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Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University Insect Collection (VPI-VTEC)

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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.

Curator: Paul Marek, pmarek@vt.edu
Collection Type: Preserved Specimens
Management: Live Data managed directly within data portal
Global Unique Identifier: 71cf02fb-35ac-4d6f-955a-8996120e7627
Digital Metadata: EML File
Rights Holder: Virginia Tech, Department of Entomology
GBIF Dataset page: http://www.gbif.org/dataset/042051f6-e602-4281-8ac3-d683811f0631
Cite this collection:
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University Insect Collection. Occurrence dataset (ID: 71cf02fb-35ac-4d6f-955a-8996120e7627) https://ecdysis.org/content/dwca/VPI-VTEC_DwC-A.zip accessed via the Ecdysis Portal, ecdysis.org, 2024-10-12).
Address:
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University Insect Collection
Department of Entomology (MC0319)
Price Hall, Room 216A, Virginia Tech
170 Drillfield Drive
Blacksburg, VA   24061
US
Collection Statistics
  • 17,872 specimen records
  • 16,915 (95%) georeferenced
  • 9,194 (51%) with images (9,793 total images)
  • 11,696 (65%) identified to species
  • 233 families
  • 821 genera
  • 1,553 species
  • 1,671 total taxa (including subsp. and var.)
Extra Statistics
Show Geographic Distribution
Show Family Distribution
Taxon Distribution
Taxon Distribution