IME wINSHeihs: THEIR ECOLOGICAL RELATIONSHIPS 
P. W. CLAASSEN 
In order that the ecological relationships of the insect fauna of the 
cat-tail plant may be better understood, the first part of this paper deals 
with the ecology of the cat-tail plant. In the second part, the life history 
and biology of the insect inhabitants of the plant are discussed. This 
part of the paper has been treated from a systematic point of view, 
considering the insects under their respective orders, rather than grouping 
them according to their life habits. In the résumé, composing the third 
part, an attempt has been made to bring out the true ecological relation- 
ships, grouping the insects with reference to the parts of the plant they 
affect, their relative importance, and their interrelations. 
ECOLOGICAL STUDIES OF TYPHA 
THE SWAMP AREA OF THE UNITED STATES 
According to Davis (1911)! there are 139,855 square miles of swamp 
area in the United States, exclusive of Alaska. This includes bogs, 
marshes, muck lands, and the more typical swamps. The vegetation in 
these wet lands varies from the semi-floating forms to the wooded plants 
of the more solid areas. Needham and Lloyd (1916) state that the bogs, 
marshes, and swamps ‘‘ occupy a superficial area larger by far than that 
covered by lakes and rivers of every sort. They cover in all probably 
[sic] more than a hundred million acres in the United States.” 
Much of the vegetation of this wet area consists of cat-tail (Typha). 
Many of the marshes contain an almost pure growth of cat-tail, as, for 
example, the Montezuma Marsh at the foot of Cayuga Lake. This 
marsh covers an area of approximately 36 square miles. Although it 
is impossible to give definite figures on the size of the area occupied by 
eat-tails in the United States, it is safe to say that there are thousands 
of square miles of wet lands which are covered by either a pure growth 
of cat-tail or plant associations in which the cat-tail is the dominant form, 
AUTHOR'S ACKNOWLEDGMENT. The author is indebted to Professor James G. Needham for his helpful 
suggestions and criticism in this work. ; 
1 Dates in parenthesis refer to Literature cited, page 508. 
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