http://arthropods.nmsu.edu

The Arthropod Museum at the Department of Entomology, Plant Pathology and Weed Science, New Mexico State University, began as a small accumulation of insects assembled from specimens left over from the days when a collection of arthropods was kept at the then Department of Botany and Entomology. More specimens were added from identifications made for New Mexico Cooperative Extension Service and voucher specimens from student and faculty research.

The first curator was Carol Sutherland of Cooperative Extension. She pulled the various specimens together during the 1980s and when she left to become Bureau Chief for the Bureau of Entomology and Nursery Production at the New Mexico Department of Agriculture, the collection had expanded to over 25,000 pinned specimens. David Richman then became curator and he and Dr. Sutherland agreed to transfer the NMDA collection over to the collection, which was now being called the Arthropod Museum.

The additions of private collections, including a representative collection of meloid beetles of the Southwest donated by the late Floyd Warner of the University of Arizona and the arachnid collection of David Richman, along with more vouchers and trades, brought the collection to approximately 140,000 pinned and alcohol specimens, including unsorted samples. This collection is currently housed in W-168 of the Skeen Hall over 500 drawers in 28 cases and several thousand vials in four cases. About 25,000 records are on the museum database and close to 10,000 of these are available on the web pages of the Institute for Natural Resource Analysis and Management (INRAM) at http://inram.msb.unm.edu/biodiversity/index.html and at the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) in Copenhagen, Denmark http://www.gbif.org.

Curator

Dr. David B. Richman
Department of Entomology, Plant Pathology,
and Weed Science (EPPWS)
Skeen Hall, W168
Las Cruces, NM 88003-8003
Phone: 505-646-7082
Fax: 505-646-8087
E-mail: nmbugman@taipan.nmsu.edu

Contact information