The rusty-patched bumble bee (“Bombus affinis”) found by a Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute research team. (Photos: Sam Droege)

The rusty-patched bumble bee (Bombus affinis), which has not been seen in the eastern United States in five years, has been found by a Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute research team at Sky Meadows State Park in Delaplane, Va. This formerly common bee has disappeared from 87 percent of its range in the Upper Midwest and Eastern Seaboard and is feared headed for extinction.

The research team, led by Bill McShea and Tom Akre of the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute and T’ai Roulston from the University of Virginia, surveyed bee populations at 17 Virginia sites from May through August to study the influence of land management on bee diversity. Only one individual of this now rare species was found among nearly 35,000 bees belonging to 126 species collected and examined by the study.

“We thought this bumble bee was extinct in this region,” McShea said. “Finding one bee, well this is the stuff conservationists live for. The decline of bee species is of great conservation concern and scientists are actively investigating potential causes to figure out what the culprit is. If we lose bees, we lose critically important pollinators.”

Nearly 70 percent of all flowering plants reproduce due to pollination by bees and other pollinators. In fact, about one third of the human food supply depends on insect pollination, most of which is accomplished by bees. Beyond agriculture, pollinators are keystone species in most terrestrial ecosystems. Fruits and seeds derived from insect pollination are a major part of the diet of approximately a quarter of all birds and mammals. However, many native bee pollinators are at risk due to habitat loss and fragmentation, climate change, pesticide use and introduced disease; and the status of many other species of native bee pollinators is unknown.

“In 20 years of studying bees, I have never seen a rusty-patched,” said Roulston. “Where there is a worker bee, there is a colony and maybe more than one. As they’ve gone underground for the winter, we can actively look for the colony next spring, and study them and what might be affecting the species. We’ve either found rusty-patched bumble bees that have developed a resistance or we’ve discovered one of the last colonies and will get one more glimpse before they disappear forever.”

The cause of the rusty-patched bumble bee’s decline is not known, but may be related to the accidental introduction of a virulent European fungus (Nosema bombi). Because the rusty-patched bumble bee is now so rare, there has been little opportunity to study what affects its populations. The fungus has been implicated in the sudden decline of several other species of bumble bee across the United States, including the American bumble bee (B. pensylvanicus), which the research team found at four private landowner sites during its surveys.

The rusty-patched bumble bee workers can be identified by a small rust-colored patch on the middle of their second abdominal segment. A number of surveys have been done across its historic range, but the rusty-patched bumble bee has not been found in most of its range since 2003.

In the case of this bee, the volunteer naturalists collected the specimens that were sorted and identified by University of Virginia staff based at Blandy Experimental Farm.

This research is part of Virginia Working Landscapes, a broad collaboration between the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute, government agencies and NGOs, and a consortium of landowners and citizen scientists. Virginia Working Landscapes links landowners interested in restoring or maintaining habitat with appropriate land management agencies and provides survey results so landowners can track their progress. The surveys are conducted in large part by citizen scientists from regional or state organizations, such as Virginia Master Naturalists, Virginia Native Plant Society and the National Audubon Society.

Virginia Working Landscapes is just one example of programs that involve “citizen scientists” in the collection of data for scientists studying wildlife. Concerned citizens who want to take action and help track and conserve North America’s bumble bees can participate in the Bumble Bee Watch. This collaborative project, led by the Xerces Society, allows participants to upload photos, use an interactive identification tool and submit geo-referenced records that will be used by scientists to follow these essential pollinators and inform effective conservation actions.

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This adult olinguito was photographed by George Cruzat the Tandaypa Hummingbird Sanctuary in the Choco area of Ecuador.

One year ago, the olinguito (Bassaricyon neblina) stepped out of the forest shadows into the spotlight and onto the pages of science—the first carnivore species in the Americas to do so in 35 years. However, while the discovery offered an official identity, the olinguito still remained a mammal of mystery. What exactly did it eat? How big was its range? And could it be possible, just possible, that a baby olinguito is even cuter than an adult?

The few photos and three seconds of grainy video the Smithsonian scientists had for the initial species description were not offering up many answers. Despite that, answers did come—not through new expeditions to the olinguito’s native cloud forests of Colombia and Ecuador, but through emails to the scientists from people living or vacationing in those areas.

While the olinguito (oh-lin-GHEE-toe) may look like a cross between a house cat and a teddy bear, it is actually the latest (and smallest) documented member of the family Procyonidae, which it shares with raccoons, coatis, kinkajous and olingos. The 2-pound olinguito, with its large eyes and woolly orange-brown fur, is also the newest species in the order Carnivora―an incredibly rare discovery in the 21st century.

This baby olinguito was found in a nest 40 feet above the ground in a large dead bromeliad tree. It was the only baby in the nest. (Photo by Juan Rendon taken at the Mesenia-Paramillo Nature Reserve in Colombia, courtesy Saving Species)

The global media coverage about the discovery in August 2013 acted like a starter’s pistol for the public and scientists. Now that people knew what an olinguito was, some began to be on the lookout for one, while others realized that they have been seeing them for years. The team immediately began receiving a steady flow of emails and messages from scientists and nonscientists with reports of possible olinguito sightings, photos of the creature, and anecdotes about behavior.

“Since day one of our announcement, information has poured in from people who have used their own skills as photographers and observers to learn more about this beautiful animal,” said Kristofer Helgen, curator of mammals at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History, who led the team that reported the discovery last year. “That’s great news for our team, and it reminds us that observant naturalists, all over the world, can make contributions to knowledge about the diversity of life on our planet.”

An olinguito in Tandayapa, Equador (Photo by Steve Blain)

With an almost 50/50 ratio of scientists to nonscientists contributing, the team used the olinguito’s first birthday as an occasion to review all the information that came in over the past 12 months.

“It’s kind of like looking at pictures of your growing child,” said Roland Kays, a zoologist at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences & N.C. State University. “You can see our knowledge about the species grow with every picture sent to us.”

