: Click here
To view the pollinator data for beetles organized in alphabetical order by the scientific name of the flowers visited: Click here
To view the pollinator data for bugs organized in alphabetical order by the scientific name of the bug: Click here
To view the pollinator data for bugs organized in alphabetical order by the scientific name of the flowers visited: Click here
To view the pollinator data for birds organized in alphabetical order by the scientific name of the bird: Click here
To view the pollinator data for birds organized in alphabetical order by the scientific name of the flowers visited: Click here