Does El Niño impact the diversity of Amazonian rainforest insects? To find out, Terry Erwin, a Smithsonian entomologist, is counting millions of small beetles. The insects were collected in Ecuador and Brazil’s rainforest during the 1997-98 El Niño, which caused a severe drought there. Dr. Erwin knows from a study of the 1994-96 El Niño that the abundance of beetle species hit a three-year low as that El Niño was ending. Will his research reveal a similar impact during the 1997-98 El Niño?