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| Collection Info | Taxonomic Lists | Accessions & Loans | Visitors & Facilities |
The Insect Division houses approximately 4.5 million specimens
and single-species lots, and an additional 21,000 mixed species
lots. The majority of the latter consist of Acari and other microarthropods,
with each lot containing from a few to tens of thousands of individual
specimens. Prepared specimens are divided among four preparation
types: pinned, fluid, microscope slide and sound recording.
The collection ranked seventh in size among all surveyed collections
in the United States in 1971 (Steere, 1971) and was listed among
the "first rank" by Pechuman (1975). In the most recent
survey (Miller, 1991) based on 1986 data for all North American
collections, the Michigan collection tied for eleventh in overall
size and third among university collections. Among the latter,
only the collections of Harvard University and Cornell University
are larger.
Pinned and papered specimens are presently located in three
ranges. Room 2044 houses the Coleoptera, Hemiptera, Diptera, Hymenoptera and
Lepidoptera; room 2047 the Odonata and Neuropteroids and smaller orders; and
room 2080 the Orthoptera, Cicadidae and type collection. These specimens are
housed in 7000+ "Michigan drawers," storage drawers that are about
the size of two traditional Schmidt boxes, 18 1/4 x 13 1/4 x 2 1/2 inches. This
drawer size is also used by the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia.
Fluid collections are now housed in Room
2038. This room contains an environmental control system
and a 6 ft. long fume hood for working with large quantities of
solvents and other chemicals. Approximately 95,000 vials and jars
holding specimens preserved in 70% ethanol are organized in a
rack system. Five sizes of jars and vials are now used:
4 and 8 dram vials and 1, 2 and 8 ounce screw-top glass jars.
Four and eight- dram vials use bakelite screw caps with Polyseal
liners. The 1 oz. jars have a bakelite top with a Polyseal closure,
and the 2 and 8 oz. jars have a polyethylene liner and cap. The
jars and vials are stored in wood racks constructed in the museum,
each designed to accommodate a vial or jar of one size. Vial racks
are housed in 39 steel cabinets 18 x 36 x 72 inches. Each cabinet
has 7-10 shelves and can accommodate several hundred racks. One
cabinet houses 2 quart mason jars with unsorted lots of insects
in individual vials. In 1998, we started transferring specimens
from our old 3 dram vials with EPDM stoppers to the 4 dram screw-top
vials with Polyseal liners. In addition, this has caused us to
replace all of our vial racks with a slightly wider size to accomodate
4-dram vials.
Specimens mounted on microscope slides are housed in Room 2041.
Slides are stored in chipboard slide boxes with plastic inserts
holding 100 slides per box. These boxes are stored in 36 x 12
x 72 inch steel shelving units; boxes are stored on their sides
to maintain the slides in a horizontal position with cover-slip
up. Twelve shelf units presently accommodate 800 slide boxes,
87 of which contain insects and the remainder Acari.
Specimens awaiting preparation as pinned specimens or slide mounts
are stored in mixed lots, either dry or in ethanol. Unprepared
dry specimens are housed in a variety of field containers such
as cigar boxes, Schmidt boxes and drawers in insect cabinets.
Fluid collections such as light trap, malaise trap and Berlese
funnel residues, and parasite collections from single host individuals
are stored in standard vials and jars in separate racks in the
fluid collection.
last updated 08/21/2003
