It must be slightly embarrassing for an entomologist when he or she can’t identify the most common insect found outside their office. But what about a whole museum full of biology experts?

London’s Natural History Museum has encountered exactly this problem. In March last year a tiny red and black bug appeared in its grounds. By August it was the most common insect found in the museum’s Wildlife Garden.

Checking the bug against the museum’s insect collection produced no match. Although there was a resemblance to a rare species called Arocatus roeselii, this insect is found in alder trees, not the plane trees where the new bug was discovered, says the museum (press release).

“It’s a bit unsatisfactory that in the garden of the biggest museum in the world there was an insect that we couldn’t identify,” says NHM bug expert Max Barclay (Daily Telegraph, Times).

It must be even more galling given the museum’s website currently has this event listed (unless this is a fiendishly good publicity stunt):

In a further twist the national Museum in Prague discovered an exact match for the bug, an insect from Nice classified as Arocatus roeselii.

“There are two possible explanations,” says Barclay. “That the bug is roeselii and by switching to feed on the plane trees it could suddenly become more abundant, successful and invasive. The other possibility is that the insect in our grounds may not be roeselii at all.”

Headline watch

Mystery Insect Bugs Experts – Sky news

Scientists bugged by mystery of invader in back yard – Times

Mystery insect bugging experts at London museum – AP

Image: Natural History Museum