Insect Collections at The Alabama Museum of Natural History and The Department of Biological Sciences

305 Mary Harmon Bryant Hall
Dr. G. Milton Ward
Curator of Insects

Currently, the entomological holdings at UA include eight identifiable collections of various sizes and breadth. These collections include those owned by The Alabama Museum of Natural History and others by the Department of Biological Sciences. These eight collections include the Chermock collection of butterflies and beetles, the Loding beetles, the Vallentine butterflies and Harris collection of Trichoptera and Corixidae, as well as general teaching and research collections of terrestrial and aquatic insects used by the Department of Biological Sciences.

Our collections consist of both pinned and alcohol preserved specimens. They are housed in 27 cabinets of various types and sizes, occupying space on the 3rd floor of Mary Harmon Bryant Hall (Special Collections Facility). Our largest terrestrial collection, the Chermock butterflies, is largely material from Alabama and the Southwest USA, collected in mid 1930s to mid 1950s, and contained in over 200 display cases. The Loding beetles, again, material largely from Alabama, occupy 44 Cornell drawers and 200 Schmitt boxes. Henry Loding was an avid amateur entomologist, collecting widely throughout Alabama, while corresponding (and trading specimens) with many specialists within academia. The earliest collection dates of these specimens are the mid 1890s.

The largest of the aquatic insect collections is approximately 6000 vials of adult Trichoptera from Alabama. These specimens, collected primarily by Dr. Steve Harris and graduate students, are identified to species. Perhaps 80% of the Alabama’s 342 known species and all frequently encountered species are included. The aquatic insect collection also contains 400 vials (representing 24 species) of identified Alabama Corixidae. Our adult Odonata holdings consist of 225 dried specimens (pinned and in envelopes), many of which are identified to species. The aquatic insect teaching collection consists of 2600 vials of mostly immature specimens from Alabama, identified to genus.

Cataloging our aquatic insect collections is a high priority activity at the moment. Currently, we are at the mid-point of the process, with identification information and sample locations having been entered into a database for 80% of our holdings. We are now adding to the database geographic coordinates for more than 1000 collection sites.