ecdysis

Live specimen data from The Academy of Natural Sciences Entomology Collection. Established in 1812, the Entomology Department's collections hold approximately four million insect specimens, of which more than 11,000 are primary types. Current research in the Entomology Department focuses on the taxonomy, systematics, biogeography, and behavior of worldwide Orthoptera and Tipuloidea, and the survey of aquatic insects of Mongolia. An index of the nearly 100,000 species in the collection can be found here. 

OrthopNet consists of specimen records from Orthoptera, Phasmatodea & Mantodea in the ANSP collection. It is a NSF-ADBC PEN project.

This collection is comprised of arthropod parasites on vertebrates

Este perfil contiene la colección de Odonata del Instituto de Investigaciones Botánicas y Zoológicas cuyos registros fueron usados para el artículo:

Sánchez-Rosario, A. 2019. Distribución de la riqueza de especies de los odonatos (Insecta: Odonata) de la República Dominicana: una actualización a partir de especímenes de colección - Distribution of species richness of the odonates (Insecta: Odonata) of the Dominican Republic: An update from collection specimens. Actual. Biol. 41 (111): 72-80, 2019 | DOI:10.17533/udea.acbi.v41n111a06

La creación del perfil en el portal Ecdysis de Symbiota fue posible gracias a la colaboración con el Biodiversity Knowledge Integration Center (BioKIC), Arizona State University y el financiamiento para su digitalización por el Programa Biodiversity Information for Development (proyecto BID-CA2020-031-NAC) de la Globla Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) y la European Union.

The personal research collection of Adam Haberski, now part of the Clemson University Arthropod Collection (CUAC). My principal interest is the Coleoptera of the United States and Canada, especially the Staphylinidae.

Entomology Collection of the Arizona State Department of Agriculture.

This collection contains one to two thousand insect and arthropod specimens collected from Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument (Permit#: ORPI-2021-SCI-0013, ORPI-2021-SCI-0013). These collections occurred from three main locations: Quitobaquito, Twin Peaks Campground and Alamo Canyon across all seasons between 2021 and 2024. Specimens are either pinned or preserved in ethanol (70%).

The ASU Arthropod Collection contains over 5,000 non-insect specimens (Class: Arachnida), including scorpions, spiders, ticks, and mites. The collection is an actively growing collection and serves as an important regional resource for research, teaching, and outreach. The specimens are preserved in alcohol or on microscope slides. Most specimens are from the southwestern United States and Sonora Mexico. For further information and to arrange a visit or loan, please contact Collection Manager Dr. Sangmi Lee (slee281@asu.edu).

The Charles W. O'Brien Collection (legacy coden: CWOB) is now (August, 2018) relocated to Tempe, Arizona, and contains approximately one million weevil specimens (Coleoptera: Curculionoidea sensu Bouchard et al. 2011), with a global range and emphasis on New World (and Neotropical) regions. Lois B. O'Brien - a planthopper specialist - has made invaluable contributions to this collection. In 2017, Arizona State University entered an agreement with the O'Briens to gradually transfer and permanently house and curate this world-class collection. As the collection is reactivated at the new location, specimens are digitized under this new identity. Hence the virtual SCAN collection "ASUCOB" (new coden) was created, with the purpose of making the O'Brien weevil specimens now residing at Arizona State University accessible on-line while maintaining their collector/expert provenance. For further information and to arrange a visit or loan, please contact Collection Manager Dr. Sangmi Lee (slee281@asu.edu).

The ASU Frank F. Hasbrouck Insect Collection contains approximately 1,000,000 insect specimens, representing at least 25 orders, 390 families, 4,000 genera, 12,000 species and 1,240 subspecies. Most specimens are from the southwestern United States; however considerable representative material is also available from other North American regions and Mexico. The collection was largely developed through the activities of past faculty - Drs. Frank Hasbrouck, Gordon Castle and Mont Cazier - and their students. An extensive reprint collection is available to visiting researchers. For further information and to arrange a visit or loan, please contact Collection Manager Dr. Sangmi Lee (slee281@asu.edu).

The Lois B. O'Brien Collection (legacy coden: LBOB) is is now (August, 2018) relocated to Tempe, Arizona, and contains approximately 250,000 planthopper specimens (Hemiptera: Fulgoroidea sensu Bourgoin (2017) ), with a global range and emphasis on New World (and Neotropical) regions. Charles W. O'Brien - a weevil specialist - has made invaluable contributions to this collection. In 2017, Arizona State University entered an agreement with the O'Briens to gradually transfer and permanently house and curate this world-class collection. As partial transfers occur, specimens are digitized under this new identity. Hence the virtual SCAN collection "ASULOB" (new coden) was created, with the purpose of making the O'Brien planthopper specimens now residing at Arizona State University accessible on-line while maintaining their collector/expert provenance. For further information and to arrange a visit or loan, please contact Collection Manager Dr. Sangmi Lee (slee218@asu.edu).

The BYU Arthropod Collection is housed in the Monte L. Bean Life Science Museum at Brigham Young University. It totals approximately 2,000,000 specimens, mostly insects. Although worldwide in coverage, an emphasis is on western North America. Although taxonomically diverse, strengths include Coleoptera, Plecoptera, and Siphonaptera. The insect tissue holdings are outstanding. The principal aim is systematic study, but the collection is available to a wide variety of researchers.

The focus of the Broward College Insect Collection is to house and make available arthropod collections focused on South Florida and the greater Everglades ecosystems. Established in 2017 it began with about 30,000 specimens from the faculty’s personal/research collections and historic student/teaching collections of the college. Donations and student survey projects currently feed the collection. For further information and to arrange a visit or loan, please contact collection director Dr. David Serrano (dserrano@broward.edu).

Diurnal collections across western Colorado (USA) in collaboration with the Bureau of Land Management beginning June 2024 to investigate native pollinators & other invertebrates. 

The collection houses approximately 5 million specimens representing about 60,000 species with fifty primary types and 1,000 secondary types. More than 10,000 specimens are added to the collection each year. As a large and comprehensive holding of arthropods, predominately insects, in the Southern Rocky Mountains, it is a major resource for regional and national biodiversity investigations. Much of the material has been identified by specialists to the specific level. Examples of the unique quality of material include the aphids, other Homoptera, Coleoptera, Diptera, Hymenoptera, Lepidoptera, and all aquatic orders. It serves as the repository for arthropod inventories of several National Parks including Canyonlands, Great Sand Dunes, Mesa Verde, Rocky Mountain, Dinosaur, and Yucca House and Colorado National Monuments.