While not every report or photo proved to be an olinguito, many were, helping Smithsonian scientists confirm plants that the olinguito ate, what types of trees it lived in, its nesting behavior, and yes, even confirming that a baby olinguito is cuter than an adult, thanks to photos taken by an employee in the Mesenia-Paramillo Reserve in the mountains of Colombia, now known as an important site for olinguito conservation.

This adult olinguito was a frequent visitor to a hummingbird feeder in Ecuador. (Photo by Gary and Karen Schiltz)

Another important aspect to this crowd sourcing method of research was mapping the olinguito’s range. While the team did have a handful of records from decades old museum specimens, and field sightings of their own from 2006, they did not have the capacity to scan large swaths of cloud forest habitat in northern South America. But now local citizens, vacationers, and scientists doing other fieldwork in the area provided an expansive network of eyes, ears and cameras. With each validated report of an olinguito sighting, the team was able to mark the locations on a map, at times confirming the animal’s existence in areas they had suspected it to be, but also illuminating new areas, thereby expanding the team’s understanding of the olinguito’s native range.

Initial hopes that the olinguito might serve as a charismatic ambassador for the conservation of dwindling Andean cloud forest habitats may be bearing fruit.

“The olinguito has sprung from obscurity to become a local celebrity, and just finding that it survives in a forest can help raise the profile of the importance of that particular swath of land.” said Kays. “The person who informed us of olinguitos in the Mesenia-Paramillo Reserve of Colombia, for example, has helped raise funds to place more forest under protection, helping not only olinguitos, but also other wildlife in these diverse forests.”

This baby olinguito was found in a nest 40 feet above the ground in a large dead bromeliad tree. (Photo by Juan Rendon taken at the Mesenia-Paramillo Nature Reserve in Colombia, courtesy Saving Species)

Even though the public’s participation in the team’s olinguito research was initially unexpected, the scientists want to intentionally keep it going. “Citizen science” is increasingly employed in research programs, mostly however in urban or suburban settings. The team has now seen what a valuable tool it can be even in the dense cloud forests of Latin America.

There is much that scientists still hope to learn about olinguitos. Last year, the Smithsonian team reported the discovery of four different subspecies of olinguito, each distributed in different areas of the Andes. But so far, new information about only two of these subspecies has come to light.

“The more public participation in answering these questions, the better,” said Helgen. “What information will turn up next? I can’t wait to see what year two will bring.” –John Gibbons

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Authoritative, intelligent and always accompanied by a young assistant, television’s Mr. Wizard brought science to America’s kids from the 1950s through 1980s with experiments using household items like eggs, balloons and coffee cans. While many may remember him from his 1980s program on Nickelodeon, Mr. Wizard’s career spanned decades. Now an important piece of Mr. Wizard has come to the Smithsonian.

This month a trove of personal papers, files and other items belonging to the late Don Herbert—Mr. Wizard—was acquired by the Archives Center of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C. The materials, a donation from Herbert’s daughter and son-in-law, Kristen and Tom Nikosey, will be conserved and organized by the Smithsonian’s Archives Center and are permanently available to researchers interested in Mr. Wizard and his place in American history. “The Mr. Wizard collection reveals how Herbert planned meticulously to share science with the rest of the country through children. His shows were aimed at children to really get them interested in science, and it worked,” Smithsonian Archivist Craig Orr explains.

Donald Jeffry Herbert (1917-2007) was creator and host of “Watch Mr. Wizard” (1951-1965), “Mr. Wizard,” (1971-1972) and “Mr. Wizard’s World” (1983-1990), popular television programs for children that demonstrated and explained basic principles of science and technology. “In the early 1950s Herbert used the relatively new medium of television to spread the word about science and capture imaginations,” Orr says.  “Mr. Wizard introduced a lot of people to science in an entertaining, informative way.”

Don Herbert, with a young assistant, exhibiting an example of “Living Animal Fossils” on “Mr. Wizard” in 1971.

Cool and always calm, “Watch Mr. Wizard” flickered into America’s living rooms at a critical time when science was driving many aspects of people’s lives. “The atom bomb had been developed and deployed in 1945, about six years before Mr. Wizard went on the air,” Orr says. “America was in a science race with the Soviet Union. When Sputnik, the first satellite, was launched it scared the heck out of everybody in America. People worried if we were scientifically prepared to keep up with the Russians.” Herbert’s TV show helped assuage some of those fears and went on to spark many new scientific careers. Part of Mr. Wizard’s appeal was that he never addressed a TV audience, but talked to a young boy or girl assistant whom he hosted in his studio. “This show was aimed at children but it wasn’t talking down to them, it wasn’t made all fun and giggles,” Orr says.

“As with other TV shows at the time—say Daniel Boone or Davy Crockett—Mr. Wizard had his own fan clubs,” Orr continues. “Instead of just wearing coonskin caps, kids around the country would gather and recreate experiments they had seen on TV. It was really a hands-on experience.”

Herbert’s collection at the National Museum of American History consists of material that documents his entire career as a science educator from 1951 through the mid-1980s. At its core are some six cubic feet of more than 500 files prepared for “Watch Mr. Wizard” that document the meticulous care and preparation Herbert put into each episode. Each file—one per episode—contains Herbert’s notes for the show; the day’s script; black and white photographs taken during rehearsals to plan the experiment; diagrams on graph paper of where he and his young assistants would stand and move; and notes about technical needs, such as lighting and equipment. (The original 1-inch films and kinescopes of the show were deposited with the UCLA Film and Television Archives several years ago.)

Herbert’s files also contain his research notes on the science being demonstrated. “Herbert prided himself on his scientific acumen and consulted with academics to ensure he got it right,” Orr says.

Many of Herbert’s other educational activities are equally well-documented. There are scripts for radio science shows he produced in Chicago in 1946 and1947, before he hit it big with Mr. Wizard; storyboards and film reels of the “Progress Reports” he did for the General Electric Theater; and notebooks and files relating to the 1983-1990 revival of his show on Nickelodeon, among other materials. Herbert’s papers and personal files are important to the National Museum of American History, in part, because of his relevance to other disciplines at the museum: the Physical Sciences and Chemistry collections; the Division of Medicine and Science; and the Division of Work and Industry.

