Entomology Research Museum facts for kids
The Entomology Research Museum is a special place at the University of California, Riverside. It's like a giant library, but instead of books, it holds millions of insects! This museum is part of the Department of Entomology, which is the study of insects.
Imagine about 4 million insects all gathered in one spot! Most of them, over 3 million, are carefully pinned. About 400,000 are mounted on tiny slides so scientists can look at them up close. The rest are kept in ethanol, a type of alcohol, which helps preserve them. This includes not just insects, but also other arthropods like spiders and even some snails.
About three-quarters of these insects have been identified. This means scientists know their genus (a group of closely related species) or even their exact species. The collection has many different types of insects. For example, about 25% are Hymenoptera (like bees and wasps), 21% are Coleoptera (beetles), 18% are Diptera (flies), and 18% are Lepidoptera (butterflies and moths).
A Long History of Collecting
This insect collection is one of the oldest at the University of California. The first insects arrived in 1923. They were brought from the California State Insectary in Sacramento by a scientist named Harry Smith.
Over the years, other large personal collections were added. P.H. Timberlake added his insects in 1924. Later, L.D. Anderson added his collection in 1948. In 1965, the museum bought the large collection of North American beetles from G.P. McKenzie.
The museum became an official part of the Entomology division in 1962. This was thanks to E.I. Schlinger. Today, it's one of the 20 biggest insect collections in the United States. It's also one of the top 10 largest collections found only at a university. For insects from places like southern California, this museum's collection is even more important.
Special Collections and Tiny Wonders
The museum has some truly amazing and unique collections. For example, its collection of Chalcidoidea (a type of tiny parasitic wasp) is one of the biggest in the world. Even more impressive is its collection of Chalcidoidea on slides. There's no other collection like it anywhere! It has over 100,000 slides, mostly of very small wasps like Trichogrammatidae, Aphelinidae, Mymaridae, Eulophidae, and Encyrtidae.
Other special insects in the collection include:
- Apoidea (bees)
- Asiloidea (like Bombyliidae or bee flies, Therevidae or stiletto flies, and Asilidae or robber flies)
- Meloidae (blister beetles)
- Thysanoptera (thrips)
- Staphylinidae (rove beetles)
- Melyridae (soft-winged flower beetles)
- Coccinellidae (ladybugs)
- Sciomyzidae (marsh flies)
- Tephritidae (fruit flies)
- Miridae (plant bugs)
- Aphididae (aphids)
- Coccoidea (scale insects)
- Special scarab beetles like Pleocoma and Chrysina.
The museum also holds over 1,100 primary types. These are the very first specimens used to describe a new species. There are also thousands of paratypes, which are other important specimens from the same original group. Many of these important specimens were collected by P.H. Timberlake.
Where Do These Insects Come From?
Most of the insects in the museum come from southern California, Arizona, and the Baja California Peninsula. This includes one of the best collections of insects from the Sonoran Desert. This desert covers parts of the Colorado Delta and Mojave areas. It also has many insects from the Coastal sage scrub areas.
While many insects are from California and nearby regions, the museum also has a lot of insects from other places. These include northern California, other parts of the U.S., and Mexico. There are also significant numbers of insects from Central and South America. Some even come from the Russian Far East, India, Australia, South Africa, and Thailand.
The collection of parasitic wasps is especially diverse. These wasps come from almost every part of the world. Some of these specimens date all the way back to the early 1900s!