Our collection has roughly 50,000 specimens, both pinned and in ethanol. The vast majority of insects have been collected by students here at the university, for varying entomology classes. Therefore, a large portion of the collection was collected from SLO county. However, many specimens are from around California, and we have a special Swanton Pacific Ranch collection. This collection is incredibly important to our school, as the Ranch is used by students of all disciplines to further their hand on education. Unfortunately, the Ranch  burned in 2020, making these specimens invaluable. 

The arachnid collection of the Invertebrate Zoology collection contains more than 1500 specimens that are prepared, labelled, and ready for study. Invertebrate Zoology’s overarching collection’s primary strengths are Lepidoptera and Coleoptera but with strong collections in Diptera, Odonata, Heteroptera, Homoptera, Hymenoptera, and Siphonaptera. These collections augment studies by staff, but they are also used for research by hundreds of specialists worldwide where they constitute the basis for numerous scientific publications. These collections benefit present and future generations, and in their immensity comprise a public trust as a unique record of the natural world.

Este perfil contiene la colección de Chrysomelidae del Instituto de Investigaciones Botánicas y Zoológicas. La representación geográfica abarca República Dominicana fundamentalmente. Registros ocasionales de Haití podrían incorporarse más adelante. El rango geográfico que abarca data del año 1958 hasta la actualidad. 

La creación del perfil en el portal Ecdysis de Symbiota fue posible gracias a la colaboración con el Biodiversity Knowledge Integration Center (BioKIC), Arizona State University y el financiamiento para su digitalización por el Programa Biodiversity Information for Development (proyecto BID-CA2020-031-NAC) de la Globla Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) y la European Union.

The Clemson University Arthropod Collection (CUAC) supports the teaching, research, and extension activities of the University. The Collection consists of approximately 1.3 million specimens from Classes Insecta, Arachnida, Branchipoda, Copepoda, Diplopoda, and Chilopoda. The wet, alcohol-preserved collection is exceptionally rich, with over 1,000,000 specimens, nearly half of which are Trichoptera, or caddisflies, resulting from 40 years of work by Director Emeritus Dr. John Morse. The pinned, dry collection comprises only about 200,000 specimens, but also has strong regional representation of all the major orders. The CUAC collection serves as a permanent repository for specimens used in University research. It serves as a reference collection for identifying economically and ecologically significant samples sent in from all over South Carolina. The specimens in the collection also provide a historical record of the changing biota of the southeastern region dating back nearly 100 years. The Museum's educational displays are used to enhance University courses and are viewed by visitors to the Collection and by participants in demonstrations at off-campus venues.

Es una colección de enfoque taxonómico. Posee especímenes de arácnidos en líquido, insectos en alcohol y montados. Son especímenes colectados por grupos de investigación del Centro Austral de Investigaciones Científicas (CADIC), Investigadores de la UNTDF y el público general. La falta de entomólogos residentes, hasta hace pocos años, en la Provincia ha retrasado la formación de una colección formal, actualizada y unificada.

Básicamente son lepidópteros (en su mayoría esfíngidos) de México, alrededor de 30 mil especímenes. El rango temporal es más o menos de 1960 al presente.

Entomological Collection IIBZ (Colección Entomológica IIBZ). It is a collection started in 1959 by prof. Eugenio de Jesús Marcano, who collected around 30,000 specimens. Actually, the collection has grown with the contributions of other entomologists from personal collections and research projects. The collection is part of the Universidad Autónoma de Santo Domingo.

ARTSYS is the "Collection of Externally Processed Specimens for Arthropod Systematics Research". ARTSYS is a pragmatic solution to the challenge of making specimens accessible that are part of an ongoing revisionary systematic project, but are frequently on loan or otherwise not destined to become part of the author's home collection. ARTSYS is open to any revisionary arthropod systematist needing such a tool. The occurrence record table allows one to specify the Owning Institution and Disposition (e.g., "on loan"). Request access to ARTSYS: e-mail nico.franz@asu.edu. Register your set of utilized ARTSYS catalog numbers: http://tinyurl.com/artsys-label-tracking. Access the ARTSYS spreadsheet template: https://github.com/nfranz/ARTSYS [Download the spreadsheet, adjust the number in cell A2 according to the number set reserved in the Tracking Google spreadsheet, and print your set of 525 catalog numbers]

Broad collection across all taxa, focused on Connecticut, from 1900 – 1950, followed more recently by intensive collections in particular taxa based on the interests of specific research programs, including: Apoidea, Buprestidae, and Cerambycidae. The collection holding is estimated at 160,000 specimens.

The Denver Botanic Gardens Collection of Arthropods (DBGA) is small reference and research collection focused on arthropods from urban and suburban habitats. Specimen and observation data is primarily collected from the Colorado Front Range. The collection also contains specimens from other areas in the Southern Rocky Mountain Region, particularly sites with ongoing research projects organized by the Denver Botanic Gardens. Identifications are often only to family level.

Worldwide in scope though with a focus on the American West, the Arachnology collection at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science comprises over 50,000 specimen lots and is growing every year. The holdings include primary types and paratypes. Holdings are particularly strong in Colorado species and in Solifugae, with 13 primary types and 65 paratypes. The Colorado Spider Survey, initiated at DMNS in 1999, has vastly expanded our knowledge of the Colorado spider fauna. The collection is housed in the Avenir Collections Center - an onsite state-of-the-art museum collections facility.

Worldwide in scope though with a focus on the American West, the Entomology collection at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science comprises over 1,000,000 specimens and specimen lots. It contains over 950,000 specimens, with Coleoptera (750,000+ specimens) and Lepidoptera (130,000+ specimens) as primary foci. The holdings include at least 18 primary types and 150 paratypes, and dates of collection span from 1878 to the present. The dung beetle collection is the largest in the United States, and our scarab holdings are particularly strong in African as well as regional material. The Colorado Scarab Survey and the Colorado Microlepidoptera Survey, both long-term projects initiated and conducted by DMNS, are steadily growing our regional holdings and our knowledge of the Colorado fauna. The collection is housed in the Avenir Collections Center - an onsite state-of-the-art museum collections facility.