“The American History Museum was originally founded as the National Museum of History and Technology. For the first 25 years our core collections were the history of technology, and technology is basically science based, so there is a strong interest in science in this museum. We don’t just collect inventions and gadgets but also information on how those things impact the wider American culture and American society,” Orr explains. –by John Barrat

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A new species of mite discovered recently in Ohio is so tiny that it lives in the space between particles in sandy, impoverished soils. Despite its dragon-like appearance, Osperalycus tenerphagus is a vulnerable creature and, out of necessity, a recluse.

“These mites are seldom found in soil with high organic content. This is probably because more things live there, including competitors and predators,” says Samuel Bolton, the entomologist who discovered the mite. They do better in adverse habitats where there are few other organisms, even others of its kind. Because these mites abstain from sex, “there is no reason for them to look for mates,” Bolton says

The front end of “Osperalycus tenerphagus” showing three of its legs and the unusual structure of its skin. (Low-temperature scanning electron microscope image courtesy Samuel Bolton and Gary Bauchan of the Agricultural Research Service, USDA)

One millimeter or less in length, the tiny wormlike mites of the family Nematalycidae (to which O. tenerphagus belongs) have most likely abstained from sex for a very long time. “Perhaps tens or even hundreds of millions of years, it appears,” suggests Bolton, a fellow at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History and researcher at Ohio State. They have genitals, “but they seem to have evolved as an all-female lineage. No mating. They lay eggs that don’t need to be fertilized,” Bolton adds.

No male O. tenerphagus has ever been found.

“The Nematalycidae are likely very old,” Bolton observes. “They probably co-existed with the dinosaurs and could date as far back as 400 million years.” Microscopic and extremely slow moving, these bizarre-looking arachnids—cousin to ticks and spiders—are found worldwide. And they may have spread without crossing an ocean. Basically, Bolton explains, they could have dispersed through the soils of the world during the Triassic, when the continents were connected as one large supercontinent.

“Osperalycus tenerphagus,” a new mite discovered in Ohio. (Low-temperature scanning electron microscope image courtesy Samuel Bolton and Gary Bauchan of the Agricultural Research Service, USDA)

Bolton discovered O. tenerphagus in soil just across the road from his lab at Ohio State in Columbus in 2010. “It was just a case of wondering one day ‘What’s out in my backyard?’” he says. His paper describing this bizarre new species was published recently in the Journal of Natural History.

The mite moves like a worm, “kind of like a miniature accordion,” Bolton explains. “They contract with longitudinal muscles then extend forward with elastic energy and hydraulic pressure. Their skin (called integument) resembles chain-mail covered in tiny palettes, which lock together when O. tenerphagus is contracted. It has eight legs like other arachnids.

Probably the oddest thing about O. tenerphagus is its mouth. Its name Osperalycus essentially means “purse/bag mouth.” Tenerphagus means “tender feeder.”

Bolton has never seen one eat but he describes the mouth as “a vessel that sort of sticks out—like if you had a pot in front of your mouth attached to your lower lip. It is likely that they put their food in it.”

Delicate bacteria and other fluid-filled organisms go into this vessel, gently collected by hair-like structures on the mite’s limbs nearest its mouthparts, Bolton surmises. “Because these mites are fluid feeders, if their food is ruptured before it gets into the mouth then the fluid is lost. So they must be very gentle.” Once filled, a structure like a straw connected to the mite’s esophagus is stuck into the mouth vessel and sucks up the fluid.

–John Barrat

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Scientists from the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History have just named and described the Spectacular Guyane False-form beetle, or Guyanemorpha spectabilis, from Guyane (French Guiana). As its name suggests, the newly discovered species stands out among its dull relatives in the Western Hemisphere, with its great size and beautiful coloration. The study was published in the open access journal ZooKeys.

The Spectacular Guyane False-form beetle, or Guyanemorpha spectabilis, from French Guiana. (Photo Credit: Karolyn Darrow)

“This surprising large and colorful pseudomorphine came as a shock to me, as all other species of the Tribe in the Western Hemisphere are quite dull brown, dark reddish, or blackish with no, or little, color contrast on the upper surface,” explains author Terry L. Erwin, a Smithsonian entomologist. “In the world of entomology this new species can be only compared in its rare characteristics to the Olinguito, a new carnivore species which charmed the world and was just recently described by Kris Helgen in ZooKeys,” he added.

The new species belongs to the Pseudomorphini Tribe, famous for the co-existence of its representatives with various ant species. Members of G. spectabilis occur at lowland rainforest sites in French Guiana and are accordingly most likely to live with ants, although at present nothing is known about their way of life.

“The pseudomorphines are a very interesting evolutionary off-shoot of the normal carabid morphotype in both form and function and are only just now beginning to be understood in North America,” explains Erwin, and his Intern, Lauren Amundson.”The fact that species of related genera in South America are living with arboreal ants will make learning about them far more difficult. Insecticidal fogging gets adults of these species, but only tearing apart arboreal Azteca ant nests while suspended in a tree will produce their larvae, and that is not for carabidologists who are faint of heart,”. –Source: Pensoft Publishers

Original Source:

Erwin TL (2013) Beetles that live with ants (Coleoptera, Carabidae, Pseudomorphini): A remarkable new genus and species from Guyane (French Guiana), Guyanemorpha spectabilis gen. n, sp. n.. ZooKeys 358: 11. doi:10.3897/zookeys.358.6298

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A joint research initiative carried out by scientists from the Smithsonian Institution, Saint Louis University and the Universidad de Los Andes in Venezuela, has resulted in the discovery of an exciting new species from the daisy family. Two expeditions in the paramos high up in the Venezuelan Andes were crowned by the discovery of the beautiful and extraordinary, Coespeletia palustris. The study was published in the open access journal Phytokeys.

