Description.
The Louisiana State Arthropod Museum (LSAM) is housed on the 5th
floor of the Life Sciences Building on the main campus of LSU. It is
part of the Department of Entomology and is a component collection
of the Louisiana Museum of Natural History. The LSAM contains
approximately 1,000,000 specimens of insects and related arthropods.
This includes 900,000 pinned, 18,000 fluid-preserved, and 30,000
slide-mounted specimens. Uncurated specimens in various stages of
processing vary through time from 50,000 to 100,000. The LSAM is the
principal repository for insects and related arthropods in
Louisiana. Significant strengths of the collection include
Coleoptera (51%) and Hemiptera (28%). Lepidoptera (6%), Diptera (6%)
and Hymenoptera (4%), and other orders (5%) make up the balance of
the collection. The collection contains 747 paratypes, 1 syntype, 1
allotype, and 1 holotype. Primary types described by LSAM
researchers are normally deposited in dedicated type repositories
(e.g., the U. S. National Museum, Field Museum of Natural History,
etc.). The majority of specimens are from southeastern United
States, and most of the remainder are from elsewhere in North
America, Mexico, Central and South America. Recent expeditions have
added specimens, mainly Coleoptera, from Ecuador and New
Zealand.
Busy day in the Coleoptera room
A searchable database of curated specimens is approximately 20%
complete. Specimen data are being captured
using Specify Software, a server based museum databasing
system developed at the University of Kansas with support from the
National Science Foundation. Our
current computerization priority is data capture related to current
research projects. Retroactive data capture will be accomplished as
data entry resources become available. Specimens are available for
loans to researchers following normal institutional loan guidelines
(contact the Curator for
details). Specialists are encouraged to borrow and identify
undetermined material in exchange for retention of duplicate
exemplars.
Growth.
The Life Sciences Building
opened in 1971 and the former director, Joan Chapin, who designed
the space, was told there would be expansion room within the next 10
years. However it was not until 25 years later, after Dr. Chapin
retired and Chris Carlton became director that additional space was
made available. During 1996 the LSAM expanded into a renovated adjacent
laboratory, which brought the total floor area to approximately 2000
ft2. During 1997 the LSAM received an enhancement grant from
the Louisiana Board of Regents that provided for the purchase of new
cabinetry, laboratory work benches, a microscope, and curatorial
equipment and supplies. As a result, we initiated a major new phase
of growth focusing on poorly represented habitats in Louisiana and
adjacent states and improving our collections of taxa from the
neotropical region that are relevant to the research interests of
the faculty and staff.
During Spring 2001, the long awaited Life Science Annex was
opened. The Rice Entomology lab moved into the new building and we
inherited their space. As a result the LSAM added 2000 ft2,
bringing our total floor space to approximately 4000 ft2.
Thanks to renovation funds from the LSU College of Agriculture and
Agricultural Center, we took down walls, opened new doorways, and
removed unecessary sinks and lab benches. We now have a modern,
spacious museum and research complex on par with any
university-based collection to go with our dedicated team of insect
systematists and conservation biologists.
The museum's current phase of growth has been fueled in large part
by specimens acquired during domestic fieldwork in Louisiana and
Great Smoky Mountains National Park
and recent foreign expeditions to Ghana, Ecuador, Costa Rica, and
New Zealand. We have also received significant contributions through
donations of private collections. Vernon Brou, an avocational insect collector in Abita Springs,
has donated approximately
180,000 specimens of Lepidoptera and other insects from his world renowned Lepidoptera collection. For several years we have also
received significant contributions of Odonata from William Mauffray,
of the International Odonata Research Institute in Gainesville, FL and
Gayle Strickland, local collector and expert insect photographer.
Service and research
emphasis. The
LSAM serves the public of the State of Louisana by providing
identifications of insects and related arthropods and serving as a
clearinghouse for information to homeowners, agriculturalists, and
educational institutions. Research conducted by LSAM scientists
focuses on systematics and comparative diversity of insects in
habitats throughout Louisiana, the adjacent Gulf Coastal Plain, the
southern Appalachian Mountains
and circum-Caribbean region. Specialized systematic projects of the
staff and students focus on Coleoptera on a global scale.
