More than 100 years after an MSU entomologist collected bark beetles in the Philippines, a new generation of Spartan scientists unknowingly retraced his footsteps.
During a biodiversity expedition to the Philippines, Michigan State University entomologists Anthony Cognato and Sarah Smith collected more than 1,000 bark and ambrosia beetles. While identifying the specimens back in East Lansing, they discovered that one of the insects, Eidophelus ater, had not been documented since it was collected by Charles Fuller Baker, an MSU alumnus and pioneering entomologist who worked in the Philippines in the early 1900s.
“This discovery makes us connected to the long history of MSU alumni and faculty who have influenced the development of agricultural sciences,” Cognato said. “It is a grand feeling to be part of that legacy.”