This photo shows the beautiful inflorescence of “Coespeletia palustris.” (Photos by Luis “Kike” Gámez)

The species of the genus Coespeletia are typical for high elevations and six of seven described species in total are endemic to the heights of the Venezuelan Andes; the 7th species comes from northern Colombia, but needs further revision according to the authors of the study. Most of the species are restricted to very high elevations, in a range between 3800–4800 meters. The specifics of such habitat are believed to be the reason behind the peculiar and unrepeated pollen characteristics of the genus. This new species Coespeletia palustris, is found in a few marshy areas of the paramo, and is endemic to the Venezuelan Andes. Páramo can refer to a variety of alpine tundra ecosystems, and is often described with its geographical confinements in the Andes. The páramo is the ecosystem of the regions above the continuous forest line, yet below the permanent snowline.

“Coespeletia palustris” growing in a marshy habitat.

“Even after decades of studies and collections in the paramos, numerous localities remain unstudied,” explains Mauricio Diazgranados of the Department of Botany at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C. “The new species described in this paper is called “palustris” because of the marshy habitat in which it grows. High elevation marshes and wetlands are among the ecosystems which are most impacted by climate change. Therefore this species may be at a certain risk of extinction as well.”

–Source: Pensoft Publishers

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Sometime during the Middle Eocene a prehistoric mosquito slurped down a final blood meal then died and sank to the bottom of a pond in what is now northwestern Montana. Slowly covered in fine sediments it eventually became encased and compressed in a protective layer of shale. Now, that mosquito and its blood-filled abdomen are providing scientists stunning new evidence that blood molecules can be preserved through deep time—in this case 46 million years.

Using a scanning electron microscope and mass spectrometry a team of scientists led by Dale Greenwalt of the Department of Paleobiology at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History, discovered iron and porphyrin molecules from the mosquito’s last supper very much intact inside the fossil. Porphyrin is a large planar molecule that binds iron and oxygen in the blood.

This image is a microscope photograph of a piece of shale from the Kishenehn Formation in northwestern Montana containing the fossil of a blood-engorged mosquito. Scientists from the Smithsonian and the Natural History Museum in London have discovered biomolecules from the blood in the mosquito’s abdomen that have been preserved for 46 million years.

Other members of the research team included Yulia Goreva, Sandra Siljeström and Tim Rose of the Department of Mineral Sciences at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History, and Ralph Harbach of the Department Life Sciences of the Natural History Museum, London. Their paper on the discovery appeared in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences today on Monday, Oct. 14.

“This is the only known fossil of a blood engorged mosquito ever found and represents the first clear evidence that some organic molecules can be preserved in a fossil of this age,” Greenwalt explains.

To detect the molecules the team first used a scanning electron microscope equipped with an energy-dispersive X-ray spectrometer to identify various elements in the fossil. They located large amounts of iron specifically in the mosquito’s abdomen.

“Having found the iron we asked ourselves: Can we find the prophyrin molecule?” Greenwalt says. For that the team used a Time-of-Flight secondary ion mass spectrometer and “we readily found a very beautiful spectrum–a specific fingerprint–for the prophyrin molecule. The signal we obtained was very indicative of the presence of the two together—iron and prophyrin—one bound to the other in the unmistakable signature of blood.” This is the first time that this particular organic molecule has ever been definitively identified and localized in a fossil.

Smithsonian paleobiologist Dale Greenwalt holds a piece of shale from the Kishenehn Formation in northwestern Montana containing the fossil of a blood-engorged mosquito. He and his colleagues from the Smithsonian and the Natural History Museum in London discovered biomolecules from the blood in the mosquito’s abdomen that have been preserved for 46 million years. (Photo by James DiLoreto)

“We made the assumption that genetic material like DNA has not been preserved,” Greenwalt says. “We didn’t even attempt to look at it because DNA is a very liable molecule that degrades quickly.” Still, he says, this discovery opens a door to further exploration. “Without question there are probably other things contained in this fossil. We just don’t know what they might be.”

The Kishenehn Formation in northwestern Montana is unique in that it exhibits a spectacular preservation of very tiny insects like mosquitoes. Earlier this year Harbach and Greenwalt described and named two new species of mosquito—long since extinct—from this formation because their tiny body parts—wing veins, sexual organs, scales and hair-like structures on the wings—had been exquisitely preserved. Those mosquitoes were in the genus Culiseta which today feed mainly on birds, Greenwalt says. “But we have no way of knowing what the host for this blood-engorged mosquito was.”

“One of the other characteristics of insects from the Kishenehn Formation that is preserved quite often is color,” Greenwalt adds. “We have yellow insects and red insects and orange insects.”

Dale Greenwalt, left, and Tim Rose of the Department of Mineral Sciences at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History, use an energy-dispersive X-ray spectrometer to study the blood deposits in the fossil of a prehistoric mosquito. (Photo by James DiLoreto)

What conditions permit such exquisite preservation? “We don’t know but we are studying it,” Greenwalt says. The Montana climate was much warmer then—wet subtropical to tropical. “You can imagine when you think of a blood engorged mosquito, the abdomen is just blown up like a balloon and it is very fragile. If it hits water, it hits land, it hits anything, the first thing that’s going to burst would be that abdomen. Obviously the conditions that allow for such preservation are very unique and very unusual.”

“This fossilized female mosquito is an incredibly rare find,” says co-author Ralph Harbach of the Natural History Museum, London. “For it to have died immediately after feeding and be preserved without disruption to its fragile distended blood-filled belly means that we have a unique opportunity to study whether complex molecules, such as hemoglobin, can survive tens of millions of years.

“Our findings are a tantalizing glimpse into the past, not only helping us to better understand the evolution of blood-feeding in insects, but also opening up the possibility that other complex molecules, under the right conditions, might also be preserved through time.”

Known as haematophagy, blood-feeding occurs in roughly 14,000 insect species known today, including fleas and mosquitoes. Although this feeding strategy appears to have evolved independently across a variety of animals, fossil evidence of this behavior is extremely rare. This find extends the fossil record of blood-feeding to 46 million years.

• PNAS Article #13-10885: Hemoglobin-derived porphyrins preserved in a Middle Eocene blood-engorged mosquito, by Dale Greenwalt, Yulia Goreva, Sandra Siljeström, Tim Rose, and Ralph E. Harbach

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Scientists at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute’s Center for Conservation and Evolutionary Genetics have confirmed that the giant panda cub born at the National Zoo on Aug. 23 is a girl. A paternity analysis revealed that the Zoo’s panda Tian Tian is the cub’s father. Scientists also confirmed the second, stillborn cub Mei Xiang delivered on Aug. 24 was female and sired by Tian Tian as well.