El conjunto de datos que aquí se presenta corresponde a los registros de las hormigas (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) asociadas a dos áreas urbanas protegidas. Los datos fueron obtenidos en el proyecto "Evaluación de las comunidades de hormigas como una herramienta para la determinación de la calidad ambiental utilizando como modelo dos áreas urbanas protegidas de la provincia Santo Domingo y el Distrito Nacional", financiado por el Ministerio de Educación Superior, Ciencia y Tecnología (FONDOCYT 2015-201-1A2-165). Los investigadores principales, Santo Navarro, M.Sc. (IIBZ-UASD) y David Lubertazzi, PhD (Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University). Los especímenes fueron recolectados del 15 de febrero al 17 de octubre de 2017, considerando la estacionalidad (temporada seca y húmeda). Los especímenes se recolectaron utilizando el protocolo ALL (Ants of the Leaflitter Protocol) modificado. Se realizaron muestreos de hojarasca con bolsas mini Winkler, trampas de caída y recolección manual. La hojarasca cernida permaneció por 48 horas para la extracción de las muestras. Se presentan 963 registros de especímenes determinados hasta especie preservados en etanol o montados en alfiler. Se identificaron seis subfamilias compuestas por 19 géneros y 29 especies. La creación del perfil de este conjunto de datos en el portal Ecdysis de Symbiota fue posible gracias a la colaboración con el Biodiversity Knowledge Integration Center (BioKIC), Arizona State University y el financiamiento para su digitalización por el Programa Biodiversity Information for Development (proyecto BID-CA2020-031-NAC) de la Globla Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) y la European Union.

The Entomology Collection at the Natural History Museum of Utah consists of approximately 250,000 pinned and alcohol specimens from around the world, with greatest specimen numbers from the intermountain west. The collection dates back to the late 1800s, with heaviest collection periods in the 1930s and 1960s. The collection was relocated in 2012 to a new facility with optimal storage conditions. Areas of greatest strength include Lepidoptera, Cicadidae and Cicindelidae. Future project emphasis is on databasing the collection to increase research utilization of the collection.

The research collection is entirely pinned Coleoptera. Families best represented are Haliplidae, Dytiscidae, Noteridae, Gyrinidae, Elmidae, Hydrophilidae, Scarabaeidae, Buprestidae and Cerambycidae. The collection consists of 5,000-10,000 pinned specimens, 99% from North America north of Mexico.

The Ethan R. Wright Collection contains specimens primarily from Arizona.

The personal research collection of Evan S. Waite focuses primarily on ground beetles (Coleoptera: Carbaidae Latreille, 1802) of North America though specimens from other families an geographic locations are present as well.  Currently housed at the Arizona State University Biocollections, this collection is part of my ongoing dissertation work. A special thank you to Courtney Curtis of CotinisCreative for designing and creating the EWIC logo.

The Florida State Collection of Arthropods is worldwide in scope. Earlier accumulations, primarily from Florida and the southeastern United States, still form a large portion of the collection; however, most insect groups have worldwide representation, with particular strengths for circum-Caribbean and South American regions. In recent years much new material has been obtained, through surveys or exchanges, from the Neotropics, parts of Africa (especially South Africa) and Asia (especially Indonesia and Taiwan).

Among the 22,400 drawers of pinned insects, 352,000+ slides, and 294,200+ vials of the Museum of Entomology, are an estimated 9 million prepared specimens including over 2,500 primary and at least 30,000 secondary types. Millions more specimens are in the estimated 20,000 bulk alcohol containers and various dry samples from around the world. These, together with the other holdings, place the FSCA among the top 10 North American entomological collections.

This collection contains specimens that are part of the Northern Arizona University Forest Entomology Collections with an emphasis on insect taxa related to forest management. This collection formerly utilzied the coden NAUF5F.

Approximately 20,000 coleopteran specimens in many families, a large portion from the Northern Great Plains of North America, and several focused areas research areas such as North American aphodiine scarabs, North Dakota water beetles, the scarab genus Serica and Coenonycha, and the weevil genus Listronotus.

The Hannam University Systematic Entomology Laboratory is HNU-SEL's database maintained by Professor/Ph.D. Bong-Kyu Byun. KOERA of Lepidoptera.

Ian Watkinson's private entomological collection, primarily of micro-Lepidoptera and Geometridae; is currently located in Yuma, Arizona, U.S.A.

This collection contains vouchers used in research and discovery projects in the Insect Diversity and Diagnostics Lab at Purdue University. The collection supports both investigations into the diversity of insects inand around the state of Indiana and projects focusing on diagnostics such as revisions of taxa with known or presumed pests or with creating identification resources for groups of interest.

Este conjunto de datos representa un extracto de los resultados del proyecto «Caracterización y ecología de la flora y la fauna en las sabanas de las montañas altas de la Cordillera Central y la Sierra de Neiba», proyecto financiado por el Ministerio de Educación Superior, Ciencia y Tecnología a través del programa FONDOCYT, No. 2013-1A2-130. Se incluyen 504 registros de ocurrencia de los órdenes de insectos Archaeognatha, 22; Blattodea, 246; Coleoptera, 41; Hemiptera, 38; Hymenoptera, 139; Orthoptera, 18. Las familias representadas fueron Acrididae, Blaberidae, Curculionidae, Ectobiidae, Formicidae, Lygaeidae, Meinertellidae, Scarabaeidae y Tetrigidae recolectados entre 21 de abril de 2014 a 14 de julio de 2015. Las muestras fueron recolectadas en sabanas de altura (1 504 a 2 975 m) dominadas por la presencia de Danthonia domingensis, una gramínea endémica de las altas montañas de la isla Hispaniola. Las localidades muestreadas abarcan nueve sabanas en la Cordillera Central y una en la Sierra de Neiba. La creación del perfil de este conjunto de datos en el portal Ecdysis de Symbiota fue posible gracias a la colaboración con el Biodiversity Knowledge Integration Center (BioKIC), Arizona State University y el financiamiento para su digitalización por el Programa Biodiversity Information for Development (proyecto BID-CA2020-031-NAC) de la Globla Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) y la European Union.

Invertebrate collection, primarily insects (pinned, slides, and fluid preserved) with good representation for Manitoba, Canada and strengths in bees and aquatic beetles

The personal arthropod collection of Jason L. Williams primarily holds North American ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) and other Hymenoptera, but also includes other taxa and collections made from other geographic locations. The collection includes a combination of specimens cold preserved in 95% ethanol and pinned material.

This is the entomology collection of Jim Beley focused on a comprehensive survey of the beetles of the Crazy Mountains of Montana.

Research specimens for the doctoral project "Systematics of Eudiagogini (Curculionidae: Entiminae)".

The Kenneth S. Norris Center for Natural History at UC Santa Cruz houses collections that are mostly local to the Central Californian Coast, including habitats in the Santa Cruz Mountains, the Monterey Bay Area, and the Monterey Bay itself (seabirds and marine algae). Collections include: marine algae (400+), plants (10,000+), bryophytes (200+), fungi (1000+), lichens (200+), insects (90,000+), fish (500+), amphibians (500), reptiles (500), birds (1500), and mammals (800+). Notable collections include the Randall Morgan Insect Collection which contains ~70,000 specimens collected systematically at 39 locations from 1989-199 in natural and rare habitats in Santa Cruz County, California. For each specimen, the species of plant it was collected from was also recorded. Morgan collected systematically at each location over an entire year (and in some locations over multiple years) and kept precise records on plant phenology. The collection mainly consists of hymenoptera, diptera, and lepidoptera but also contains good representation of other common orders.

