Insect collections

Field-collected beetles drying, ready to be labelled and added to the insect collection.

The Queensland Museum Entomology Collection:

• covers all taxonomic groups of insects and all habitats throughout Queensland and adjacent regions.
• 3.6 million items including more than 30000 type specimens.
• Approximately 220,000 specimens are registered which represents over 6% of the collection.
• contains internationally recognised collections of Australian parasitic wasps (Microhymenoptera); dung beetles (Scarabaeidae); ground beetles (Carabidae); ants (Formicidae); flat bugs' (Aradidae); bees (Apoidea) and mosquitoes (Culicidae).
• is primarily from Queensland, with comparative material from adjacent Indo-Pacific regions, such as New Caledonia.
• encourages use of material for studies in systematics, taxonomy, comparative morphology etc., and loans are readily made available to specialists and supervised students in Australia and overseas.
• comprehensive collections from all major tracts of rainforest in Queensland.
• comprises both wet (stored in 70-95% alcohol) and dry (pinned) collections.
• is steadily growing as our inventory of the region’s insects becomes more comprehensive.

University of Queensland Insect Collection (UQIC) now part of the QM Insect Collection

• a research collection begun in the 1920's by F.A. Perkins, the first lecturer in entomology at the University of Queensland.
• amalgamated with the Queensland Museum collection in 2011.
• best represented are Coleoptera, Diptera and Hymenoptera.
• the collection of Australian bees is possibly the largest in Australia as a result of more than 30 years of collecting by E.M. Exley and her students.

The Queensland Museum Entomology collection contains many important donated private collections including:

•  E.J. Dumigan - moth and butterfly collection
• William H. Miskin - mainly butterfly collection including many types
• Rowland Illidge beetle collection
• the Cedric Deane beetle collection
• Martin J. “Joe” Manski collection of lacewings
• part of Charles King's collection of hepialid moths
• Dodd Family, the beautiful and historically invaluable collection
• A.J. Turner - types, mainly moths
• Louis M. Roth collection of cockroaches
• Henry Rauber - butterfly collection
• A.A. Girault– approximately 4000 types of microhymenoptera and thrips
• E.N. “Pat” Marks - 35,000 mosquitoes, including 34 holotypes, seven cabinets of other slides (including dissections and larval skins), as well as her notebooks recording details of her collecting trips
• Franzen Family collection of butterflies and moths
• Oscar W. Tiegs beetle collection
• Murdoch De Baar - butterfly collection
• Reeves and Bryan - dragonfly and damselfly collection
• Stephen Johnson - butterfly collection (Housed at Museum of Tropical Queensland, Townsville - MTQ)
• Edward J.W. “Ted” Harris moth collection (Housed at MTQ)

Access for researchers:

The collection at South Brisbane is not open to the public, but is available to bona fide researchers and students. Material is available for loan to institutional-based researchers. Types are only loaned under exceptional circumstances.

Prospective visitors and researchers should make contact with curators or the collection manager via entomology.inquiry@qm.qld.gov.au

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