A small laboratory container holds extract from a cheek swab of the Zoo’s giant panda cub.

Zoo scientists used two tests to confirm the sex of both cubs. The first test was developed by scientists in China and analyzes a fragment of the zinc finger protein gene. The second test, also using a shorter fragment of the same zinc finger protein gene, was developed by Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute scientists and veterinarians. They used the second test to verify the results of the initial test.

For the paternity tests they compared genotype profiles of DNA samples from the cubs to profiles from Mei Xiang, Tian Tian and the San Diego Zoo’s giant panda Gao Gao. SCBI’s Center for Conservation and Evolutionary Genetics had blood samples from Mei Xiang, Tian Tian and Gao Gao on hand. They compared a small sample of muscle tissue from the stillborn cub and a tiny sample of cheek cells from the cub born on August 23 to the adult male pandas’ DNA samples for the tests. Veterinarians obtained the cheek cell sample with a swab during a preliminary health check on August 25.

Tian-Tian, father of the new cub

“The genetics laboratory conducts conservation research and service for the Zoo and the entire Smithsonian, including sexing animals, determining paternity and disease testing,” said Rob Fleischer, head of the Center for Conservation and Evolutionary Genetics. “This was a great opportunity to assist our reproductive and panda biologist colleagues to assess their artificial insemination methods in pandas.”

Mei Xiang was artificially inseminated twice on March 30 after natural breeding attempts with the Zoo’s male giant panda Tian Tian were unsuccessful. A team of Zoo scientists and veterinarians, including Tang Chunxiang, the assistant director and chief veterinarian of the China Conservation and Research Center for the Giant Panda at Wolong, performed the artificial inseminations. During the first procedure she was artificially inseminated with a combination of fresh and frozen semen collected from Tian Tian. The frozen semen was from 2003. The second procedure was performed with frozen semen collected from Tian Tian in 2003 and frozen semen collected from Gao Gao in 2003.

“We had never artificially inseminated Mei Xiang with semen from two males before this past breeding season,” said Pierre Comizzoli, reproductive biologist at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute. “If Gao Gao had been the father of one or both cubs, that would have been very interesting because we would have known that the second artificial insemination was the one that was successful.”   Source: The National Zoo

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The main mass of a rare meteorite that exploded over California’s Sierra foothills in April 2012 will be preserved for current and future scientific discoveries, thanks to the collaborative efforts of five U.S. academic institutions.

It has found a permanent home divided among the University of California, Davis; the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C.; American Museum of Natural History in New York City; The Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago; and Arizona State University in Tempe. Together, the institutions have successfully acquired the biggest known portion of the Sutter’s Mill meteorite.

The main mass of the rare Sutter’s Mill meteorite before the Smithsonian Institution cut it and divided among five academic institutions: the Smithsonian Institution, American Museum of Natural History, The Field Museum of Chicago, Arizona State University and UC Davis. The 205 gram mass is the largest stone recovered from the meteorite that exploded over California’s Sierra foothills in April 2012. (Smithsonian Institution photo)

The meteorite is considered to be one of the rarest types to hit the Earth — a carbonaceous chondrite containing cosmic dust and presolar materials that helped form the planets of the solar system.

Its acquisition signifies enhanced research opportunities for each institution and ensures that future scientists can study the meteorite for years to come.

“With these museums and institutions storing the meteorite’s main mass, it leaves it in a pristine condition to preserve for future generations to study,” said UC Davis geology professor Qing-zhu Yin. “Fifty or 100 years from now, we may have new technology that will enable later generations to revisit the meteorite and do research we haven’t thought of. This gives us a better chance to realize the full scientific value of the meteorite, rather than have it be just a collector’s item.”

The meteorite formed about 4.5 billion years ago. While it fell to Earth roughly the size of a minivan before exploding as a fireball, less than 950 grams have been found. Its main mass weighs just 205 grams (less than half a pound) and is about the size of a human palm.

This X-ray CT scan of the Sutter’s Mill meteorite fall shows the cutlines for the five institutions: University of California at Davis, California (cyan 5%), Arizona State University in Tempe, Arizona (yellow 13%), the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C. (red 32%), American Museum of Natural History in New York City (green 34%), and The Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago (blue 16%).

The main mass was X-rayed by CT scan at the UC Davis Center for Molecular and Genomic Imaging. This was the first time a meteorite acquisition was CT scanned before its division among a consortium of institutes, allowing prior knowledge of each piece’s contents. Then it was cut into five portions, reflective of each institution’s investment, before being delivered to the institutions.

The portion of the main mass acquired by each institution includes:

• American Museum of Natural History: 34 percent
• Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Natural History: 32 percent
• The Field Museum of Natural History: 16 percent
• Arizona State University: 13 percent
• UC Davis: 5 percent

The main mass of the rare Sutter’s Mill meteorite after the Smithsonian Institution cut it and divided among five academic institutions. (Smithsonian Institution photo)

When the meteorite landed near Sutter’s Mill, the gold discovery site that sparked the California Gold Rush, it spurred a scientific gold rush of sorts, with researchers, collectors and interested citizens scouring the landscape for fragments of meteorite. The institutions that have acquired the main mass were among those that acted on this rare scientific opportunity to gain insights about the origins of life and the formation of the planets.

At UC Davis, for instance, the meteorite fell just 60 miles east of the main campus. Yin immediately traveled to the site with students and colleagues, looking for specimens and reaching out to the public to provide meteorite donations for science. He confirmed for the original discoverer of the main mass that it was carbonaceous chondrite. Yin and his UC Davis colleagues have also X-rayed the meteorite and determined its age and chemical composition.

“It just happened in our backyard,” said Yin. “I felt obligated to do something, and I still do.”