The Luther entomological research collection, one of the collections of the Hoslett Museum of Natural History at Luther College in Decorah, Iowa, is an important repository of Northeast Iowa insect biodiversity and includes many state record specimens (insect species not previously found in Iowa) not found in the Iowa State University insect collection. The LERC has a unique role specializing in the documentation of insect biodiversity of the driftless region in NE Iowa, SE Minnesota, and SW Wisconsin.

The M. Andrew Johnston Research Collection is comprised primarily of beetles, especially darkling beetles (family Tenebrionidae Latreille, 1802). The MAJC has an emphasis on specimens from the southwestern deserts of North America and others pertaining to ongoing systematic research. The collection contains roughly 20,000 pinned specimens, a frozen tissue collection stored in ethanol, and full body disarticulations for morphological examination.

30 specimens minimum identified to species and uploaded to Ecdysis for an honors contract supervised by Nico Franz.

A project collection of Maine bees from Brianne Du Clos

The collection includes material of Scarabaeoidea from Panama and other countries, the specimens are dry mounted (pin), the purpose of the collection is to create the first reference collection of Scarabaeoidea from Panama.

The Michigan Technological University Insect Collection features over 10,000 specimens primarily from under-sampled areas of Michigan's western Upper Peninsula, filling distribution gaps for the region. Housed in MTU's College of Forest Resources and Environmental Science, the collection dates to the 1930s and has been used as a repository for both faculty and students since its inception. Michigan's Upper Peninsula is a heavily forested transitional zone between boreal and northern hardwood ecosystems, featuring unique habitat types and associated arthropod communities. This expanding collection features a large portion of specimens collected in the 1960s through the 1970s, as well as the early 2000s to the present day. Twenty-three insect orders are represented, with strengths in Coleoptera, Hemiptera, and Lepidoptera.

The Mississippi Entomological Museum is located in the Department of Entomology and Plant Pathology at Mississippi State University near Starkville, Mississippi. The Mississippi Entomological Museum was formed in 1979, under the leadership of Dr. William H. Cross, to combine several private and institutional collections that were present in the state. The research collection contains more than 1,300,000 pinned specimens, and more than 35,000 are being added annually. The Mississippi Entomological Museum includes collections, beginning in the late 1800's of H. E. Weed, Henry Dietrich, J. M. Langston, R. W. Harned, Gladys Hoke-Lobdell, E. W. Stafford, M. R. Smith, William H. Cross, Leon W. Hepner, Bryant Mather, and Charles Bryson. Exotic material includes taxa from Central and South America, the Seychelles, New Caledonia, and the Fiji Islands. The MacDonald Collection, emphasizing Lepidoptera of Panama, is housed in the Mississippi Entomological Museum as well as the Ross E. Hutchins collection of photographs, which are primarily of insects and other natural history subjects, and the James Solomon collection of wood damage. More information about the collection is available at http://mississippientomologicalmuseum.org.msstate.edu. For information pertaining to loans, contact the Curator, Adam Haberski (ah3953@msstate.edu).

La colección entomológica del Museo del Fin del Mundo comprende insectos conservados en medio líquido, en camas de algodón y montados en cajas entomológicas. La mayor parte de los ejemplares corresponde a colectas realizadas dentro de la provincia de Tierra del Fuego, Antártida e Islas del Atlántico Sur - Argentina en la década de los años 80, aunque contamos también con una pequeña colección de insectos provenientes de otras provincias y fechas variadas.

The Arachnids collection of the Museo Nacional de Historia Natural “Prof. Eugenio de Jesús Marcano” (MNHNSD-ARACH) houses more than 4000 lots containing around 10 100 specimens; these specimens belong to 9 orders, 76 families, 234 genera and 334 species, of which 106 are endemics from Hispaniola Island. Of all registers, 68 % is identified at least to genera level, and around 3400 have been digitized, with Araneae representing more than 75 %. Most of the records are from Hispaniola, specifically from Dominican Republic, dating from 1974 to present; however, the collection also contains a few specimens from other Caribbean countries which were received through donations. The arachnids’ orders represented in the collection are: Acari (not included in the dataset), Amblypygi, Araneae, Opiliones, Pseudoscorpiones, Schizomida, Scorpiones, Solifugae, and Thelyphonida; with Palpigradi being the only one not represented of those recorded from Hispaniola.

The Orthoptera collection of the Museo Nacional de Historia Natural “Prof. Eugenio de Jesús Marcano” (MNHNSD-ORTH) houses around 1 240 specimens; these specimens belong to 7 families, 24 genera and 25 species, of which 13 are endemics from Hispaniola Island. Of all registers, 41 % is identified at least to species level, and around 650 have been digitized, with Acrididae representing more than 37 %. Most of the records are from Hispaniola, specifically from Dominican Republic, dating from 1974 to present.

The Invertebrate Zoology collection (TTU-Z) of the Museum of Texas Tech University is international in scope with an emphasis on arthropods from semi-arid and arid lands, especially from North America. The collection consists primarily of insects (including an extensive collection of ants), medical/veterinary specimens (endo- and ectoparasites), and arachnids. The pinned collection contains over 3,200 genera and 7,500 identified species. The collection is estimated to hold about 4.6 million specimens including pinned insects, arachnids preserved in ethanol, microscope slides (medical/veterinary importance and mites), and bulk samples. There are currently slightly more than 800 type specimens (mostly paratypes) in the collection.

Personal worldwide collection of pinned Carabidae. Majority of specimens from the Nearctic region, but continuing to acquire Palearctic and tropical specimens, as well.

This collection represents the personal research collection of Nathaniel Green which is focused on Hymenoptera.

This collection contains filtered data originally provided by the LA County Museum to Andrew Johnston and Matthew Gimmel for Coleoptera of the California Channel Islands. The records were subsequently updated, georeferenced, and edited for taxonomic congruence to the greater project of California Channel Islands Beetles.

The New Mexico State Collection of Arthropods is located at New Mexico State University in Las Cruces, NM. It currently houses approximately 150,000 arthropod specimens as well as the Merrill Sweet Collection (350,000 specimens). The NMSU Collection primarily is composed of arthropods from the western United States, with an emphasis on the arachnids of the arid Southwest. The goals of the collection include survey of the arthropod fauna of New Mexico and the Southwest, providing reference material for researchers, and providing outreach to our constituents in the state and abroad.

