University of Minnesota Insect Collection

The University of Minnesota Insect Collection’s mission is to explore, describe, and preserve representative specimens of Earth’s remarkable diversity of insects and to make these specimens available to the global community for research and education. Contributions to the collection began in 1879 with specimens of insects and spiders from the North Shore of Lake Superior. During the last 140 years, the collection’s holdings have grown from a regional collection of 3,000 specimens to a major national and international resource of more than 4.06 million specimens. The collection is one of the largest university-affiliated insect collections in North America. Enhancing the collection’s status are 5 resident systematists, computerized inventory management and specimen databases, and the large and historically important affiliated University of Minnesota Natural Resources Library. Current and past National Science Foundation grants have made significant progress in digitizing the collection’s specimen holdings. Research projects associated with the collection have broad taxonomic and geographic scope. Faculty and graduate student research focuses on both aquatic and terrestrial insect groups and includes taxonomic, phylogenetic, and applied questions. The collection is the mainstay of graduate training is systematic entomology at the University of Minnesota.

明尼苏达大学昆虫标本馆（University of Minnesota Insect Collection）的使命是探索、记述并保藏地球昆虫多样性的代表性标本，面向全球科研与教育共同体开放这些标本资源，以供研究与教学使用。该馆的馆藏最早始于1879年，首批藏品为取自苏必利尔湖北岸的昆虫与蜘蛛标本。在过去的140年间，其馆藏规模从最初的3000件区域性标本，发展为拥有超406万件标本的国家级乃至国际级重要资源，是北美地区规模最大的大学附属昆虫标本馆之一。馆内配备5名常驻系统昆虫学家、计算机化的馆藏管理与标本数据库，以及历史悠久、资源丰富的附属明尼苏达大学自然资源图书馆，进一步提升了该馆的学术地位。美国国家科学基金会（National Science Foundation）历年的资助项目，为该馆的标本数字化工作带来了显著进展。与该馆相关的研究项目涵盖广泛的分类学与地理研究范围，教职员工与研究生的研究聚焦于水生与陆生昆虫类群，研究方向涉及分类学、系统发育学及应用昆虫学相关问题。该馆同时是明尼苏达大学系统昆虫学研究生培养的核心依托。