Involvement from the other institutions included:

• The American Museum of Natural History worked closely with Yin to secure specimens of the Sutter’s Mill meteorite right after its fall, and performed nondestructive computed tomography (CT) scans of several specimens kindly loaned by their finders. These scans were used to determine the density of several samples to very high accuracy, confirming the type of meteorite represented by Sutter’s Mill.
• The Field Museum of Natural History found several presolar stardust grains in two smaller pieces of the meteorite donated by private collector Terry Boudreaux. Presolar stardust grains are the oldest solid samples available to any lab and are essentially time capsules from before the solar system formed 4.6 billion years ago.
• Arizona State University’s Meenakshi Wadhwa, director of the Center for Meteorite Studies, was contacted by Robert Haag, the private collector who owned the main mass. She then contacted the other institutions to initiate its joint acquisition.
• The Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History prepared the meteorite for study by dividing the chondrite using high-precision thin-blade saws. The sample preparation plan was designed to maximize available material for research. The divided chondrite was then distributed to each institution for further analysis..

Last spring, UC Davis alumnus Gregory Jorgensen and donor Sandy VanderPol provided nearly 3 grams of the Sutter’s Mill meteorite to Yin’s lab at UC Davis. Those 3 grams allowed UC Davis to learn the meteorite’s age and chemical composition. The university’s recent acquisition of another 10 grams of the main mass will allow for even further research, including searching for presolar grains and performing isotopic analysis. –Source: UC Davis

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Observed in the wild, tucked away in museum collections, and even exhibited in zoos around the world―there is one mysterious creature that has been a victim of mistaken identity for more than 100 years. A team of Smithsonian scientists, however, uncovered overlooked museum specimens of this remarkable animal, which took them on a journey from museum cabinets in Chicago to cloud forests in South America to genetics labs in Washington, D.C. The result: the olinguito (Bassaricyon neblina)―the first carnivore species to be discovered in the American continents in 35 years. The team’s discovery is published in the Aug. 15 issue of the journal ZooKeys.

A team, led by Smithsonian scientist Kristofer Helgen, spent 10 years examining hundreds of museum specimens and tracking animals in the wild in the cloud forests of Ecuador. The result―the newest species of mammal known to science, the olinguito (Bassaricyon neblina) (Photo by Mark Gurney)

The olinguito (oh-lin-GHEE-toe) looks like a cross between a house cat and a teddy bear. It is actually the latest scientifically documented member of the family Procyonidae, which it shares with raccoons, coatis, kinkajous and olingos. The 2-pound olinguito, with its large eyes and woolly orange-brown fur, is native to the cloud forests of Colombia and Ecuador, as its scientific name, “neblina” (Spanish for “fog”), hints. In addition to being the latest described member of its family, another distinction the olinguito holds is that it is the newest species in the order Carnivora―an incredibly rare discovery in the 21st century.

“The discovery of the olinguito shows us that the world is not yet completely explored, its most basic secrets not yet revealed,” said Kristofer Helgen, curator of mammals at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History and leader of the team reporting the new discovery. “If new carnivores can still be found, what other surprises await us? So many of the world’s species are not yet known to science. Documenting them is the first step toward understanding the full richness and diversity of life on Earth.”

The olinguito (Bassaricyon neblina) came close to being discovered several times during the past century and was even exhibited in zoos. For example, this female olinguito lived in various zoos in the U.S. decades ago. The problem was a case of mistaken identity, which was solved with a decade of detective work by Smithsonian scientist Kristofer Helgen and his team, resulting in the description of a new species. (Photo by I. Poglayen-Neuwall)

Discovering a new species of carnivore, however, does not happen overnight. This one took a decade, and was not the project’s original goal―completing the first comprehensive study of olingos, several species of tree-living carnivores in the genus Bassaricyon, was. Helgen’s team wanted to understand how many olingo species should be recognized and how these species are distributed―issues that had long been unclear to scientists. Unexpectedly, the team’s close examination of more than 95 percent of the world’s olingo specimens in museums, along with DNA testing and the review of historic field data, revealed existence of the olinguito, a  previously undescribed species.

The first clue came to Helgen from the olinguito’s teeth and skull, which were smaller and differently shaped than those of olingos. Examining museum skins revealed that this new species was also smaller overall with a longer and denser coat; field records showed that it occurred in a unique area of the northern Andes Mountains at 5,000 to 9,000 feet above sea level―elevations much higher than the known species of olingo. This information, however, was coming from overlooked olinguito specimens collected in the early 20th century. The question Helgen and his team wanted to answer next was: Does the olinguito still exist in the wild?

To answer that question, Helgen called on Roland Kays, director of the Biodiversity and Earth Observation Lab at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences, to help organize a field expedition.

The olinguito is so far known only from cloud forest habitats in Colombia and Ecuador, but future investigations might show that it occurs in similar habitats in other South American countries.

“The data from the old specimens gave us an idea of where to look, but it still seemed like a shot in the dark,” Kays said. “But these Andean forests are so amazing that even if we didn’t find the animal we were looking for, I knew our team would discover something cool along the way.”

The team had a lucky break that started with a camcorder video. With confirmation of the olinguito’s existence via a few seconds of grainy video shot by their colleague Miguel Pinto, a zoologist in Ecuador, Helgen and Kays set off on a three-week expedition to find the animal themselves. Working with Pinto, they found olinguitos in a forest on the western slopes of the Andes, and spent their days documenting what they could about the animal―its characteristics and its forest home. Because the olinguito was new to science, it was imperative for the scientists to record every aspect of the animal. They learned that the olinguito is mostly active at night, is mainly a fruit eater, rarely comes out of the trees and has one baby at a time.

In addition to body features and behavior, the team made special note of the olinguito’s cloud forest Andean habitat, which is under heavy pressure of human development. The team estimated that 42 percent of historic olinguito habitat has already been converted to agriculture or urban areas.

The olinguito mainly eats fruit, but may also eat some insects and nectar. (Photo by Mark Gurney)

“The cloud forests of the Andes are a world unto themselves, filled with many species found nowhere else, many of them threatened or endangered,” Helgen said. “We hope that the olinguito can serve as an ambassador species for the cloud forests of Ecuador and Colombia, to bring the world’s attention to these critical habitats.”