The focus is on terrestrial arthropods from the New Zealand region but there are substantial holdings from South Pacific countries and of mites and nematodes from New Zealand. Material comes from the 1880s to the present day. There are over 1.2 million pinned insects, ~100,00 microscope slides, and 250,000 vials of ethanol preserved specimens. Ecdysis is being used as a platform for workflows associated with mass digitisation.

Biocultural (BC) Notice. The BC (Biocultural) Notice is a visible notification that there are accompanying cultural rights and responsibilities that need further attention for any future sharing and use of this material or data. The BC Notice recognizes the rights of Indigenous peoples to permission the use of information, collections, data and digital sequence information (DSI) generated from the biodiversity or genetic resources associated with traditional lands, waters, and territories. The BC Notice may indicate that BC Labels are in development and their implementation is being negotiated.

The Northern Arizona University Agua Fria National Monument Collection (NAU-AGFR) is comprised of arthropods collected within an experimental garden along the Agua Fria river. This garden is funded by a Macrosystems grant from the National Science Foundation and the facility is part of a network of common gardens managed by the Southwest Experimental Garden Array (SEGA). The primary focus of these gardens is to understand 1) the role of genetics in mitigating the effects of climate change and 2) to quantify how plant stress affects biodiversity. Dr. Art Keith uses Sea, Land, Air, Malaise (SLAM) traps to collect insects. Maya Shimoni is responsible for insect curation and imaging. Dr. Gary Alpert, an entomologist at NAU oversees all arthropod aspects of the project and is assisted by Dr. Tom Whitham who oversees the integration of insect findings with climate change and plant genetics studies.

The Northern Arizona University - Arthropod Collection (NAAC), previously the Colorado Plateau Museum of Arthropod Biodiversity (CPMAB), houses over 250,000 arthropod specimens, primarily from the southwestern United States and Mexico. Specimens are being added each year, primarily from Military Reservations, National Parks and Monuments, The Nature Conservancy, and a network of common gardens managed by the Southwest Experimental Garden Array (SEGA). Many specimen occurrence data are combined with high resolution images.

Recorded observations created by UCSB Invertebrate Zoology Collections, Cheadle Center for Biodiversity and Ecological Restoration.

Spiders (Araneae) mostly from Ohio, with significant additional material from Florida and the Great Smoky Mt. National Park. Specimens are in vials with ethyl alcohol.  Includes the historical collections from 1915-1945 of William Barrows, the Ohio Spider Survey 1994-2014, plus the Andrew Penniman collection.

This aggregate dataset contains records of primarily bees and Lepidoptera from multiple sources compiled for the Park Pollinators project. This project was funded through the  task Agreement #P17AC00971 between Colorado State University and the US National Park Service (NPS) Inventory and Monitoring Division (I&M), to inventory insect pollinators (mainly butterflies, moths and bees) within the US national parks boundaries.

This is a general arthropod collection with pinned and ethanol preserved specimens suitable for DNA extraction. Focus areas of the collection are the beetle family Cerambycidae worldwide, woodboring larvae, and phytophagous beetles of the USA. (~4,000 specimens).

The Price Institute for Parasite Research (PIPR) is largely focused on the study of ectoparasitic insects (but we also work on vertebrate endoparasites, including avian malaria). The centerpiece of PIPR is a collection of 1200+ species of slide-mounted lice, representing about two thirds of the 301 recognized genera, making it the fourth most diverse collection in North America (top 10 worldwide). The collection is invaluable because of the consistent quality of its specimens, most of which were prepared by Dr. Roger Price, a leading authority on the systematics of lice. PIPR also contains an extensive collection of 40,000+ slides of fleas and lice assembled by the late Robert Elbel. It houses equipment for microscopy and the creation and analysis of digital images. This facility, in conjunction with the University's SEM unit, allows for rapid recording of morphometric data on a variety of scales. PIPR has facilities for preparing new slide-mounts and remounting slides. It houses one of the largest frozen ectoparasite tissue collections in the world, consisting of 7,000+ specimens from 250+ host species. PIPR also has an associated molecular lab with full capabilities for DNA extraction, PCR, and the preparation of material for the University of Utah's central automated sequencing facility. PIPR will serve as a base for research and training in ectoparasitology well into the new century. • 25,000 slides of lice (Phthiraptera) • 17,000 slides of fleas (Siphonaptera) • Additional ectoparasite specimens include: mites, ticks, flies, and helminths, but these are not yet catalogued.

The Bohart Museum’s mission is to serve the research community, support campus teaching, provide science educational outreach for the public, and to provide diagnostic and information services. The museum houses the seventh largest insect collection in North America. The museum specializes in the unique insect fauna of California, both native and exotic species. Current holdings of nearly 8 million specimens include a wide range of terrestrial invertebrates, specializing in arthropods (insects, millipedes, centipedes, scorpions, mites, ticks, and spiders), crustaceans (pill and sow bugs, fairy and tadpole shrimp), and tardigrade water bears. The largest collections are of the Lepidoptera, Hymenoptera, Coleoptera, Acarina and Tardigrada. The collections are worldwide in scope, with the Americas, south Asia and Australia particularly well-represented. The museum is also the home of the California Insect Survey and sponsors research on the California fauna.

The Richard B. Dominick Moth and Butterfly Collection consists of 25,215 moths and 1,758 butterflies of which there are 1,167 species; the collection is currently located on the Columbia Campus of the University of South Carolina. All specimens were collected by Dr. Dominick in the areas around his home on The Wedge Plantation between during the period from roughly 1965 through 1975. The Wedge is a former rice plantation, located 5 miles north of McClellanville, South Carolina, and consisting of a mixed habitat of impounded rice fields, cypress swamps and a mixed pine-hardwood forest including live oaks and giant Magnolias. The property is transected by the fresh to brackish South Santee River, which divides The Wedge into approximately 650 and 850 acre tracts. The collection was the result of the lifelong interest of Dr. Dominick, a physician. Dr. Dominick played a central role in reevaluating the phylogeny of moth species in North America. A series of monographs organized as fascicles of "The Moths of America North of Mexico" was published through the joint effort of Dr. Dominick and E.W. Classey; from 1971 to 1978 13 fascicles were published on 13 superfamilies of moths. Many individuals assisted Dr. Dominick in this enterprise; those recognized as the principal contributors include Dr. D. C. Ferguson (1978), Dr. J. G. Franclemont (1973), Dr. Ronald W. Hodges (1971), (1974), (1978), Dr. E. G. Munroe (1972), (1973), (1976), and Mr. Charles R. Edwards. The cataloging of the Dominick Collection was done by Dr. F. Lance Wallace of The Citadel, Charleston SC; Dr. Wallace maintained the collection from 1983 to 1992, updating the collection to coincide with the numbering system and revisions occurring in the Check List of the Lepidoptera of America North of Mexico.

