Peru Expedition Advances NC State Insect Collection, Research

At first glance, the mound of dirt didn’t look like much. The NC State University researchers weren’t sure if it was worth the trek from Finca Las Piedras Research Station in southeast Peru — until, sitting in the dark amid the sounds of the Amazon rainforest, a tiny flicker of light caught Anna Blight Parker’s eye.

Parker, a doctoral student in entomology at NC State, knew exactly what she was looking at: a luminescent click beetle larva poking its head up from a termite mound. 

“An adult female of certain bioluminescent click beetle species will lay her eggs by a termite mound,” Parker says. “The larvae will hatch, climb up the termite mound, dig their own tunnels and then stick their heads out at night.”

Parker had seen click beetle larvae glow before, but only after finding them in logs and poking them to produce the bioluminescent response. This was the first time she had ever seen them spontaneously use bioluminescence to catch food.

“We could see all these little tiny green dots glowing in the dark,” she says. “Mosquitoes and winged termites are attracted to the light, and the larvae just grabbed them out of the air and had dinner.”

Parker — whose doctoral research focuses on bioluminescent click beetles, including behavior, spectral displays and life stage associations — gained valuable new field research skills and data this summer during an 18-day trip to Peru as part of a team from the Department of Entomology and Plant Pathology, led by Gareth Powell, assistant professor and director of the NC State Insect Collection. 

“It was a great experience,” Parker says.

A Hive of Possibilities 

Powell, who took the helm as director of the NC State Insect Collection in 2023, planned the trip to Peru with two goals in mind: to advance 16 research projects through the Powell Insect Evolution Lab and to collect specimens to establish a cryobank that will provide entomologists with high-quality genomic samples, offering richer data than DNA samples currently available through the collection’s dried specimens.

With traps set up at key locations throughout the Finca Las Piedras Research Station for the duration of the trip, Powell estimates the crew brought back around 20,000 specimens from which to build the insect collection’s cryobank and expand the variety of insects on display. 

“Because different insects come out when it’s hot, when it’s cold, when it’s rainy, when it’s dry, there was really no excuse no matter what the weather did, not to collect both key targets and also generally survey that part of the Amazon for specimens,” Powell says. “We always want to build our holdings across every group from across the world so that when something new shows up or a species from another country makes its way to North Carolina, we have a way to figure that out.”

In addition to Parker’s research on bioluminescent click beetles, Powell; Alli Duffy, assistant research professor in biological sciences, and Kyle Schnepp, curator for NC State’s insect collection, focused on gathering behavioral observations and specimens from a variety of beetles, including deathwatch beetles, a woodboring beetle known for sometimes infesting wood beams in old buildings, and sap beetles, which feed on sap and decaying vegetables. Kenneth Geisert, a master’s student in entomology, took advantage of the nearly 1,000 species of longhorn beetles in southeast Peru to advance his research on the insect’s behavioral mimicry.

Although not a longhorn beetle, Geisert and Powell say they were excited to discover dung beetles living among a huge colony of leaf-cutter ants. Geisert was equally impressed with the diversity of biomimicry among different species, such as a wasp leaf hopper that, at first glance, looked like the real thing.

“There are a lot of behavioral mimics that are lacking in the literature,” Geisert says. “So, part of the goal was to record behavioral mimicry in live insects and then then extract DNA from them to try to figure out how related everything is in relation to mimicry.” 

Buzzing With Momentum

Now back in Raleigh, Powell and his team will spend the next year or more organizing the specimens from Peru for inclusion in the cryobank, preparing others for display, and reviewing and logging their field data to further their research projects.

Geisert spent much of July sifting through longhorn beetle specimens, identifying and cataloging them, logging descriptions, and selecting some to put on display in the NC State Insect Collection, housed in Gardner Hall.

An added benefit of the field research is that the group has new context and stories to share with visitors to the collection, which is open to both researchers and the general public by appointment.

And while it’s always exciting when a specimen from the collection helps a researcher identify a new species of insect or a DNA trait, Geisert, Parker and Powell find it equally rewarding to welcome grade school teachers, high schoolers and families with young children who visit the collection for educational purposes or just for the creepy crawly factor.

“We had a group of teachers from Centennial Campus Middle School come this summer to visit,” Geisert says. “And there was a teacher who said if he had seen a collection like this when he was young, he might’ve been an entomologist, but it’s not something people think about.” 

Parker adds, “I really enjoy giving tours to teenagers because they just say what they’re thinking ​​— whether they’re creeped out or they love it. And I think they’re at a point in their lives where you can really make a difference.”

This post was originally published in College of Agriculture and Life Sciences News.