AUGUSTA – Dried boxes of moths from all over Maine arrive all summer long.

Pest species are tallied, most get a once-over but only the best make it into the collection.

With some 60,000 specimens already, there’s room to be picky.

In one modest room at the Maine Forest Service Entomology Lab there sits seven cabinets of neatly pinned beetles, seven of neatly pinned butterflies and moths, and 15 more for other things that fly, scuttle or bite. It’s a reference collection with the bulk of the bugs caught and mounted between the 1940s and 1970s, and adds up to a who’s who of what’s lurking in the Maine forest.

“The reason we started it, people didn’t know what was out there, what was a problem,” said entomologist Charlene Donahue.

“Every year we find things that have never been reported in Maine before. Since I’ve been here, we haven’t found anything not known to science. Yet.”

Over the years, bugs have been brought in by entomologists, forest rangers and the public. In the woods now are traps laid out for a bark beetle study. As part of research that’s been going on 67 years, the state also has 25 light traps – a bulb, funnel and can – collecting moths that property owners mail in about weekly.

Beetles and moths aren’t the only ones to fall in; bad for the bugs, good for the scientists and their potential discoveries.

In the lab, Donahue, who’s also president of the Maine Entomology Society, said cabinets are organized by order, within that, families, then in boxes by species. In some cases, specimens have lots of multiples, often, she said, to make up for slight difference in size and color, changes over time and for different locales within the state.

The biggest bug in Maine, at least so far: The Cercropia moth with a wingspan of almost 6 inches.

The collection’s open to the public, but summer pulls the entomologists out of the office a lot. In May, Donahue held nine training sessions for rangers on how to look for invasive species like the Asian longhorn beetle. Winter’s a better time to visit.

Part of their job is helping the public ID curious bugs and pests throughout the year, using the collection as a guide. They’re happy to help, she said, but ask one favor:

Before mailing it in, make sure the bug’s in a crush-proof container and definitely dead.

“Yes, we get them alive – we would rather not,” Donahue said.