This data set is comprised of observations of invertebrates from North America with a focus in Arizona and northwestern Mexico. Observations were made by Laura Steger and Rick Overson. Odonate abundance for a survey reach is listed as single (1), rare (2-4), uncommon (5-12), common (13-100), or abundant (100+), unless otherwise noted. Please reach out to us if you have any questions about the data in this collection.

Temporary collection containing only plant records from the RL Minckley Insect and Plant collection: https://scan-bugs.org/portal/collections/misc/collprofiles.php?collid=257

The Rutgers University Entomological Museum (RUEM) is home to over 200,000 specimens, one of the largest and most comprehensive collections of New Jersey insects in the world. The collection dates back to the late 1880s and was developed by both entomologists and citizen scientists. Much of the collection is from areas of agriculture that no longer exist due to development in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States.

This collection represents an incomplete spectrum of insects collected at UC Berkeley - Sagehen Creek Field Station (and a few others). UC Davis' ENT109 has been taught at Sagehen in alternate years since shortly after Richard Bohart initiated the course in the late 1940's. Phil Ward has run the program in recent decades, and is undoubtedly the most knowledgeable expert on the insect fauna of Sagehen and the surrounding areas. ENT109 students must collect 200 families during their stay (of about 600 in all of North America). This challenging task is made possible by Sagehen's geographical position that spans from the Sierra Crest at the top, to the Great Basin where the creek joins the Little Truckee River. Sagehen is also positioned within day-trip distance of many additional ecosystems, including lakes, rivers and deserts, that support even more insect fauna diversity. Year-round flows from Sagehen's volcanic bedrock feed fen and meadow complexes that have been especially conducive to driving caddisfly speciation. Don and Nancy Erman have published extensively on these insects and ecosystems at Sagehen. Sagehen's insect specimen records were digitized by BNHM as part of a CAP-TCN grant in 2014. Those records were simply added to the museum's collection records, without any way of identifying them as Sagehen specimens, and with no way for Sagehen to manage that data. So, in 2020 we worked with the museums to finally separate out and upload the Sagehen data to SCAN-bugs.org.

Collection of K. Samanta Orellana A., primarily containing specimens collected in Guatemala and Southwestern US. Currently hosted at Arizona State University (SOAC) and Universidad de San Carlos de Guatemala (SOA).

Collection is heavily focused on the SW USA and NW Mexico, particularly the peninsula of Baja California. Notably strong collections of Lepidoptera and Neuroptera. The median date of specimen acquisition is 1957 with collections ranging from 1905 to present day. Current and near future collection priorities will focus on underrepresented areas in Baja California, particular inland and coastal dunes.

The SDSU Terrestrial Arthropods Collection includes an estimated 50,000 specimens of pinned insects, a slide-mount collection, and many terrestrial arthropods (e.g., insects, arachnids, myriapods) preserved in ethanol. Most of these specimens were collected in southern California and adjacent regions (e.g., Arizona, Baja California Mexico). The collection holdings in Arachnida, Orthoptera, Lepidoptera, and Coleoptera are particularly strong. The collection is an important resource for both the teaching and research missions of the Department of Biology at SDSU, with a synoptic collection of local insects kept specifically for this purpose.

SLRC is the collection to make specimens accessible that are part of an ongoing Gelechiidae Systematics Research project: most are the author's home collection, frequently are on loan from different institutions/collections which are not destined to become part of the author's home collection.

A regional collection consisting of specimens from the Southeast Missouri and Southwest Illinois area. Has representatives from most orders.

Insect collection of the Garth and Jerri Frehner Museum of Natural History located at Southern Utah University.

Spiders and associated parasites / parasitoids. Dried and alcohol preserved.

The Forest Biology Lab is located in the Vermont Agricultural and Environmental Laboratory (VAEL) on the campus of Vermont Technical College in Randolph. This new facility houses FPR’s insect collection that contains at least 1,884 different species of Vermont invertebrates from lab submissions and trap surveys. 

In 1867, Professor Albert J. Cook started the ARC and it currently houses ~ 1.5 million specimens mounted on pins, slides or stored in alcohol representing ~35,000 species. A significant portion of the collection represents the insect diversity Michigan and the Great Lakes Region. Other significant collections represent the world-wide arthropod fauna for select taxa, e.g., Lepidoptera and Scolytinae. Researchers in systematics, agriculture, natural resources, urban insect management, to extension personnel and to the general public use these specimens. Please direct inquiries to Anthony Cognato, Director or Sarah Smith, curator (smith462@msu.edu).

Davidson College used to have many more insects than we do currently. Much of the collection was transferred to NC State in the late 1990s when we lost our museum space to renovations for research space. We have recently rebuilt some of what remained to a somewhat larger collection, due to our own collecting and a decent sized gift of Costa Rican, European and North American butterflies. The collection is an idiosyncratic collection of what was left behind, what I’ve collected, and butterflies gifted to the College.

From June 20th - July 6th, 2019, an international team of 35 entomologists from 15 countries attended Fly School II: A Course for Dipterists in Los Osos, California, sponsored by the Los Angeles County Natural History Museum. We extensively sampled for Diptera at 17 main sites, with Camp Keep (GPS N 35.29, W -120.88) as the camping quarters, representing a broad range of habitats within San Luis Obispo County. A variety of collecting methods were employed, including both active (e.g. sweep sampling, hand netting, and aspirating) and passive (e.g. Malaise, Shannon, and light traps) techniques. Flies were identified to lowest taxonomic level possible based on expertise using the most relevant literature available, and specimens are permanently housed at a variety of locations around the world. A full checklist of taxa based on these data will be included in a forthcoming publication in the Pan-Pacific Entomologist. Co-contact: Brittany Wingert - bwingert@ualberta.ca Co-contact: Andrea Kautz - akautz14@gmail.com Co-contact: Brian Brown - bbrown@nhm.org

The Purdue Entomological Research Collection (PERC) is an integral part of the Department of Entomology at Purdue University. Specimens housed in the collection are the basis for research in systematic entomology at Purdue and by specialists worldwide. The PERC also serves as a reference to facilitate the accurate and timely identification of insects for extension and teaching needs. Approximately 2 million specimens are held, representing more than 140,000 species. This includes mainly dry-mounted pinned material as well as many specimens stored in liquid preservative or mounted on slides.

The insect collection numbers over 200,000 specimens, with strengths in Heteroptera, Hymenoptera, Lepidoptera and Odonata of the northeastern United States. Although the origins of the collection date to the 1930s, due largely to the efforts of Jerauld Manter, a faculty member at the time, our earliest specimens date from the 1870’s. The facility also houses part of the James A. Slater worldwide collection of Rhyparochromidae (Heteroptera).

