Hi Kim, I think your little friend is a member of the carabidae beetle family; they're generally referred to as ground beetles. They come in a lot of different colors and sizes - we get some that wander into the center occasionally that have orange heads and black elytra. I can't quite tell the coloration of your beetle, so it would be hard to give you a genus or species. They're considered beneficial, particularly in gardens, as ground beetles are often predators and will eat grubs, caterpillars, and other unwanted pests. It's probably not an issue in the museum setting, aka "not a baddie" as you so aptly put it. If you started to see tons, I suppose it could indicate a separate infestation of other pest invertebrates...but we often see one every now and again without cause for alarm.
Here's the wiki on ground beetles: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ground_beetle Cheers! Kate Payne de Chavez -- Assistant Conservator, Furniture and Wood Objects Williamstown Art Conservation Center ________________________________ From: Kim Adkins <kladkins2...@yahoo.com> To: pestlist@museumpests.net Sent: Thu, October 14, 2010 5:59:12 PM Subject: [pestlist] Bug Identification...again Thank you all so much for your help identifying my bug from yesterday. To paraphrase the song, "another day, another bug". Again, I don't think this bug is a baddie, but I wanted to be sure. This one is about 0.5 inches long. It's about 0.25 inches wide. Sorry about the weird purple streaks on the picture. I took a few, but they kept showing up. Thanks again for your help!
