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       The Mary Talbot Ant Collection
 
Project Summary   |    People   |    Curation   |     Databasing   |    Resampling   |   
Project Description

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Personnel
PERSONNEL TEXT ROB JIM MIKE JIM NATE TECHS

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Curating the Collection

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Databasing the collections
We have created a database for the Talbot collections we have housed at NCSU. For each specimen, we have entered all of the data on each label (e.g., locality and determination) in each vial. We have data from 3,965 individual vials in the database. Jessie Allen and Mike Weiser are developing scripts which will pull the data from the labels and generate an atomized database by collection locality, date, species determination, etc. While preliminary, the earliest preserved collections appear to be from 1924 and the latest from 1978 (with a peak of collections in 1953). The majority of the collections come from Michigan, and the single most collected site is the E.S. George Reserve, a field station run by the University of Michigan near Pinckney, MI.

If you use MySQL databases, you can download a sql script that will create and populate the vials table from the database vials.sql.zip

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Resampling E.S.George Reserve, Michigan
In August, 2008, Michael Weiser and Jessie Allen went to E.S.George Reserve to re-sample sites originally sampled by Mary Talbot in the 1950's. More to come
Accessory Documents
In addition to the collections, we have originals and copies of what appears to be most of Dr. Talbot's field notes, laboratory notes, manuscripts, and a considerable amount of correspondence. Here are some examples -->
Mary Talbot Publications
  • Talbot, M. 1934. Distribution of ant species in the Chicago region with reference to ecological factors and physiological toleration. Ecology 15:416-439.
  • Talbot, M. 1943. Population studies of the ant, Prenolepis imparis. Ecology 24(1): 31-44.
  • Talbot, M. 1943. Response of the ant Prenolepis imparis Say to temperature and humidity changes. Ecology 24(3):345-352.
  • Talbot, M. 1945. A comparison of flights of 4 species of ants. American Midland Naturalist 34(2):504-510.
  • Talbot, M. 1945. ANN ENTOMOLOGICAL SO 38 : 365
  • Talbot, M. 1946. Daily fluctuations in aboveground activity of three species of ants. Ecology 27(1): 65-70.
  • Talbot, M. 1948. A comparison of two ants of the genus Formica Ecology 29(3):316-325.
  • Talbot, M. 1951. Populations and hibernating conditions of the ant Aphaenogaster (Attomyrma) rudis Emery (Hymenoptera: Formicidae). Annals of the Entomological Society of America 44:302-307.
  • Talbot, M. 1953. Ants of an old-field community on the Edwin S. George Reserve, Livingston County, Michigan. Contributions of the Laboratory of Vertebrate Biology of the University of Michigan 63, 13 p.
  • Talbot, M. 1954. 1954. Populations of the ant Aphaenogaster (Attomyrma) treatae Forel on abandoned fields on the Edwin S. George Reserve. Contributions of the Laboratory of Vertebrate at the University of Michigan 69, 9 p.
  • Talbot, M. 1956. Flight activities of the ant Dolichoderus (Hypoclinea) mariae Forel. Psyche 63:134-139.
  • Talbot, M. 1957. Population studies of the slave-making ant Leptothorax duloticus and its slave, Leptothorax curvispinosus. Ecology 38(3):449-456.
  • Talbot, M. 1957. Populations of ants in a Missouri woodland. Insectes Sociaux 4(4):375-384.
  • Talbot, M. 1959. AM MIDL NAT 61 : 124
  • Talbot, M. 1961. Mounds of the ant Formica ulkei at Edwin S. George Reserve, Livingston County, Michigan. Ecology 42(1):202-205.
  • Talbot, M. 1963. Local-distribution and flight activities of 4 species of ants of genus Acanthomyops Mayr. Ecology 44(3):549-557.
  • Talbot, M. 1964. Nest structure and flights of the ant Formica obscuriventris Mayr. Animal Behavior 12:154-158.
  • Talbot, M. 1965. Populations of ants in a low field. Insectes Sociaux 12:19-48.
  • Talbot, M. 1966. Flights of the ant Aphaenogaster treatae. Journal of the Kansas Entomological Society 39:67-77.
  • Talbot, M. 1967. Slave-raids of the ant Polyergus lucidus Mayr. Psyche 74:299-313.
  • Talbot, M. 1968. Flights of the ant Polyergus lucidus Mayr. Psyche 75:46-52.
  • Talbot, M. 1971. Flights of the ant Formica dakotensis Emery. Psyche 78:169-179.
  • Talbot, M. 1972. Flights and swarms of the ant Formica obscuripes Forel. J. Kansas Entomol. Soc. 45:254-258.
  • Talbot, M. 1973. Five species of the ant genus Acanthomyops (Hymenoptera:Formicidae) at the Edwin S. George Reserve in southern Michigan. Great Lakes Entomol. 6:19-22.
  • Talbot, M. 1975. Habitats and populations of the ant Stenamma diecki Emery in southern Michigan. Great Lakes Entomol. 8:241-244.
  • Talbot, M. 1975. A list of the ants of the Edwin S. George Reserve, Livingston County, Michigan. Great Lakes Entomol. 8:245-246.
  • Talbot, M. 1976. The natural history of the workerless ant parasite Formica talbotae. Psyche 83:282-288.
  • Talbot, M. 1979. Social parasitism among ants at the E. S. George Reserve in southern Michigan. Great Lakes Entomol. 12:87-89.
  • Talbot, M. 1985. The slave-making ant Formica gynocrates (Hymenoptera: Formicidae). Great Lakes Entomol. 18:103-112.
  • T. M. Alloway, A. Buschinger, M. Talbot, R. Stuart and C. Thomas. 1982. Polygyny and polydomy in three North American species of the ant genus Leptothorax Mayr (Hymenoptera: Formicidae). Psyche 89:249-274.
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