In the Section of Invertebrate Zoology, our scientists are doing important pest monitoring work in collaboration with the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) by helping identify pest specimens.
Non-native bark beetles and other wood-boring pests represent a significant threat to US forests. To rapidly identify and eradicate new pest species, the USDA traps insects around the country and sends the specimens to our museum for identification.
While digging through the extra insects accidentally caught in these traps (the “by-catch”), Bob Androw, one of the scientific preparators at Carnegie Museum of Natural history, recently discovered that a cocoon-forming beetle (Antibothrus morimotoi) from Japan has likely become established in the greater metropolitan area of Columbus, Ohio.
To date, this beetle appears innocuous but its biology remains largely unknown. Bob and his colleagues published their discovery this August in the journal Zootaxa.