While the olinguito is new to science, it is not a stranger to people. People have been living in or near the olinguito’s cloud forest world for thousands of years. And while misidentified, specimens have been in museums for more than 100 years, and at least one olinguito from Colombia was exhibited in several zoos in the United States during the 1960s and 1970s. There were even several occasions during the past century when the olinguito came close to being discovered but was not. In 1920, a zoologist in New York thought an olinguito museum specimen was so unusual that it might be a new species, but he never followed through in publishing the discovery.

Giving the olinguito its scientific name is just the beginning. “This is the first step,” Helgen said. “Proving that a species exists and giving it a name is where everything starts. This is a beautiful animal, but we know so little about it. How many countries does it live in? What else can we learn about its behavior? What do we need to do to ensure its conservation?” Helgen is already planning his next mission into the clouds.

****OLINGUITO FACTS****

The olinguito is the smallest member of the raccoon family. It has thick, woolly fur that is denser and more colorful (orange or reddish brown) than its closest relatives, the olingos. Its head and body length is 14 inches long (355 mm), plus a tail 13-17 inches in length (335-425 mm), and it weighs 2 pounds (900 grams). Males and females are similar in size.

DIET:     The olinguito mainly eats fruit, but may also eat some insects and nectar.

BEHAVIOR:     These solitary animals live in trees and are mostly nocturnal. It is an adept jumper that can leap from tree to tree in the forest canopy. Mothers raise a single baby at a time.

HABITAT:     The olinguito is found only in cloud forests of the northern Andes Mountains

RANGE:     Ecuador and Colombia, at high elevations  (5,000 to 9,000 feet above sea level).

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Rope, golf balls, sweat pants, bottles and aluminum cans are a few of the discarded items biologist Matt Klope says he has found inside the stomachs of the dead whales he has helped necropsy over the years in and around Puget Sound, Washington. A necropsy is a common procedure done to determine an animal’s cause of death and take blood, skin, blubber and organ samples.

Laid out on the floor of the Marine Mammal Collection building at the Garber Facility in Suitland, Md., the recently acquired skeleton of a gray whale is a much welcome addition. The large skull at left is from a fin whale stranded at Cape Hatteras. Standing from left are Maya Yamato, Museum Specialist John Ososky, Charlie Potter and Marine Mammal Curator James Meade. (Photo by Don Hurlbert)

“They all have plastic in their stomachs, every one of them,” Klope says of California gray whales in particular. “Gray whales are bottom feeders. They don’t feed in the mid-water column but take bites out of the ocean floor and then filter it. So anything that’s on the floor they eat, and that includes a lot of plastic.”

Despite this, gray whales have made a remarkable comeback in California, says Klope, a member of the Central Puget Sound Marine Mammal Stranding Network. “They were endangered years ago but today gray whales are plentiful. They are everywhere up and down the West Coast. We get many reports of dead ones.” So Klope was shocked, he says, when he learned the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C., did not have a California gray whale skeleton in its research collection.

A team of volunteers prepares to salvage the skeleton of a gray whale on Whidbey Island in April 2012. (Photo by M.J. Adams)

“One of our goals for many, many years has been to acquire the complete skeleton of a California gray whale,” says Charles Potter, Collection Manager of the Natural History’s Marine Mammal collection. “The problem has always been, of course, getting a massive whale shipped here from the West Coast either unprepared, which would mean we’d have to freeze it, or as a clean skeleton.”

Klope, who is also manager of the Bird Strike Prevention Program for aircraft at the Whidbey Island Naval Air Station, has been shipping bird specimens to Carla Dove in the Natural History Museum’s Ornithology Department for many years. He was sensitive to the museum’s need for research specimens, no matter how large they may be. “I’ll take care of it,” he told Potter.

Volunteers make the first cut through the blubber of the whale. (Photo by M.J. Adams)

So when a 38-foot long 30-ton gray whale was spotted floating near Camano Island State Park, in Puget Sound, in April 2012, Klope and what he calls his “army of volunteers” were ready. First he arranged to have the whale towed ashore at Whidbey Island Naval Air Station. He also alerted Potter who flew out with Smithsonian Buck Post-Doctoral Fellow Maya Yamato to help dissect the whale and salvage its bones.

“It was a young adult male about 7 to 8 years old and 38 feet long,” Potter recalls. “We spent the better part of a week working up this whale and collecting its skeleton with an amazing group of volunteers from the Puget Sound Marine Mammal Stranding Network. We got a huge response from local volunteers. Every bit of that whale was taken off the beach by hand.”

Charlie Potter, left, and Matt Klope examine the spinal column of a gray whale during the salvaging of its skeleton on Whidbey Island, Wash. (Photo by M.J. Adams)

Next the bones were lashed to plastic pallets and placed into open-top plastic drums then submerged back into the ocean at the Naval Air Station for a number of months. This allowed fish, crabs and other sea creatures to feast on the excess bits of meat and connective tissue still attached to the bones.

Later the bones were recovered, dried, and barnacles removed by hand.  Next, members of the Fleet Logistics Center Puget Sound Naval Air Station Whidbey Island volunteered on weekends to carefully wrap each bone in shipping paper and secure them in wooden shipping crates.

Volunteers clean barnacles from the gray whale’s bones after the bones had been submerged in the ocean for a number of months. (Photo by M.J. Adams)

Finally, Klope arranged for the free transport of the bones aboard a C-130 on a Military Training Logistics Flight from Whidbey Island to Andrews Air Force Base in Md., were staff from the Museum Support Center were able to pick them up and drive them to their new home in a museum collections building in Suitland, Md.

“I think Charley was a little afraid the bones were still going to be a little smelly and oozing when they got to him,” Klope says. “But they would never accept anything like that aboard a military flight, so the bones were well cleaned and shelf ready when he got them.”

What killed this particular gray whale is undetermined.

Examination of its skeleton back at the Smithsonian by Potter revealed the whale had a broken thoracic vertebra and two of its cervical vertebra were damaged. “It got a good whomp, probably from a ship strike or something,” Potter says. Bone tissue growth at the site of the breaks show the whale survived this injury however.

