Insect Collections
The U.S. National Entomological Collection:
The U.S. National Entomological Collection ranks as the second largest insect collection in the world with approximately 35 million specimens including over 100,000 holotypes plus hundreds of thousands of additional paratypes and other secondary types.
The collection includes over 300,000 species representing approximately 60% of known insect families. With specimens from locations worldwide, the collections are second to none in coverage for the Nearctic and Neotropical regions. Specimens from the Old World are also well represented, especially from Sri Lanka, the Philippines, and Papua New Guinea. Particular strengths include mosquitoes, wasps, beetles, butterflies and moths, and flies. Although the bulk of the collection is kept dry, various groups—such as spiders—are stored in alcohol.
The collections are typically arranged by taxon; lower centipedecategories(genus,species) are arranged alphabetically,and for select taxa, they are further organized by country of origin within each species. While the majority of the collection is housed at the National Museum of Natural History in Washington DC, some groups are held at other research facilities in nearby Maryland, including the USDA’s Beltsville Agricutural Research Center and the Smithsonian Institution’s Museum Support Center. The U.S. National Tick Collection was moved in1990 to the Institute of Arthropodology and Parasitology at Georgia Southern University on a long-term enhancement loan.
The Lyman Entomological Museum:
The Lyman Entomological Museum is the insect collection and systematic entomology laboratory of McGill University. The collection houses 2.8 million specimens of insects and other arthropods, making it the second largest insect collection in Canada, and the largest university insect collection in the country.
Louisiana State Arthropod Museum:
The Louisiana State Arthropod Museum (LSAM) houses the largest collection of insects in the state. It is part of the Department of Entomology and is a component collection of the Louisiana Museum of Natural History. The LSAM contains approximately 500,000 specimens of insects and related arthropods. This includes 280,000 pinned, 18,000 fluid-preserved, and 30,000 slide-mounted specimens. Uncurated specimens in various stages of processing vary through time from 50,000 to 100,000. The LSAM is the principal repository for insects and related arthropods in Louisiana. Significant strengths of the collection include Coleoptera (51%) and Hemiptera (28%). Lepidoptera (6%), Diptera (6%) and Hymenoptera (4%), and other orders (5%) make up the balance of the collection. The collection contains 747 paratypes, 1 syntype, 1 allotype, and 1 holotype. Primary types described by LSAM researchers are normally deposited in dedicated type repositories (e.g., the U. S. National Museum, Field Museum of Natural History, etc.). The majority of specimens are from southeastern United States, and most of the remainder are from elsewhere in North America, Mexico, Central and South America. Recent expeditions have added specimens, mainly Coleoptera from West Africa (Ghana) and New Zealand.
The Melbourne Museum:
The Entomology Collection comprises a great diversity of terrestrial and freshwater insects. Primarily focused on the fauna of Victoria and south-eastern Australia, it also contains material from around Australia and the rest of the world. One of Museum Victoria’s largest collections, estimated at 2.5–3.0 million specimens, with more than 190 000 registered specimens, the collection is locally, nationally and internationally significant. It consists of both wet (preserved in 70% ethanol) and dry (pinned) specimens. They cover all major insect groups found in Australia, including butterflies and moths, beetles, grasshopper, ants, bees, true bugs, caddisflies (and other aquatic insects) and cockroaches.
Antennae Magazine:
Insect Poetics is a two-part collection of essays from Antennae Magazine. The issues are available in PDF format from their website. The book of the same name is also worth picking up.
From the Editor:
The third issue of Antennae is greatly different from its summer predecessor. As you remember, our previous issue took a marked environmentalist turn focusing on the problem of plastic bags. As explained at the time, Antennae did not want to abandon its animal-focus but aimed at broadening its scope in the belief that environmental issues will soon become common denominator to a number of disciplines involved in the study of human-animal studies.
Our third issue maintains this premise and is completely dedicated to insects. The inspiration for the theme came from ‘Insect Poetics’, the book edited by Eric Brown which in eighteen original essays, wonderfully presents a range of ways in which our human, intellectual, and cultural models have been influenced by the presence of insects. Back in May, Antennae contacted Eric Brown asking for an interview. The idea of a themed issue of Antennae titled after the book came from a consistent exchange of emails that took place over summer. We selected the work of a number of writers featured in the book and proposed them to write extensions to their essays. Each was asked to develop a thread of their choice.
The result is not one issue of Antennae but two. Our fall issue is divided into two volumes: the one you are now reading and a second one that will be available on the 1st of November.
This does not necessary mean that we will increase the frequency of our publication just yet, but we thought that this experiment could be particularly interesting, and yes, we do have a serious soft spot for insects. In our best ‘tradition’ we are still bringing to the surface challenging and thought provoking works by artists engaging with the natural field. Take a look at the work of Tessa Farmer, our cover story, and let us know what you think. She is one of the most original contemporary artists around and her work is gaining popularity in Europe – you literally won’t believe your eyes.
In a slightly more political turn we question the contemporary exhibiting trend that sees the old-fashioned entomology cabinets disappearing from Natural History Museums around the world and asked a number of leading entomologists to express their views on the subject.
The second volume of issue 3 will include among others an interview with Catherine Chalmers; the macro photography of beetles by Poul Beckmann (author of the photographic books Jewels 1 and 2) and some insect
recipes inspired by ‘Why Not Eat Insects?’ -Vincent M. Holt.
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