The Uganda National Insect Collection is a repository of the arthropod collections of the National Insect Museum and Herbarium situated at the National Agricultural Research Laboratories Kawanda (NARL), under the National Agricultural Research Organization. This is the oldest and largest insect collection in the East and Central African regions holding specimens of agricultural and scientific importance.

The collection, estimated at over 20,000 insect specimens, dates back to the 1900s and represents a valuable historical record of agricultural pests in the country and the world at large. It was started by C.C. Gowdey who was a Government Entomologist at the then Department of Agriculture from 1909 to 1921. During his 12 years in Uganda C.C. Gowdey, G.L.R. Hancock, G.D.H. Carpenter, and other co-workers discovered more than 50 new insect species. The collection, therefore, serves as the reference for all insects in Uganda and is the only place where insect taxonomic activities are conducted.

Despite its importance, the existence of this insect collection is relatively unknown. In 1994 the national agricultural research sub-sector was made autonomous and research activities were reorganized from discipline-based to commodity (crop or livestock) based. This led to the shortage of funding for its conservation activities and the museum suffered neglect. A recent initiative by the Biotechnology and Biodiversity Program at NARL is working towards reviving this facility through digitization. Later on, collections from other NARO institutes will follow suit.

The USNM Entomology Collection is one of the largest insect collections in the World. The collection contains over 300,000 species representing approximately 60% of known insect families. With approximately 35 million specimens, including 100,000 holotypes and hundreds of additional paratypes and other secondary types, in more than 232,000 drawers in 5200 cabinets, 33,000 jars or vials, and 50,000 slides from locations worldwide, the collection is strongest in coverage for Nearctic and Neotropical regions. Specimens from the Old World are also well represented, especially Sri Lanka, Philippines, and Papua New Guinea. Particular strengths include mosquitoes, wasps, beetles, butterflies and moths and flies. The collection of Coleoptera at USNM is one of the world’s largest, consisting of more than 10 million specimens, including over 20,000 primary types. The nucleus of the National Collection was formed in 1881 with the transfer of the general collection of the U.S. Department of Agriculture to the National Museum of Natural History. Notable collection acquisitions and donations have significantly enhanced the National Coleoptera Collection. The majority of the collection is housed at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Natural History in Washington, DC, other groups are held at the USDA’s Agricultural Research Center in Beltsville, Maryland and the Smithsonian Institution’s Museum Support Center in Suitland, Maryland. The Department of Entomology includes research scientists and museum specialists from the Smithsonian Institution, U.S.D.A. Systematic Entomology Lab and Walter Reed Biosystematics Unit of the Department of Defense.

The Universidad Autónoma de Querétaro Insect Collection (UAQE) is located in the state of Querétaro in the center of Mexico. It was initiated in 1998 and contains over 90,000 insect specimens, mostly mounted on pins with a small collection in alcohol. Principal taxonomic groups represented majority of identified specimens are from Curculionidae, Chrysomelidae, aquatic beetles, Pentatomidae, bees, aquatic Hemiptera, Formicidae, and Orthoptera. The biogeographic areas covered is mostly from the Altiplano Central and the Sierra Madre Oriental but the collection contains other regions of Mexico, with small numbers of specimens from the United States and other countries. There are 21 type specimens housed in the collection.

Colección de insectos presentes en los sistemas agricolas, pecuaria y forestal de Nicaragua.

The University of Arizona Insect Collection (UAIC) contains approximately 2 million specimens representing 35,000 species of pinned, alcohol-preserved, slide-mounted and frozen-tissue preserved arthropods mostly from the Sonoran Desert Region. Significant holdings include Coleoptera, Hemiptera, Hymenoptera, Orthoptera and Lepidoptera, but all insect groups are extensively represented. The UAIC user community is diverse, ranging from outstanding undergraduate and graduate students to highly active emeritus insect systematists. Annually, we host thousands of visitors, ranging from resident researchers to individual walk-ins, campus tour groups, and vast numbers of people seeking information on the biology of the Sonoran Desert Region.

This collection holds the records for approximately 30,000 pinned bee specimens collected and curated by scientists and volunteers at the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum across the Tucson Basin in southern Arizona.  Many of the specimens were collected as part of long-term pan-trap surveys. These specimens are deposited in the University of Arizona Insect Collection.

Insect collection of RL Minckley which is deposited at the University of Arizona. An associated collection of plants is also deposited with the University. A large number of the included insect records are related to a specific vouchered plant.

University of California Santa Barbara Invertebrate Zoology Collection, Cheadle Center for Biodiversity and Ecological Restoration. Contributions to data in this collection come from Katja Seltmann (https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5354-6048), Elaine Tan (https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0504-4067), Rachel Behm (https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7264-3492) and Zach Brown. The data is archived at https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.5660088.

The University of Georgia Collection of Arthropods (UGCA) serves as the official state repository of insects and other non-marine arthropods. The Collection is part of the UGA Department of Entomology and the Georgia Museum of Natural History (GMNH). The UGCA includes approximately 2,000,000 pinned specimens. In addition the collection houses significant alcohol-preserved and slide-mounted collections. Approximately 60% of the holdings are from the southeastern United States as is consistent with our mission to serve as the primary systematics reference for the state. More than 70% of that regional material is identified to the species level.

The University of Hawaii Insect Museum (UHIM) is the second largest collection of insects in the state of Hawaii and ranks among the biggest collections in the world for Hawaiian insect holdings. The collection dates to 1908, and as such houses an important record of changes in arthropod biodiversity over time, including the extinction and introduction of species. The museum houses over 250,000 specimens, with strengths in endemic Diptera and Lepidoptera. The UHIM also serves as a center for research and education about biodiversity and systematics for the University of Hawaii system.

A collection of spiders from Eastern North America. All varieties of families are present, but the greatest representation exists for the Linyphiidae. Approximately 10,000 specimens.

The University of Kentucky Insect Collection is composed of two major collections. The primary UK collection had its beginning in 1889 under the newly formed Entomology Department’s chair, Harrison H Garman. Charles Covelle of the University of Louisville facilitated donating their collection to UK; the transfer was completed in 2003. In 2010, the combined collection was moved into its current location in the Dimock building on the UK main campus. The collection is housed in compactors and consists of somewhere between ½ and 1 million pinned specimens in 1,868 drawers. Major strengths include leafhoppers (>250 drawers) and Lepidoptera (730 drawers) where taxonomists Paul Freytag (UK, leafhoppers) and Charles Covelle, Jr. (U of L, Lepidoptera) spent their careers studying these groups. The collection is Kentucky-centric, but has specimens from all over the US, and more exotic locations in Central and South America (Costa Rica, Panama, Venezuela), Asia (Japan, Phillipines, Thailand) and the Middle East (Saudi Arabia). There is also a more modest collection of ethanol-preserved specimens.