The greatest gap in understanding the insect fauna of
Louisiana is our ability to characterize diversity in natural
ecosystems, especially habitats within those systems that harbor
the great diversity of cryptic organisms that require specialized
techniques to collect and study. Many of our naturally occurring
forests, savannahs, and wetlands are in eminent danger of
disappearing before their diversity has even been adequately
characterized. We have initiated surveys of selected habitats in
Louisiana that are poorly represented in collections nationwide
to provide a more thorough representation of the insect
biodiversity in Louisiana. Major research projects funded
through a grants from the Louisiana Board
of Regents and the Louisiana Nature Conservancy have included surveys of insect faunas in longleaf pine
savannahs and mixed mesophytic hardwood forest in south
Louisiana. These habitats are critically endangered throughout
their limited ranges and are high on the list of priorities for
conservation managers in Louisiana. Work in Louisiana and
neighboring states has documented many beetle species that are
unique to these habitats and we are expanding these
investigations to include additional groups of arthropods of Louisiana. Much of
our regular insect inventory activities are conducted at our locally owned and
operated nature preserve, Feliciana
Preserve, approximately 30 miles north of Baton Rouge.
Past research has demonstrated that insect surveys can
influence decisions about preserving unique and endangered
habitats in the state. The unusual Trichoptera fauna of
Schoolhouse Springs in Jackson Parish was reviewed by John Morse
(Clemson University) and Cheryl Barr (University of California,
Berkeley), and a new species was described. The springs are the
type localities for five caddisfly and one stonefly species, and at
least 43 species of caddisflies have been captured in or beside
them. Cheryl Barr also worked with the Louisiana Nature
Conservancy and the Louisiana Natural Heritage Program on the
justification for the purchase and protection of this unique
aquatic insect habitat. We intend to expand this effort by
producing insect biodiversity data that can be incorporated into
decision making processes that identify and protect sensitive and
threatened components of Louisiana's environmental landscape.
The LSAM has been involved in the All Taxa Biodiversity Inventory (ATBI) at
Great Smoky Mountains National Park for seven years and now serves as a sorting center for Coleoptera specimens collecting in the park as part of that ambitious project (see
related web pages). New species and novel discoveries that have come to
light as a result of Coleoptera studies in the southeastern United States include
the description of a new species
of the fungus beetle family Endomychidae, the first description of the larva of the
erotylid beetle tribe Loberini and staphylinid tribe Mayetini. The Smokies project has
resulted in the discovery of an endemic species of flightless forest
litter-inhabiting chrysomelid leaf beetle, a new genus and species of pselaphine
staphylinid, new species in the families Staphylinidae, Cerylonidae, Leiodidae,
Carabidae, Mycetophagidae, and approximately 30 other species of beetles in various families
that are new to science.
Monitoring of the state fauna for newly introduced pest
species in collaboration with other members of the Department of
Entomology Faculty resulted in the documentation of several new
potential pests for the state since 1995. The hairy maggot
blowfly (Chrysomya rufifacies) is an Australasian species
that has become established in Louisiana via Texas. A neotropical
leaf-footed bug (Leptoglossus zonatus) was identified from Plaquemines Parish, where it was causing
economically significant damage to citrus. Monitoring and
specimen screening continues for the Mexican stalk borer (Eureoma
lofteni), which has entered the state's
southwestern sugarcane growing region from Texas. A project
funded by the University of California, Riverside was conducted
to survey for parasitoids of the sharpshooter leafhopper (Homalodisca
coagulata) in the Baton Rouge area in connection with
biological control efforts in California.
Monitoring for invasive pests in collaboration with other
faculty in the Department will remain a top priority for the LSAM
and may very well increase in importance with increasing economic
cooperation and trade between the U.S. and Latin America.
Moreover, if long range projections of a warming climate prove
correct, the number of neotropical species becoming established
in the southern U.S. will increase. These factors reinforce the
need for strong neotropical representation in the LSAM
collections.
Additional information
about the specialized interests of LSAM staff and students can be
found on their individual webpages.