Charlie Potter and Maya Yamato examine a section of the gray whale’s spinal column at the Smithsonian’s Marine Mammal Collection building in Suitland, Md. (Photo by John Barrat)

Klope believes the whale may have starved to death as it was thin. Its stomach contained shrimp and crab, sea grass and bark chips, bits of plastic, string, rope, fabric and other items.

“From the research side of things this is a really important acquisition and a major addition to our collection,” Potter says. “The Marine Mammal Stranding Network volunteers in Washington were amazing, as was the can-do attitude of the folks at the Naval Air Station. With their help we finally got this done after many years.”

In the meantime Klope is awaiting a call from his stranding network for sightings of other expired gray whales. His plans are to acquire a second skeleton for the Smithsonian. “What they’ve got is a young male,” he says. “They now need an adult female.” –by John Barrat

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The National Museum of Natural History’s gem collection has a new addition: the Cindy Chao Black Label Masterpiece Royal Butterfly Brooch. Created by Chao in 2009 and donated to the museum by the artist, the brooch is the first Taiwanese-designed piece in the collection.

The Cindy Chao Black Label Masterpiece Royal Butterfly Brooch

The Royal Butterfly, composed of 2,328 gems, totals 77 carats. It is set with fancy-colored and color-changing sapphires and diamonds, rubies and tsavorite garnets. The centerpieces of the butterfly’s wings are four large-faceted diamond slices stacked atop a pave layer of faceted diamonds, creating a pattern resembling the microstructure and scale of a living butterfly’s wings. Click here to learn more.

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The National Museum of Natural History will permanently display the Dom Pedro Aquamarine, which is the largest single piece of cut-gem aquamarine in the world, beginning Dec. 6. It joins an illustrious cast of famous gemstones already on exhibit in the Janet Annenberg Hooker Hall of Geology, Gems and Minerals such as the Hope Diamond and the Marie Antoinette earrings. Jane M. Mitchell and Jeffery S. Bland donated the piece. The quality of the original crystal and its size, exquisite blue-green color and distinctive cut make it an exceptionally rare gem.

“The Dom Pedro Aquamarine represents a combination of an extraordinary crystal of rare clarity and rich color with the unique skills of a celebrated artist,” said Jeffrey Post, curator of the National Gem and Mineral Collection at the museum.

Mined from a Brazilian pegmatite in the late 1980s, the magnificent aquamarine was named for Brazil’s first two emperors, Dom Pedro Primeiro and his son, Dom Pedro Segundo. Before cutting, the portion of the beryl crystal from which the obelisk-shaped gem was fashioned measured 23.25 inches long and weighed nearly 60 pounds. The obelisk, designed by world-renowned gem artist Bernd Munsteiner, stands 14 inches tall, measures 4 inches across the base and weighs in at 10,363 carats or 4.6 pounds. These impressive dimensions render the Dom Pedro the largest cut-and-polished gem aquamarine known. A pattern of tapering “negative cuts” faceted into the reverse faces of the sea-blue obelisk serves to reflect the light within the gem, giving the piece surprising brightness and sparkle. With the proper lighting, this remarkable sculpture appears to be illuminated from within.

Munsteiner, the “Father of the Fantasy Cut,” is considered one of the greatest gem artists of the 20th century. He combines traditional methods with dynamic modern forms to create gem sculptures. Munsteiner was born to a family of gem carvers, and his work is the manifestation of an art form that has been passed from generation to generation. He became an apprentice in the family trade at the age of 14 and later went on to become a student at the School of Design in Phorzheim, Germany, where he graduated as a designer of precious stones and jewelry. It was in school that Munsteiner was first challenged to take the traditional cameo to a new form, and he has been stretching boundaries and defying traditional methods ever since. His faceting technique known as “Fantasy Cuts” has inspired a modernization of gem art creation, and his innovative style is exemplified in the Dom Pedro Aquamarine. Munsteiner spent four months meticulously studying the crystal and an additional six months carving, polishing and faceting to create this unmatched work of art.

The Dom Pedro Aquamarine joins the Smithsonian’s famous gem and mineral collection of more than 10,000 gems in addition to 350,000 mineral specimens. The Smithsonian’s gem and mineral collection is one of the largest of its kind.

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One of the first satellites to provide space-based digital radio service to consumers in the United States and Canada was donated on Oct. 18, 2012 by SiriusXM Radio and Space Systems/Loral to the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum. The Sirius FM-4 broadcasting satellite was built as a flight-ready back-up for a constellation of three satellites developed by SiriusXM and manufactured by Space Systems/Loral.

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The National Park Service and the Smithsonian Institution have announced a new partnership to share responsibility for selected National Park Service natural history collections, making them more readily available to researchers through the Smithsonian.

Collections will continue to be owned by the National Park Service but will be in the permanent custodial care of the Smithsonian Institution. The agreement formalizing the relationship was signed today by National Park Service Director Jonathan B. Jarvis and the Smithsonian’s Under Secretary for Science Eva J. Pell at the National Museum of Natural History.

National Park Service Director Jonathan B. Jarvis and the Smithsonian’s Under Secretary for Science Eva J. Pell sign a memorandum of understanding at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History. The partnership gives broader access to National Park Service collections through the Smithsonian’s care and management of them. (Photo: John Gibbons, Smithsonian)

“This agreement benefits science, the American people, and the long-standing and historic relationship between our two organizations,” said Jarvis. “Together we are building a collection that will become an extraordinary tool for the scientific community to study biodiversity, evolution, and the distinctive character of national park ecosystems.”

The Smithsonian echoed the significance of the new agreement. “Two venerable institutions long known for protecting the nation’s heritage, are now working together to enhance care and access to specimens that document the natural environment of our national parks,” said Eva Pell, under secretary for science at the Smithsonian.

Examples of National Park Service collections that the Smithsonian could curate under the new agreement are:

• 138 holotypes – a specimen described in scientific literature to establish a new species – that researchers in Great Smoky Mountains National Park in Tennessee and North Carolina have discovered and described over the past 14 years.

• From George Washington Memorial Parkway in Virginia, 3,000 vascular plant specimens representing 1,326 species, as well as a wide range of specimens from the Potomac River Gorge, including holotypes of shoreflies, caddisflies, and copepods (small crustaceans).

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