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College of Agriculture and Life Sciences 
Entomology and Plant Pathology

Specimens

Over 1.9 million specimens held at the NC State Insect Collection

Taken Under our Wings

Many of our specimens have been databased and can be browsed through our NC State Insect Museum Specimen Database. Most drawers can also be viewed through our GigaPan profile. 

View online collection

Below is a summary of our holdings in alphabetical order.

  • Archaeognatha: Many vials and one slide box.
  • Coleoptera: Over 100,000 specimens in over 850 drawers, mainly from North America.
  • The Collection is strong in carabids, curculionids, chrysomelids, elaterids and scarabs, with holdings of cerambycids, coccinellids, dytiscids and staphylinids represented. Several large donations over the past several years have greatly improved our holdings of Coleoptera. J.F. Cornell’s beetle Collection (on indefinite loan to NCSU) has been donated over the years (20,000+ specimens have already been integrated into the Collection). Tom Daggy’s Collection likewise significantly increased our representation of beetles. The NC State Universities Libraries hold F.F. Tippmann’s priceless Collection of literature on beetles.
  • Collembola: Over 11,200 slides and 2,200 vials, representing one of the best collembola collections in the eastern United States. This includes the David Wray Collection of Collembola.
  • Dermaptera: We have three drawers and many vials. Gigapan – Dermaptera drawers.
  • Dictyoptera: Nine drawers of “Blattaria,” with over 120 vials of Isoptera and five drawers of Mantodea.
  • Diplura: One slide box and several vials.
  • Diptera: Over 90,000 specimens in more than 280 drawers. The Insect Collection is strong in culicids and tabanids (contributed mainly by K.L. Knight and R.C. Axtell, respectively), with many North Carolina syrphids holdings.
  • Embiodea: A few older pinned specimens and several vials; Embiodea drawers.
  • Ephemeroptera: Over 500 vials.
  • Hemiptera: Hemiptera drawers
  • Heteroptera: Over 25,000 specimens in more than 200 drawers. The Collection is strong in mirids with lygaeids and pentatominds represented, and the material represents the eastern United States well. Bob Blinn has a strong interest in mirids and reduviids and adds hundreds of Heteroptera each year to the Insect Museum.
  • Homoptera: NC State has a worldwide collection of Homoptera, with over 450,000 specimens in more than 575 drawers, which has extraordinary value because of the systematic works derived from it. With comprehensive coverage taxonomically and geographically, the Homoptera collection is substantial in cicadellids, and the other families are well represented.
  • The Auchenorrhyncha collection, established by Z.P. Metcalf, served as part of the basis for the classification he used in General Catalog of the Homoptera, “probably the greatest catalog of any order of insects to be found in the world” (Brett 1976). D. A. Young contributed much to the growth of this part of the Collection. Wilhelm Wagner’s Collection, bequeathed to NC State University in 1977, is rich in European Auchenorrhyncha. The world collection of aphids supported the taxonomic research of C. F. Smith, A. T. Olive, H. L. Comroy, and M. M. Cermeli; it is vital in material from North Carolina and Utah. The unique and invaluable literature files of Metcalf and Smith on Auchenorrhyncha and Aphididae give immediate access to existing knowledge in these groups. Together, NC State’s collections of literature and specimens form a unique resource for research and graduate training in the Homoptera.
  • Hymenoptera: Over 75,000 specimens in more than 525 drawers. The Collection is strong in Apoidea, Braconidae, Pompilidae and Formicidae. Hymenoptera drawers.
  • T. B. Mitchell’s extensive bee collection is primarily North American in scope but contains megachilids from all zoogeographic regions. The Collection of North American Aphidiinae (a product of C. F. Smith’s research on these parasites of aphids) includes many paratypes.
  • Lepidoptera: Over 525 drawers and hundreds of immatures in vials.
  • Mecoptera: Several drawers and vials, plus the A.D. Shaftesbury flea collection, which includes over 50 slid boxes. Mecoptera drawers.
  • Megaloptera: About six drawers and nearly 200 vials. Megaloptera drawers.
  • Neuroptera: About nine drawers and about 140 vials. Neuroptera drawers.
  • Odonata: About 50 drawers and over 400 vials.
  • Orthoptera: Over 12,000 specimens in about 80 drawers largely reflect B.B. Fulton’s life interest in Orthoptera of the United States. Orthoptera drawers.
  • Phasmatodea: About four drawers. Phasmatodea drawers.
  • Plecoptera: About two drawers and nearly 500 vials. Plecoptera drawers.
  • Protura: One slide box with several vials.
  • Psocodea: One drawer and nearly 150 vials of bark lice. For Troctomorpha, we have three slide boxes and about 35 vials. Psocodea drawers.
  • Thysanoptera: 75 vials and 16 slide boxes.
  • Trichoptera: Four drawers and over 700 vials. Trichoptera drawers.
  • Zoraptera: About 40 vials and one slide box.

Research Voucher Specimens

Entomology graduate students and faculty should be aware of their responsibility to deposit voucher specimens of the insects they research in the NC State Insect Collection (or another institution).

  1. Individuals embarking on studies that call for voucher specimens should plan carefully before the work is initiated. Such planning should involve direct consultation with entomologists knowledgeable in collection, identification, preservation, and storage of such specimens. When in doubt if vouchers are needed, individuals should check with the curators of the NC State Insect Collection.
  2. For each species studied a short series of specimens, perhaps 10 of each sex, is preferable to a single specimen or to hundreds of duplicate specimens which take up valuable space in a collection. Each specimen must be correctly prepared and bear a special voucher label (available from the curators of the NC State Insect Collection) clearly linking it to a specific research project, as well as an identification label and all the standard collection data (country and locality, date, collector or researcher, and such information as the host, etc.).
  3. Once a year, persons maintaining laboratory cultures used for research must preserve a few vouchers of all cultures in the NC State Insect Collection.
  4. Theses and research manuscripts for publication must indicate where vouchers have been deposited and the names of specialists who have identified material. Referees and graduate advisory committees should insist that authors include such statements in their works, except in the case of very well-known species that are unlikely to be misidentified. Even in the latter case, however, voucher specimens must be preserved so that future entomologists can substantiate results.