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

For Identification requests, click here to send us a question and our experts will answer it!

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