The drainages chosen for the willow leaf beetle study all support long term populations of C. aeneicollis. Some drainages run east-west while other run north-south. All originate in high alpine habitats well above treeline. The map (in prep.) illustrates the orientation and elevation gradient for the 4 major drainages surveyed in the study.

Salix Foliage Air Temperature, Relative Humidity, and Precipitation. The physiological temperature for small-bodied exotherms such as willow leaf beetles is nearly always at or above the ambient air temperature, with solar radiation as an additional heating factor in some situations. In order to analyze and predict the effects of elevation, air temperature, and climate change on the willow beetle system, we needed to monitor air temperatures and precipitation in the approrpiate microhabitats at the various study sites. This has been accomplished using data sets derived from different monitoring efforts:

• 1981-present precipitation data and standard air temperatures Air temperatures and snow accumulations (precipitation) have been monitored since the early 1980's in Big Pine Creek, Bishop Creek (South Lake and Sawmill stations), Rock Creek (Rock Creek Lake) and many other areas in the Eastern Sierra. These data are available from the California Data Exchange Center (CDEC) at the web site Locator tool for finding weather stations and data (California Department of Water Resources) The map function at site can be used to locate the dozens of stations in the Owens Valley and in the Eastern Sierra, and to retrieve data as far back as 1902. In many cases precipitation data is available as well. The historical data is presented along with the long term average for the site, which makes it relatively easy to fill in missing values by extrapolation from adjacent sites. In this way a continuous record of precipiation has been generated for the South Lake site (see South Lake precip excel file).
• 1998-present Salix foliage air temperatures In 1998 we began deploying air temperature dataloggers at sites spanning the beetles' distribution in several drainages (see excel file for a catalog of logger sites). Coin-sized temperature loggers were placed in Salix foliage about 1/3 of the distance inside the crown of foliage, which was .5 to 1.5 m above ground depending on the site. Loggers were shaded from direct sunlight by suspending them inside white plastic cups hanging from a small branch. Loggers were programmed to record temperature on an hourly basis. Data has been downloaded once or twice annually to create continuous folaige air temperature records, and dataloggers replaced as needed. Raw data files have been archived in the WMRS data center, and a synopsis of the data is available in excel format for Big Pine Creek, Bishop Creek, and Rock Creek. A close examination of the logger data also reveals the time of snow burial and snow melt for the logger each winter, dates which have been recorded in a separate file (see South Lake precip. excel file).
• To date, we have not measured Relative Humidity at the study sites. However, given the strong association between Chrysomela species and mesic habitats, this is probably an important variable to measure. We hope to employ temp/RH dataloggers in future deployments.

C. aeneicollis abundance survey results We have carefully resurveyed the same sites several times each year since 1998. The basic protocol is to relocate survey sites using GPS, and then to make two 5 minute counts, using a handheld counter. Adults, larvae, pupae, and new adults are counted separately. Data are recorded in an excel file (not yet available here).