Plant Protection Today: The Smithsonian Institution's Vast Insect Collection Is a Priceless Resource for USDA Pest Identifiers

(Cover Photo: These specimen drawers are an entomological treasure-trove that include an 1890 sample from Charles Valentine Riley, one of the first USDA entomologists and later the first insect curator for the Smithsonian. The inset image shows Riley’s specimen sample of grape phylloxera, a small aphid-like insect that attacks grape vine roots. USDA Photo by Armando Rosario-Lebron.)

PPQ and Smithsonian Staff Share in the Work and Rewards 

By Sharon Lucik

PPQ’s National Identification Services (NIS) staff use their specialized knowledge and skillset to identify plant pests quickly and accurately, which is essential to safeguard our Nation’s agricultural and natural resources. Recently, however, the NIS staff participated in another safeguarding effort where they used their brawn versus their brains.

A dozen NIS volunteers teamed up with USDA’s Agricultural Research Service Systematic Entomology Lab (SEL) and Smithsonian staff to move the Smithsonian Institution's national collections—mites, aphids, scale insects, thrips, and jumping plant lice—to USDA’s Beltsville Agricultural Research Campus Administration Building. The collections will be housed temporarily at this location until renovations of a new collections space are completed.

“Very carefully, our crew pushed handcarts loaded with hundreds of cabinets, shelves, and specimen boxes uphill and into the temporary space,” said NIS Assistant Director Andrew Brower. “Fortunately, the distance between the two buildings was manageable, and we were able to successfully relocate 4.5 million specimens and safely store them.”

The collections are a true national treasure, and contain some of USDA’s original plant pest voucher specimens from the 1800s. They also include numerous holotype specimens, which are the single physical specimens that anchor USDA scientists' collective research over the past 150 years. Most of the specimens are mounted on microscope slides or stored in dry or ethanol-filled vials.

“The Smithsonian’s insect collection is one of the largest and finest collections of its kind in the world,” Brower said. “In fact, without it our national taxonomists and SEL scientists would be significantly hampered to deliver timely and accurate identifications, especially when a rare and unusual pest is intercepted at a port of entry.”

As an example, when port inspectors intercept a pest in imported shipments, local identifiers quickly figure out what it is and whether it poses a risk to U.S. agriculture or the natural environment. Occasionally, however, these identifiers need to reach out to NIS staff for help. NIS’ National Taxonomists are experts in the fields of botany, entomology, malacology (study of mollusks) and mycology (study of fungi), and provide the final, authoritative identifications. After a pest is accurately identified, PPQ takes the necessary actions—such as treatments, re-export, or destruction—to keep invasive pests and diseases out of the country.

According to Brower, the USDA-Smithsonian relationship is long-standing and interdependent. Staff work closely with each other, leverage their respective resources, and mutually benefit.

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