The Ouellet-Robert Entomological Collection (coden: QMOR), housed at the University of Montreal's Biodiversity Center, contains 1.5 million specimens of insects, arachnids, and other terrestrial arthropods. Approximately 500,000 are dry specimens, 1 million are preserved in ethanol in 40,000 glass vials, and a few microscope slides complete the total. Of the ~20,000 species housed in the collection, half are recorded from the Canadian province of Quebec. A vast majority of the material is from Quebec and dates to the 20th Century. Beetles, bees, and the aquatic orders of insects are taxonomic strengths.

Worldwide insects with emphasis on Great Plains of USA and Neotropics. Approximately 2 million specimens with strengths in Coleoptera, Hymenoptera, Lepidoptera, Orthoptera.

Invertebrates, Geographic range of the collections primarily represent Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas but also includes miscellaneous aquatic insects from scattered regions of the United States of American and the sub-Antarctic region of Chile. Preparations include alcohol vials (aquatic insects), pinned (insects) and envelopes (Odonata).

The DUCP collection contains arthropods caught in pitfall traps from the summers of 2018, 2019, and 2021.Traps were placed along a 150m transect with traps located at 0m, 75m, and 150m. There were two transects per site: one starting from the field margin and one begining at a praire pothole edge.   Sites sampled include five seeded grasslands, four native prairies, five canola fields, three barley fields, and two wheat fields located within 100km of Saskatoon, SK, Canada.

The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga Insect collection started in 1970 with Dr. Charles Nelson, a Plecoptera expert. For several years it grew into an extensive teaching collection with representative of most insect families found in the Southeastern USA. In 2008, Dr. Stylianos Chatzimanolis initiated the Coleoptera collection, which is fully curated and databased. The main focus of the Coleoptera collection is the Southeastern USA but several other countries are represented. The mission of the UTCI collection is to serve as an a hub for education, outreach and research on southeastern Coleoptera. We welcome visitors and loan requests; please contact Stylianos Chatzimanolis at stylianos-chatzimanolis@utc.edu

The Zadock Thompson entomological collection is the oldest and most complete collection of its kind in the state of Vermont. It is also the largest insect collection in the state, with approximately 280,000 pinned specimens, and 20,000 DNA-grade specimens preserved in ethanol. The species represented in the collection represent the diversity of insect’s populations in Vermont, though the range of the specimens is worldwide. The collection consists of approximately 40% Coleoptera, 10% Hemiptera, 10% Diptera, 10% Lepidoptera, 5% Hymenoptera and 5% Odonata, and a selection of various other orders of insects; as well as 60,000 Arachnids. The collection is now the only large arthropod collection in the state, since the ruin of the State Invertebrate Collection by flooding from Tropical Storm Irene. The Thompson collection has repeatedly and regularly been accessed by scientists studying taxonomy, nomenclature, phylogenetics, population ecology, and biodiversity of species living in Vermont, as well as being regularly used for biological class instruction, and by non-biologists, including artists and photographers. Understanding the consequences of climate change on biodiversity and distribution of animals is becoming increasingly important, and thus the scientific value of historical collections such as the Zadock Thompson Zoological Collection increases.

The Stephen J. Taft Parasitology Collection in the UWSP Museum of Natural History (UWSP – PARA) was established in 2004 when Dr. Stephen (Steve) J. Taft retired after 33 years of teaching and research at UWSP. The collection was largely acquired and amassed through the work of Steve Taft and the numerous students he mentored over the decades of his tenure at UWSP. The collection is impressive in its magnitude and faunistic scope, with over 20,000 slide mounted specimens and additional hundreds of wet preserved specimens in vials and jars. Strengths of the collection include avian ectoparasites (lice and mites) as well as endoparasites (helminths and blood protists). The collection contains many invaluable specimens, such as those from hosts that no longer occur in Wisconsin, or others from hosts for which lethal sampling is no longer permissible. The Parasitology Collection maintains facilities for preparing new permanent slide-mounts and remounting slides. A small but growing frozen tissue collection and associated molecular laboratory support future research. The mission of the Parasitology Collection is to serve as a foundation for research and training, primarily of undergraduates, in parasitology and related scientific and applied disciplines.

The collections of Utah Technical University’s Natural Science Museum were originally made solely to help students become familiar with the area’s plants and animals. With the institution’s change from a two-year college in 2013, its commitment to technology education, and the growing importance of biodiversity informatics led to the decision to start digitizing the existing collection and using it to help ensure students become familiar with the new tools being developed for recording, sharing, and using specimen-based biodiversity information.

The Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University Insect Collection is the oldest and largest entomological collection in Virginia. Founded in 1888 by W.B. Alwood at the university’s first experimental station with just a few insects collected from his apple orchards, the collection now composes more than 500,000 specimens. The collection contains many entomological treasures like American Burying Beetles collected from Blacksburg in 1889 (now extinct from the state), colorful Malaysian butterflies, a herbarium of plant pests, and an extensive slide collection of 50,000 soil mites. In addition to pinned dried specimens, the VTEC holds an alcohol collection of aquatic insects and Appalachian millipedes.

The Western Washington University Insect Collection houses approximately 75,000 insect specimens. Our geographic area of focus is the northwestern portion of the contiguous United States. Most of our specimens are from the northwestern portion of Washington State, an area that is poorly represented in other collections in the region. The collection is the largest publicly-held insect collection in populous western Washington. 

The University of Idaho’s William F. Barr Entomological Museum is located in the Agriculture building (room 136) at the University of Idaho (Moscow, ID). The museum was initiated in 1946, when taxonomist W.F. Barr (1920-2011) was hired at UI, where he served until retiring in 1982. The collection contains over one million pinned specimens, housed in 142 CAS type cabinets, over 20,000 vials of ethanol-preserved immatures, and a modest collection of slide-mounted mites, Diptera and aphids. The primary geographic focus is the Pacific Northwest region and southern deserts, but also world coverage for Buprestidae and Cleridae, Bill Barr’s specialty families. Other particularly well represented groups are other families of Coleoptera, rangeland grasshoppers, aquatic insects and butterflies. The collection also houses the very large collection of reprints and rare books donated by Melville H. Hatch. The long-serving (1986-2015) curator was Frank Merickel, a position held by Luc Leblanc (leblancl@uidaho.edu) since 2015.

Insect collection of William Murphy.