Frost Museum Holdings

The main collection is housed in steel cabinets and includes about 45,000 Coleoptera, 25,000 Diptera and 25,000 Lepidoptera, as well as representatives of most other insect orders. The majority of specimens are from the central eastern and south eastern United States, particularly Pennsylvania and Florida. There are also specimens in many groups from parts of South America as well as other regions of the world.

There is an extensive microscope slide collection, especially for mammalian lice (Anoplura; worldwide) and aphids (Homoptera; Pennsylvania, North America).

In 2005-06 we welcomed the addition of the George and Alice Beatty Odonata collection, one of the largest Odonata collections in North America. With funds from the Beatty estate, College of Ag Sciences and the Department of Entomology we are documenting and integrating this collection into the Frost Museum. These funds have been used to establish an online accessible database using the software program Specify and to begin cataloging the Beatty specimens and accompanying labels and information from field notebooks.

The taxonomic composition of the collections is currently being prepared for listing with this web page. These holdings will be entered gradually as the information is available.

The following listings are incomplete. All entries are subject to verification, and are provided here to assist research loans only. Highlighted orders contain some entries. (More links coming soon)

Specimens are available to researchers, please see our Loan Polices.