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Biology Spring Field Trip 2010
Insect Collection and Museum
The Insect Collection and Museum of the Department of Biology and Microbiology is located in Halsey Science Center adjacent to the room in which the entomology class is usually taught. The insect collection serves many purposes: teaching (specimens are used in classes to represent groups of insects being discussed); research (specimens from research projects are housed in the collection for future reference); consulting (inquiries made by local citizens concerning their insect problems); and out-reach activities (local school classes tour the museum or talks are given at local/area schools with specimens from the collection used as examples). The collection consists of 50,000+ specimens. All pinned or pointed specimens and most of the specimens preserved in alcohol are stored in 17 Cornell (or U.S. National Museum) insect cabinets. Three of the cabinets (10 drawers each) are for storage of specimens preserved in alcohol. One cabinet contains study specimens of all major Orders and Families of insects and is directly accessible by students for study and reference purposes. The other 13 cabinets (12 drawers each) contain all the pinned and pointed specimens. In addition, there are approximately 1200 microscope slides that have been purchased commercially or prepared by students.
Total
numbers of pinned or pointed specimens for major groups of insects in the
collection are: Coleoptera 7025; Lepidoptera 3293; Diptera 2754; Hymenoptera
2533; Hemiptera 1993; Orthoptera 771; Homoptera 622; and Odonata 394. Some
adults of these and other 
Orders are preserved in alcohol. There are approximately 10,000 vials
with alcohol-preserved adult and immature specimens. Most of these vials have
multiple specimens and no attempt has been made to count each specimen. Many of
the alcohol-preserved specimens are aquatic immature insects. There are several
thousand specimens of Chironomidae larvae resulting from a multiple-year study
of chironomid populations in Lake Winnebago and the feeding habits of lake
sturgeon.The collection also has approximately 9,000 Australian specimens most
of which are aquatic species, especially Trichoptera larvae (3,922 specimens)
all of which are identified to Family and many to
species.
Essentially all specimens have appropriate collection data labels. Many of the specimens were donated by students enrolled in the entomology classes. Most of these are local, regional or state specimens. However, specimens have been collected throughout the U.S.
Associated with the Insect collection is an endowment held by the UW Oshkosh Foundation. This endowment provides money that is awarded to a student (undergraduate or graduate) whose responsibilities include assisting the staff entomologist in curating the insect collection. The award is usually made during the spring semester for the following academic year and provides financial help partially off-setting the student's tuition and academic fees. The award is competitive and the awardee is selected by a committee of faculty members including the entomologist in charge of the collection.
The
current professor emeritus in charge of the collection has a personal
entomological library that will be donated to the UWO foundation with the
stipulation that the journals, reprints, books, reference keys, etc. remain in
the museum in perpetuity.
