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It''s a bug''s life: showcasing the national entomological collection.

Article Excerpt
The Agricultural Research Service (ARS) has staff at over 100 laboratories throughout the United States and overseas. But few people realize, when they visit the National Museum of Natural History (NMNH) at the Smithsonian Institution on The Mall in Washington, D.C., that ARS researchers are hard at work in laboratories there too. They're tucked away inside the museum, working on the National Collections of Insects and Mites.

Even people with scant knowledge of the study of insects would be impressed by what is to be found there. The bug collection may well be the largest in the world and serves as the primary repository for specimens of insects, mites, and spiders. It is rich not only in U.S. acquisitions, but also in materials from around the globe. The specimens range from a microscopic parasitic wasp to giant walkingsticks over a foot long from the wilds of Borneo.

This priceless collection houses more than 35 million specimens, including most of the insects important to agriculture. This size makes it especially significant as a research resource. The collection serves as a basis for identification of insect pest groups and invasive species. It is critical that entomologists understand biological diversity and relationships, make predictions about the possibility of the introduction of new pests to this country, and archive the very important records of past efforts.

The huge size of the NMNH collections dictates that some bug specimens be kept at ARS' Systematic Entomology Laboratory (SEL) in Beltsville, Maryland, and at the Smithsonian's Museum Support Center in Suitland, not far away.

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