New beetles are discovered in the Smokys

The Mega Beetle Blitz delivers new beetle discoveries. chantalle@theheraldnewspapers.com New beetles were discovered in the Great Smoky Mountain National Park (GSMNP) during this year’s Mega Beetle Blitz. Dr. Vladamir Gusarov, Curator for the National History Museum at the University of Oslo, in Oslo, Norway, collected a new species of rove beetles from the genera Stenus and Dasycerus, near Mt. LeConte. Gusarov, a specialist in this beetle group, examined the beetles in the lab. He discovered they did not have the characteristics of any known, formally documented beetle species. Dr. Adriean Mayor, Curator for the GSMNP Museum, may have collected a new species of Reichenbachia, a pselaphine rove beetle. Further dissecting and studying needs to be done to confirm this is a new species. Two beetle species were found that are new records for the park, a darkling beetle and a large, long-horned beetle. The large long-horned beetle “is particularly significant because it belongs to a family of mainly large, showy beetles, indicating that even some obvious, large species are not fully documented for the project yet,” explains Christopher Carlton, Ph.D., Director of the Louisiana State Anthropod Museum, in Baton Rouge, LA. The 2006 Mega Beetle Blitz was the fifth Blitz conducted in the GSMNP, which started on June 14th. This Blitz was organized by scientists and volunteers representing the LSU Agricultural Center with funding from the National Science Foundation and logistical and organizational support from Discover Life in America and the National Park Service. Twenty-eight volunteers from all over the world, came to the GSMNP to collect, identify, and map distributions of the order Coleoptera, beetles, which are the largest order of insects in the park. The researchers set traps in many different areas of the park. The traps are made up of a battery powered black light, with a group of funnels and baited with fermented fruit juice or spoiled watermelon rind. The trap is designed to simulate a tree trunk and attract wood boring beetles. As the scientists found out during this Blitz, it also attracts bears. One of the traps was destroyed by a bear looking for food. The Blitz is a small part of a much larger project by Discover Life in America (DLIA). The All Taxa Biodiversity Inventory (ATBI) goal is to document every living organism in the GSMNP and be able to distribute information about each organism. There are an estimated 100,000 species in the park and DLIA is developing data, maps, and databases of each one to create natural history profiles of the different natural communities in the GSMNP. “This is important because the National Park Service is charged with protecting the diversity of life within park boundaries for future generations. This can only be done using a comprehensive and accurate database of species and ecological associations,” says Carlton. Carlton explained that biodiversity is important because, “As the dominant organism on Earth and the only one that extensively changes ecosystems to our advantage, we have a moral, ethical, and practical responsibility to proper stewardship of the Earth’s resources. Maintaining the natural diversity of ecosystems is the core task for ensuring the long term survival of ourselves and the organisms we share the Earth with. Without biodiversity the planet would be devoid of life. As such, conserving biodiversity is the most important human endeavor, to maintain integrity of our world, the only one we know of with life.” This was the last Beetle Blitz for this project. The next three years will be spent studying, cataloging, and databasing specimen already collected. Carlton and his colleagues will be working towards publishing a comprehensive guidebook to the beetles found in the Smoky Mountains. “It was a great success because with the help of so many dedicated volunteers and researchers we were able to cover many areas in the park where we had not previously surveyed,” says Carlton.