About the Collection

The Entomology Collection of the University of Colorado Museum of Natural History was founded in the early 1900’s and contains approximately 1,400,000 insects and 60,000 arachnids. It includes specimens from around the world but is especially rich in material from the Rocky Mountain Region. The strengths of our collection are the Hymenoptera (bees), Lepidoptera (butterflies), Coleoptera, Orthoptera, and Hemiptera (leafhoppers). Regional biological collections such as ours are especially important to the ecological and systematic communities because of their historical value, the concentration of collecting in a particular area, and their unusually excellent label data.  The Entomology Collection is rich in material from the Rocky Mountain Region, but also contains specimens from through out the United States and other parts of the world.  Our collection is constantly growing as we are actively engaged in collecting, research, and education.  Check out a list of our current projects.

The Entomology Collection is located on the CU Boulder campus, on the third floor of the Bruce Curtis Building (MCOL). We welcome researchers who would like to use the collection. Please contact us  to set up an appointment.

The Research Collection

The research collection contains several groups of historically important material, including collections made by T.D.A. Cockerell, one of the Museum's founders; Hugo Rodeck, former Museum Director; M.T. James; C.J. McCoy; B. Vogel; and former curator, Url Lanham. There are also several important collections that have been donated or deposited in the Entomology Collection. These include collections by G. Alexander (Orthoptera), F.M. Brown (Lepidoptera, Diptera and Hymenoptera), W.N. Burdick (Lepidoptera), D. Eff (Lepidoptera), C.W. Hicks (Hymenoptera), T. Kincaid (Hymenoptera and other insects of the Pacific northwest), B. Rotger (Coleoptera and Lepidoptera), F.K. Smith (Coleoptera), R. Watkins (Lepidoptera), and T. Macior (bumble bees). There are also several important voucher collections deposited here, assembled from research on local insects, including collections from S. Armstead, S. Collinge, S. Hinners, C. Kearns & D. Oliveras, and K. Mooney.

Our specimens are made available to researchers throughout the world by means of loans. In addition to providing our specimens for research, we house voucher specimens for research conducted on insects or spiders by University of Colorado faculty and students and strongly encourage all researchers here at the University to deposit voucher specimens in our collection. Are you a researcher interested in using or contributing to our collection? Check out our Policies and Procedures to get started.

The Teaching Collection

Separate teaching collections are maintained for use by the Ecology and Evolutionary Biology (EBIO) Department and the Mountain Research Station. In addition, there are various smaller collections within the Entomology Section that are used for classes and outreach. If you are interested in any of our education materials, please Contact Us.