Entomology Department
Research Collections
Holdings
The insect collection of the
Museum of Comparative Zoology is
among the richest and historically most
significant in North America, containing
more than seven million specimens and the
primary types of more than 33,000 species.
The representation is worldwide
and particularly strong in the major orders
Coleoptera, Hymenoptera, Lepidoptera and
Diptera.
Several historically important collections
are housed at Harvard, including the type-rich
beetle collections of Horn, LeConte, Melsheimer,
Bowditch, Fall and Darlington. The collections
in many smaller orders are also among the
most important in North America, i.e., Trichoptera,
Odonata, Psocoptera, Neuroptera and Collembola.
The ant collection, alone comprising
nearly a million specimens, is the largest
and most important in the world. The fossil
insect collection is the second most important
one in the world.
As a result of an Association of Systematics Collections (ASC) survey and supplemental data (Miller, 1991), the MCZ entomological holdings were found to be the seventh largest in North America. These 1986 collection sizes (number of prepared specimens) were listed as follows:
| National Museum of Natural History | 25,000,000 |
| American Museum of Natural History | 16,204,000 |
| Canadian National Collection | 15,000,000 |
| Bernice P. Bishop Museum | 13,250,000 |
| Field Museum of Natural History | 8,000,000 |
| California Academy of Sciences | 7,601,000 |
| Harvard University (MCZ) | 7,263,000 |
Although the MCZ entomology collection is seventh in total number of specimens housed, it is second only to the Smithsonian Institution in North America for primary type holdings (the Smithsonian has about 99,000 types). Our type records list more than 33,000 holotypes, lectotypes, neotypes, and syntype series. The collections richest in type material are the Coleoptera (comprising about 50% of the types), Diptera, Neuroptera (s. l.), and Hymenoptera (especially ants).
The collection is worldwide in scope, with the United States, the West Indies, Central and South America and Australia and New Guinea being especially well represented. The entire collection, now estimated to contain over 7,500,000 prepared specimens, is taxonomically distributed as follows:
| Coleoptera | 48% |
| Diptera | 6% |
| Hymenoptera | 33% |
| Other Orders | 5% |
| Lepidoptera | 7% |
| Fossils | 1% |
Primary Types
The Entomology Primary Type Database, a searchable database with label data and more than 83,500 images representing 16,701 species, including Coleoptera, Diptera, Hymenoptera, Lepidoptera, and other Orders of insects, can be found at the project home page.
