Mary Treat, Pine Barrens treefrog and map precision — October 1, 2026

Mary Treat

  • Read the Darwin Correspondence Project transcriptions of Treat’s December 2, 1874 letter, Asa Gray’s December 11, 1874 letter, Treat’s May 15, 1876 letter and Darwin’s June 1, 1876 reply. The first letter records repeated prey observations; Gray confirms Treat took up bladderwort on her own initiative. The 1876 exchange documents her evidence on valve sensitivity and Darwin’s acceptance that his wedge explanation was wrong.
  • The correspondence notes identify the bladderwort as Utricularia clandestina, now a synonym of U. geminiscapa, and the larva later as Chironomus. The Darwin Correspondence Project exhibition guide supports the second-edition statement.
  • Treat’s May 1876 letter says she chose a paying literary magazine because she depended on earnings from her work. The manuscript images and printed articles were not compared with the scholarly transcriptions. Vineland is an address-level map locality, not a verified collecting pond.

Pond-drying study

  • Read Bunnell and Ciraolo’s 2010 Pinelands Commission report, especially printed pp. 2–5 and 8–14. Three excavated ponds with natural-like hydrology were monitored; 1996–2006 depths and 2005–2006 frog stages served as inputs to 5–50 cm simulated reductions. No pumping experiment was conducted.
  • The report records 4,545 staged individuals of five species across the two intensive years, including 1,251 Pine Barrens treefrogs. Treefrog eggs were observed on one sampling date only; the report cautions about missed stages and low counts. The simulated reduction findings are pond-specific estimates, not a management threshold.
  • No pond-specific pin was added. The report gives a northwestern Mullica watershed setting, but the story concerns a comparative study rather than a single point. The map now tells readers that some stories lack defensible pin coordinates.

GNIS locality audit

  • Downgraded seven story pins that represented villages, neighborhoods or an institution campus using GNIS place points: Double Trouble, Mount Misery, Sim Place, Smithville, Timbuctoo, Whitesbog and Ancora. The Double Trouble and Whitesbog place pins were also downgraded. GNIS named-place coordinates do not by themselves survey an individual building, excavation or incident spot.
  • Existing notes for Double Trouble, Smithville, Timbuctoo and Ancora were adjusted to match the locality designation. Other site pins with GNIS in the source note were left as sites where the mapped feature is a discrete landmark such as a mill, cemetery or lighthouse; their bases need individual review rather than a bulk change.