Scientists work to catalog beetles in Smokies

Researchers will search the Smokies this month to uncover and collect more species in the park’s third Beetle Blitz as part of the All Taxa Biodiversity Inventory, a project ongoing since 1998 to catalog every living thing in the park from plants and animals to micro-organisms.

Scientists will search different habitats such as high-elevation balds, dry slopes and cove hardwood forests during all times of the day.

“Some of the bigger beetles have already been found,” said Jeanie Hilten, administrative officer for Discover Life in America, the non-profit organization overseeing the inventory. “Now it’s a matter of finding more obscure species in more obscure locations.”

Overall, the inventory has identified 534 species new to science and 3,358 species that had never been documented in the Smokies.

Scientists believe there are about 6,000 different kinds of beetles in the park. That’s not surprising considering 365,000 species of beetles have been found in the world so far.

This summer’s collecting will include ants, crane flies and aphids.