Photo Credit: David Moskowitz

By Carly Smith

About one year ago, it was discovered that an amazing species had made its way into New Jersey: the Beaver beetle. David Moskowitz, Senior Vice President of EcolScience, Inc., first began looking for the Beaver beetle after hearing about it in an Insect Taxonomy course at Rutgers University. "I thought they were so cool: wingless, eyeless, and flattened like a flea, living on a beaver and feeding on the dead skin and fur," Moskowitz says. 

After hearing about the beetle, Moskowitz began asking beaver trappers in New Jersey for help, but didn't find anything for a while. After two years, he received a long awaited phone call from a beaver trapper who had acquired nine Beaver beetles in Sussex County.

Photo Credit: David Moskowitz

Although the species has been found in many other places in the Northern hemisphere (including other areas in North America, Asia, and Europe), this was the first time the beetle was spotted in New Jersey. Moskowitz expects that since the beetle is highly host specific, it is likely to be found wherever there are beavers in New Jersey. "There is only one record of this beetle on anything but a beaver," Moskowitz says. "One was found on a river otter, but it is suspected that this was an accidental host switch."
 
The origin of the Beaver beetle species remains unclear. Scientists are unsure whether the beetle originated in North America and colonized Europe or if it first existed as a Eurasian species that colonized North America. Either way, it appears that as long as beavers continue to spread throughout New Jersey, their insect counterparts are sure to follow.

For more information on the Beaver beetle, read Stewart Peck's paper, Distribution and biology of the ectoparasitic beaver beetle.