Caleb Seekins is only 11, but he just got listed as a collector at the University of Alaska Museum of the North. How? He found a little bug with a big name: a Carabus vietinghoffi— or, as it’s more commonly known, a rainbow beetle.
In Genesis, man gave names to all the animals. Man is still doing that, both scientifically and for casual purposes. These days zoologists use two-part scientific names to identify animals. Sometimes it is a challenge for zoologists to think up as many names as God thought up creatures.
The big-named bug is very rare in Caleb’s home state of Alaska.
Caleb and his mom were doing yard work when, “we saw this beetle on the ground,” Caleb said. “It got away when she tried to get it. A few minutes later, I saw it. I picked it up and got it in a container.”
For Caleb, catching bugs is nothing new. When he was a toddler, he tried to eat hornets. By the time he turned five or six, he had so many jar collections of hornets, moths, and other insects that his mother secretly released them. “Honestly,” she told Newsminer.com, ““Who wants jars and jars of yellow jackets on their porch!”
But when he caught the rainbow beetle, Caleb’s mother knew enough to take it to the University of Alaska. There, Derek Sikes, the museum’s entomologist, was just as excited to see the bug as Caleb was. The insect has value because its bright, iridescent colors are prettier than those of most insects in Alaska. It’s also valuable because it’s rare. The flightless beetle migrated from Asia. Because it walks everywhere, it takes a long time for the species to spread out in a new area. If a beetle collection is stored now, scientists will be able to study the species’ developments a century from today.
For now Caleb dreams of having a job like Derek Sikes when he grows up. Do you think he’s on his way?
