Though he collected the beetle alongside many others during one of his trips to Brown’s ranch, Will soon realized it was different from the other specimens. And after about a year and a half of research, he learned the glistening, green-and-gold critter had not been seen in the state since 1966 and had never been officially named.

Now, it will become known as Bembidion brownorum, in honor of Brown and his wife, Anne. The beetle was described for the first time ever in a study published Monday and co-authored by Will; David Maddison, a professor at Oregon State University; and John Sproul, a professor at the University of Nebraska at Omaha.

Its discovery and description wouldn’t have been possible if Brown, a Democrat who served four nonconsecutive terms as governor, had not opened up his family ranch to scientists, Will said.

While he was in office, Brown was a fierce advocate for fighting climate change, with a particular emphasis on how California could reduce its greenhouse gas emissions.

He also passed legislation for conservation over the years. In 2013, he signed a bill that, starting in 2019, made it illegal for hunters to use lead ammunition in an effort to reduce the toxin’s presence in California ecosystems and protect wildlife.

Will noted that the beetle’s name also honors the Browns’ commitment to conservation and climate issues.

“We thought, well, it would be really appropriate to honor the Browns,” he told The Washington Post. “Because they were really very gracious, allowing me to come pretty much any time I wanted, stay there if I wanted, and just roam around and collect bugs all over their ranch.”

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The Brown family has owned the 2,500-acre ranch since the 1860s. At one point, it was a stagecoach stop, serving as a place to rest before cars were invented and widely used.

Brown and his wife have welcomed scientists and research groups, from the U.S. Forest Service to the California Native Plant Society, to the ranch for years now. In that sense, the land still serves as a place of gathering, Brown told The Post.

“We don’t have a stagecoach come by on the road every day, but it is a place where visitors come,” he said. “And where important things are taking place from a scientific point of view.”

In the summer of 2021, after hearing from other entomologists who’d started making trips to the ranch, Will contacted the former governor to ask if he could sample beetles there. Will focused on sampling carabid beetles, commonly known as ground beetles, which he’d completed extensive research on already.

He noticed the green-and-gold beetle in July 2021 as he was sorting through his samples after one of the trips to the ranch.

He tried to identify it with literature he had handy, narrowing it down to the Bembidion genus. But he couldn’t find the species anywhere.

On July 4, 2021, he emailed a photo of the beetle to Maddison, the Oregon State professor and an expert on the Bembidion genus, who replied, “You need to send that to me,” Will said.

Will sent the beetle to Maddison and continued sampling on Brown’s ranch as he waited to hear back. He made the hour-and-a-half-long drive from Berkeley to the ranch about every other month, making collections at night, the moon illuminating the oak and pine trees on the ranch. Because ground beetles are nocturnal and more active during night hours, Will typically started his sampling days just before sunset and ended them between 10 p.m. and 2 a.m.

In September of that year, Maddison and Sproul finished collecting and analyzing the beetle’s DNA.

“It all suggested this was something new,” Will said.

After the analysis came back, he began searching California museums’ collections of beetle specimens. The most recent record of that species being collected was from 1966.

And when Will, Maddison and Sproul plotted the locations where the species had been collected in the past, they found that those places had since been developed.

“There’s no natural habitat that we can see,” Will said. “So we figure that none of those populations probably exist anymore.”

In the study published Monday, the scientists called B. brownorum one of the “unlucky species” from California that lived in areas where “humans want to do other things with that land,” Will said.

But discovering, documenting and describing species like the beetle can help people understand how to protect wildlife around them, he added.

Moving forward, Brown said he hopes other landowners will “open their land to scientific investigation” and that that will help people “deepen their sense of stewardship.”

“It’s very important that, in addition to all the mechanical activities and human inventions, that we also take care of nature,” he said. “Because nature takes care of us.”