| NCSU Insect Museum | |
|---|---|
Drawer of insects from the NCSU Insect Museum. |
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| Established | 1952 |
| Location | North Carolina State University, Raleigh, North Carolina |
| Type | Natural History Museum |
| Collection size | 1.5 million specimens |
| Director | Andrew R. Deans |
| Website | insectmuseum.org |
The NCSU Insect Museum is the center for research and training in insect systematics and biodiversity informatics at North Carolina State University. The Museum's collections hold more than 1.5 million specimens[1], with major emphases on the insects of North Carolina and on the Auchenorrhyncha and Aphididae (Hemiptera) of the world. A smaller but historically important (especially for bees of the eastern USA) and rapidly increasing portion of the collection is dedicated to Hymenoptera[2].
Deitz (1983a[3] and 1983b[4]) provides the most comprehensive reviews of the history of the NCSU Insect Museum. Insect reference collections started growing soon after the foundation of NC State University in 1889, with each individual collection being cared for by one curator. These multiple independent collections across campus were then collated into a single resource in 1952, then referred to as the Entomology Museum. This effort was organized by Zeno P. Metcalf, an Auchenorrhyncha systematist who served as the Insect Museum's first director.
This museum has since been referred to as the NCSU Insect Museum, and it continues to serve as a resource for entomologists who need to identify specimens, for researchers attempting to understand more about species distributions through time, for students learning insect taxonomy, and as a repository for vouchers that reference entomological research. The Museum also hosts an annual poetry contest called the Hexapod Haiku Challenge[5].