Entomological Collections Network

Some of Malcolm’s many impeccably organized and sputter coated SEM stubs covered with beetles and beetle parts

The resulting publication, featuring gorgeous images of the scutellum of assorted scolytids (and weird spores/goop potentially associated with mycangia…)

Malcolm is STILL PUBLISHING at age 99, including a new technical report based on his massive collection of SEM-prepped specimens and micrographs thereof

Cumulative Malcolm Furniss publication graph, indicating (as always!!) that productivity only increases after you get to retire

Luc Leblanc shares some background on the Barr Museum’s forestry insect collection, drawn largely from Malcolm Furniss’s bark beetles

Great to have you with us!

Two mahogany cabinets, 20 drawers each with 1,675 insects. Donated by Riker's grandchild Marcia Rissland in 2000

Original patent for the Riker mount.

Close up of the hardware holding the glass on a Riker mounted butterfly and cabinet drawer mechanism.

An example of Riker mounted moths at different life stages.

Original Riker mounts by inventor Clarence Riker held at @denvermuseumns.bsky.social , presented by Genevieve Anderegg! 😍

The cabinets are just as intricate as the insects held within!Though lacking in collection data, lots of educational & natural history research value once imaged!

#ECN2025

We're at #ECN2025 in Portland, Oregon!

We're passionate about entomological collections, which is why we published some of last year's ECN in a special topical collection: nhcm.pensoft.net/topical_coll...

Check out the @pensoft.net stand for our latest news!

Photos of some big bitey stag beetles from India

We have a remote talk by Devanshu Gupta if the Zoological Survey of India, summarizing the lucanid fauna of India via the ZSI’s collection.

to say nothing of the extraordinary Oskar Vogt, Nazi-hating socialist and neurobiologist who maintained a suspiciously large staff of entomologists and bumblebee collectors. He is pictured here holding a slice of Lenin’s brain.

Very tiny 19th century wasp specimens

Their historical material includes 19th-century insects from Dutch visitors to Japan and the extensive Hymenoptera collection of S. C. Snellen van Vollenhoven

New Naturalis campus in Leiden. It’s very bold and modern.

Jess Awad from Naturalis (massive Dutch biodiversity institute, formerly known as RMNH)— massive collection in a gorgeous new building (2019)

Clarence Riker himself, whose original cotton-based insect cabinets are now in the Denver Museum.

One of his many cotton-based insect mounts, only partially labeled and mostly leps.

Gen Anderegg tells us about Clarence Riker, inventor of the Riker mount (same family as Rikers Island too)

Once the U of Guam collection got cleaned up and put into order, workers found a number of both new spp records for the island as well as “last records” of spp that may already be extinct

Helpful infographic showing the non-typhoon threats to Guam, which are invasive species, invasive species, invasive species, and invasive species

Another harrowing tale, this time from Alfred Johnson and Ava Rios on the trials of biodiversity collections in Guam

Bill and Luke report that when the collection was transferred to university museums, they found not a single dermestid nor one broken antenna

Gary’s collection represented butterflies and moths equally, with ~1800 species each and 18,000+ total specimens

Bill Clark tells us about the exquisite personal lep collection assembled by Gary Gier, a retired HS teacher in Idaho

Lubo Masner’s “message to the young” (anyone under 70): “Less computer, more collecting”

And finally, Lubo’s message to the young: LESS COMPUTER, MORE COLLECTING

Ingredients for building a powerful bespoke insect net, Masner style

Lubo’s ultimate sweep net: fishing nets modified for durability and screening out any leaves, leps, or other debris that might mess up your sample of tiny wasps

Slide showing Lubo Masner looking exactly the same for 20+ years, as well as a graph of his publications over time

Istvan Miko introduces us to the phenotypically consistent and shockingly productive hymenopterist Lubomir Masner and his dedication to (among other things) tiny wasps

Photos of perfectly good specimens trapped inside old glass ethanol vials with fully melted stoppers

The jump scares continue with Tommy Mcelrath on INHS’s successful SPNHC grant to curate and digitize Californian insects, including rehousing some absolutely disastrous wet material

Brachyceran fly from the Essig museum absolutely bespackled with hideous mites

ECN day 2 starting off strong with President-Elect Pete and the most upsetting fly I’ve ever seen

A sticker of a rain beetle from the 2025 ECN Portland conference

It's the most wonderful time of the year! #ECN2025

Image montage of the tiger beetle and Marian holding one.

How the creation of a school insect collection project, led to the discovery of Amblycheila cylindriformis in Montana…
bioone.org/journals/the...

Marian Kirst reminds us of the value of being a “filthy generalist” and the importance of building strong local connections.

#ECN2025

Summary of FMNH scydmaenine holdings

Summary of FMNH pselaphine holdings. So small, so brown, so perfect…

Jessica Wadleigh of FMNH with the finest, tiniest beetles

There are also more sophisticated workflows, like confocal microscopy of slide-mounted specimens in Canada balsam)

Now THAT’s an imaging workflow (iPhone held by clamp)

Summary of the UNH collection holdings, featuring Don and one of his beloved pselaphines

Istvan Miko takes us on a trip to the UNH insect collection, which punches above its weight in part thanks to the superhuman collecting efforts of Don Chandler

Rolling lightweight racks designed to hold trays of food, moving drawers into a walk-in freezer. This is why it pays to have food service experience!

FYI: catering carts are the perfect dimensions to freeze large numbers of CAS drawers…

Photos of the collection space and DNA workspace, including a pleasant bouquet of flowers

Chris Marshall on the history and metamorphosis of OSAC, including a beautiful combination of Delta cabinets and compactors (and homegrown dahlias)

They are currently pursuing legislation to recognize the importance of biological collections, including a declaration of Sept. 2nd as a day of awareness (anniversary of the Museu National fire)

Slide from Luciane’s talk showing the geographic distribution of insect collections in Brazil (and the fact that insects are found in 108 of the country’s 339 zoological collections)

Luciane Marinoni, prez of the Brazilian Zoological Society, telling us about the 300+ entomological collections in Brazil

A young woman in the 1920s (?) peers through a very old-fashioned microscope

“Gladys in her prime”

Some century-old dead leaves with small whitish boogers stuck to them

Her dad mailed her a letter containing leaves with promising scale-like blobs :)