The Essig Museum of Entomology is a research museum dedicated to terrestrial

arthropods Arthropods (, (gen. ποδός)) are invertebrate animals with an exoskeleton, a Segmentation (biology), segmented body, and paired jointed appendages. Arthropods form the phylum Arthropoda. They are distinguished by their jointed limbs and Arth ...

, located at the

University of California at Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant univ ...

. It contains perhaps the world's largest collection of

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

insect Insects (from Latin ') are pancrustacean hexapod invertebrates of the class Insecta. They are the largest group within the arthropod phylum. Insects have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body ( head, thorax and abdomen), three pairs ...

s and has been ranked among the top university-based collections in North America. The museum is open to the public twice per year ( Cal Day and

Darwin Day Darwin Day is a celebration to commemorate the birthday of Charles Darwin on 12 February 1809. The day is used to highlight Darwin's contributions to science and to promote science in general. Darwin Day is celebrated around the world. Histo ...

). The museum's origins date back to the 1880s, with the university's earliest teaching collection. After entomologist

Edward Oliver Essig Edward Oliver Essig (29 September 1884 Arcadia, Indiana – 23 November 1964, Lafayette, California) was an American entomologist who specialized in the Hemiptera. Essig was a professor at the University of California, Berkeley. He wrote ''Inju ...

joined the faculty in 1914, he began to expand its collections. The research collection, starting with 10,000-15,000 specimens, was formalized in 1939 as part of the California Insect Survey (Experiment Station Project 1205), and in 1972 was named the Essig Museum of Entomology. Historically, the museum's primary geographical emphasis has been on western North America, with a focus on surveying the insects of California. More recently that focus has broadened to the eastern

Pacific Rim The Pacific Rim comprises the lands around the rim of the Pacific Ocean. The ''Pacific Basin'' includes the Pacific Rim and the islands in the Pacific Ocean. The Pacific Rim roughly overlaps with the geologic Pacific Ring of Fire. List of co ...

, particularly

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

Costa Rica Costa Rica (, ; ; literally "Rich Coast"), officially the Republic of Costa Rica ( es, República de Costa Rica), is a country in the Central American region of North America, bordered by Nicaragua to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the no ...

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the east a ...

, and the Pacific Basin islands.

Collections

Over 5 million pinned specimens comprise the majority of the collection. Large microscope slide and alcohol-preserved collections are also maintained, as well as thousands of specimens in envelopes and Riker mounts. Special collections include: * H. Edwin Cott

Thysanoptera Thrips ( order Thysanoptera) are minute (mostly long or less), slender insects with fringed wings and unique asymmetrical mouthparts. Different thrips species feed mostly on plants by puncturing and sucking up the contents, although a few are ...

Collection * Edward O. Essig

Aphididae The Aphididae are a very large insect family in the aphid superfamily ( Aphidoidea), of the order Hemiptera. These insects suck the sap from plant leaves. Several thousand species are placed in this family, many of which are considered plant/cro ...

Collection * Gordon F. Ferris Anoplura (

Phthiraptera Louse ( : lice) is the common name for any member of the clade Phthiraptera, which contains nearly 5,000 species of wingless parasitic insects. Phthiraptera has variously been recognized as an order, infraorder, or a parvorder, as a result o ...

) and Ectoparasitic

Diptera Flies are insects of the order Diptera, the name being derived from the Greek δι- ''di-'' "two", and πτερόν ''pteron'' "wing". Insects of this order use only a single pair of wings to fly, the hindwings having evolved into advanced ...

Collections * Deane P. Furman Parasitic

Acari Mites are small arachnids (eight-legged arthropods). Mites span two large orders of arachnids, the Acariformes and the Parasitiformes, which were historically grouped together in the subclass Acari, but genetic analysis does not show clear evid ...

Collection * Dilworth D. Jensen

Psyllidae Psyllidae, the jumping plant lice or psyllids, are a family of small plant-feeding insects that tend to be very host-specific, i.e. each plant-louse species only feeds on one plant species (monophagous) or feeds on a few closely related plants ( ...

Collection * Vernon L. Kellogg Mallophaga (

) Collection * A. Earl Pritchard

Collection * Evert I. Schlinger

Aphid Aphids are small sap-sucking insects and members of the superfamily Aphidoidea. Common names include greenfly and blackfly, although individuals within a species can vary widely in color. The group includes the fluffy white woolly aphids. A t ...

Parasitoid Collection * Morris A. Stewart

Siphonaptera Flea, the common name for the order Siphonaptera, includes 2,500 species of small flightless insects that live as external parasites of mammals and birds. Fleas live by ingesting the blood of their hosts. Adult fleas grow to about long, ar ...

Collection * Robert L. Usinger

Heteroptera The Heteroptera are a group of about 40,000 species of insects in the order Hemiptera. They are sometimes called "true bugs", though that name more commonly refers to the Hemiptera as a whole. "Typical bugs" might be used as a more unequivocal al ...

Collection * Hastings Natural History Reservation Collections As part of a citizen-scientist (

crowd sourcing Crowdsourcing involves a large group of dispersed participants contributing or producing goods or services—including ideas, votes, micro-tasks, and finances—for payment or as volunteers. Contemporary crowdsourcing often involves digit ...

) project, museum researchers are working on digital cataloging eight major insect collections.

References

External links

Essig Museum of Entomology Collections
online database
The Archives of the Essig Museum of Entomology
{{authority control University museums in California Entomological organizations University of California, Berkeley Museums in Berkeley, California Natural history museums in California