{"id":25531,"date":"2025-05-13T22:25:02","date_gmt":"2025-05-13T22:25:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/site.itshrt.com\/worldnews\/behind-a-museum-door-these-beetles-are-eating-flesh-for-science\/"},"modified":"2025-05-13T22:25:02","modified_gmt":"2025-05-13T22:25:02","slug":"behind-a-museum-door-these-beetles-are-eating-flesh-for-science","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/site.itshrt.com\/worldnews\/behind-a-museum-door-these-beetles-are-eating-flesh-for-science\/","title":{"rendered":"Behind a Museum Door, These Beetles Are Eating Flesh for Science"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <script async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-6606220950177433\"\r\n     crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script>\r\n<!-- ItShrt World News -->\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:block\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-6606220950177433\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"1882483372\"\r\n     data-ad-format=\"auto\"\r\n     data-full-width-responsive=\"true\"><\/ins>\r\n<script>\r\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-0\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Deep in the labyrinth of the American Museum of Natural History, past the giant suspended blue whale and the first floor\u2019s Alaska brown bears, is an unobtrusive locked door. On it, there is a small sign.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cBug Colony.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Behind the door, accessible only to a handful of museum employees, thousands of flesh-eating dermestid beetles toil around the clock handling a task of specimen preparation that even the museum\u2019s best trained specialists cannot.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">They eat the meat off animal skeletons, leaving only clean bones behind.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Since many skeletons are too fine to be cleaned by human hands, the museum\u2019s osteological preparation team turns to the six-legged staffers to prepare them for research and display.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The work is carried out in three gray wooden boxes the size of footlockers that house the colony. They are lined with stainless steel and their flip-up tops reveal beetles swarming the earthly remains of various small animals, mostly birds. They feast upon the gobbets of flesh clinging to the carcasses.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-1\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The room is pervaded by the soft, crackling sound of gnawing. \u201cIt sounds like something frying, or Rice Krispies when you add milk,\u201d said Rob Pascocello, the colony\u2019s tender.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-2\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The beetles are tiny enough \u2014 just a few millimeters long \u2014 to crawl into the recesses of the smallest animals and nibble away without affecting delicate skeletal structures, said Scott Schaefer, who oversees the museum\u2019s collection of more than 30 million specimens and objects.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cThey do the fine, detailed work that cannot be done by hand, because it\u2019s so delicate,\u201d Mr. Schaefer said. \u201cIt\u2019s gentler than boiling a specimen or soaking it in chemicals or acid.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Museum officials say the ravenous colony has processed most of the bird collections\u2019 more than 30,000 skeleton specimens over the decades, plus countless other forms of carrion. \u201cThey get into the small crevices and, if left unchecked, keep eating until there\u2019s nothing left to eat,\u201d Mr. Schaefer said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-3\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">On a recent weekday, Paul Sweet, collection manager for the ornithology department, stood in the Bug Room, and in the interest of scientific precision pointed out that its name was imprecise.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-4\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">True bugs, known to their fans as the Hemiptera order, have mouthparts that pierce and suck. Beetles \u2014 Coleoptera \u2014 are typically cylindrical and have mouthparts that chew.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The colony had gone to town with those mouthparts to reduce a once-lustrous pink flamingo to a humble bone bundle. A regal snowy owl was similarly picked clean. Then there was the small skeleton in a canister, with bones tinier than toothpicks.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cThat\u2019s a songbird,\u201d said Mr. Pascocello.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Dermestid beetles are scavengers often found in the wild on animal carcasses, and in the nests, webs and burrows of animals.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-5\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Museum officials <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/1979\/09\/04\/archives\/carnivorous-beetle-works-at-museum-may-also-attack-skeleton.html\" title=\"\">told The New York Times in 1979<\/a> that their dermestid colony had remained self-sustaining since being brought over from Africa in the 1930s. Mr. Sweet said the current group has been around for his entire 35 years at the museum, but could not say for sure if they were the original colony\u2019s descendants.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Either way, since a beetle\u2019s life is only about six months, \u201cthey\u2019re all kissing cousins,\u201d said Mr. Pascocello. He said that while the museum was closed during the coronavirus pandemic, he \u201ckept a backup colony in my bedroom.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">On this day, Mr. Sweet was looking to skeletonize a northern gannet, a sea bird recovered from Midland Beach on Staten Island. It had been skinned, dried, and trimmed of most of its flesh by researchers before it was handed over to the colony for finishing work.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Within minutes, the carcass was swarmed. The beetles can pick clean a small bird within a couple of days, but may need two weeks for larger skeletons like the gannet.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-6\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mr. Pascocello once served the beetles an orangutan; Mr. Sweet once gave them an emu. But the size of the beetles\u2019 boxes is a factor. Larger specimens must be served piecemeal, like the carcass of a feisty Cuban crocodile known as Fidel, obtained from the Bronx Zoo in 2005.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Before the pristine skeletons are boxed and cataloged, they are soaked in water and frozen for days to kill remaining beetles or eggs.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The beetles are not a threat to humans, but an infestation of the museum\u2019s specimen collection would be disastrous. Keeping the beetles well fed discourages them from wandering away, as does a strip of Vaseline toward the top of their boxes and a sticky floor section across the room\u2019s doorway.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-7\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">If the supply of specimens should stall, Mr. Pascocello keeps some chicken around as emergency food. Mr. Sweet said he offered the colony pigs\u2019 feet during the pandemic because it was the cheapest bone meat at the supermarket.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-8\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The gourmandising of the beetles is a reminder that important science is not always conducted in gleaming, hygienic laboratories. On the door, under the \u201cBug Colony\u201d sign, is a handwritten addendum:<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cBad odors emanating from behind this door is normal.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-6606220950177433\"\r\n     crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script>\r\n<!-- ItShrt World News -->\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:block\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-6606220950177433\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"1882483372\"\r\n     data-ad-format=\"auto\"\r\n     data-full-width-responsive=\"true\"><\/ins>\r\n<script>\r\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/05\/13\/nyregion\/american-museum-natural-history-beetles.html\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Deep in the labyrinth of the American Museum of Natural History, past the giant suspended blue whale and the first<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":25532,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[2268,667,7094,2862,402],"class_list":["post-25531","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-science","tag-american-museum-of-natural-history","tag-animals","tag-beetles","tag-bones","tag-museums"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Behind a Museum Door, These Beetles Are Eating Flesh for Science - World News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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