Welcome to the fascinating world of insects at The Field Museum! Here, you’ll find the largest collection in the museum, with about twelve million insect specimens. In one special room, there are around four million specimens, while the other eight million are stored downstairs in alcohol. Let’s dive into this incredible collection!
The insect collection is organized in cabinets, each with space for several drawers. When you open a cabinet, you’ll find about fifteen drawers inside. The specimens are kept in special boxes called trays. Each cabinet contains insects from the same family, and each drawer holds insects from the same genus and species. This organization helps scientists easily find what they’re looking for.
One of the coolest parts of the collection is the rove beetles. The Field Museum has one of the best collections of rove beetles in the world, thanks to experts like Al Newton and Margaret Thayer. There are about seven thousand type specimens, which are the original specimens used to describe new species. The museum is working on creating a database and taking pictures of these specimens so people can view them online without visiting in person.
Another important part of the collection is the Frank Psota Collection. Frank Psota was a collector who wanted to “catch ’em all.” If he was missing a species, he would draw or paint it and place it next to related specimens. This unique collection is one of a kind and adds to the museum’s uniqueness.
In the collection, you’ll find amazing beetles like the purple Flower Chafers. These beetles are named after old countries that no longer exist, which makes it challenging to digitize the collection. Researchers have to figure out what these countries were called in the past.
The museum also has a slide collection filled with mites. These tiny creatures are important because some infest livestock and pets, while others can spread diseases. The collection has tens of thousands of boxes of mites, and researchers visit the museum to study them.
If you’re interested in cockroaches, you’ll love the giant cave roaches in the collection. They’re much cooler than the common German cockroaches you might find at home. The museum is also databasing these specimens, adding barcodes so people worldwide can access the information.
The insect collection at The Field Museum is incredibly massive, and a large percentage of the specimens have yet to be identified. It’s unlikely that everything will be identified in our lifetime, or even in several lifetimes. This collection is a treasure trove of specimens, and who knows what discoveries we’ll make in the future!
Even leading experts sometimes find specimens they can’t identify. If you’re interested in insects, there’s always more to learn and discover. You can even start your own insect collection at home with just a backyard and some pins. Who knows, you might discover a new species!
Thanks for joining us on this journey through the amazing insect collection at The Field Museum!
Imagine you’re a scientist at The Field Museum. Create your own insect cabinet by drawing or using images of different insects. Organize them into families, genera, and species, just like the museum does. Share your cabinet with the class and explain your organization method.
Choose a rove beetle from the museum’s collection and research its characteristics and habitat. Create a presentation or poster to share your findings with the class. Include interesting facts about why rove beetles are important to scientists.
Channel your inner Frank Psota by drawing or painting an insect species that interests you. If you can’t find a real specimen, use your imagination to create a new species. Display your artwork alongside related insect images and explain your creative process.
Research the historical countries associated with the Flower Chafers in the museum’s collection. Create a map showing these countries and their modern equivalents. Present your map to the class and discuss the challenges of digitizing historical collections.
Learn about the process of databasing specimens. Create a mock database entry for a giant cave roach, including a description, habitat, and a barcode. Share your entry with the class and discuss the importance of making museum collections accessible online.
Here’s a sanitized version of the provided YouTube transcript:
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We’re back with Crystal down here in the pinned Insect Collection at The Field Museum! The Insect Collection is the largest collection in the Field Museum, with about twelve million insect specimens, and around four million specimens right here in this room. The other eight million are stored downstairs in alcohol.
So, let’s go see some of the insects! Our whole collection is stored in cabinets like these, and each cabinet has space for several drawers. If we open this up, there are about fifteen drawers per cabinet. All of our specimens are stored in specially built boxes called trays. All of these cabinets here contain the same family of beetles, and all of the drawers have the same genus, with the same species kept together. This way, when a scientist comes in, they can easily find what they’re looking for.
What’s really cool about our rove beetle collection is that it’s one of the best in the world. We had two experts on rove beetles here, Al Newton and Margaret Thayer. We also have about seven thousand type specimens. We’ve been working on databasing those types and imaging them, so anyone can go online and take a look at our Rove Beetle types. When we say “seven thousand types,” those are the specimens designated as the name bearers for new species.
These blank spaces with the numbers indicate where we sent specimens off to other researchers to study all around the world! By databasing and photographing all of our types, we hope to reduce the need for people to come and see them in person.
I want to point out this collection because it’s one of our historically most important collections, the Frank Psota Collection. The collector had a “Gotta catch ’em all” mindset. Whenever he was missing a species, he would do a drawing or painting and place it next to the specimens that were closely related. It’s interesting that even though he didn’t know what would happen to his collections eventually, the fact that we keep all of it enhances its uniqueness.
Nobody else in the world has a collection like this. And these are some amazing beetles! Check out this purple one! These are all Flower Chafers, named after old countries that no longer exist. This presents a challenge with our digitization efforts, as we have to interpret and figure out what these countries were called back in the past.
What’s special about this space is that you can really get lost in it. This is the slide collection, which contains mites. There are some mites on these microscope slides. They’re hard to see, but they are economically important, as some infest livestock and pets, while others transmit diseases. We have tens of thousands of these boxes, which is a lot of mites! It’s a really important collection, and we have two or three researchers a year come here to work on it.
Would you like to see some cockroaches? These are giant cave roaches, much cooler than the German cockroaches that might live in your basement. We’re databasing them as well, putting a barcode on all the specimens so that people all over the world can access that information.
This collection is incredibly massive—it’s the largest in the museum. You mentioned that a huge percentage has yet to be identified. Do you think there will ever be a point where everything is identified, and there are no more questions to ask? Not in my lifetime, or even in several lifetimes. This is a treasure trove of specimens. Fifty years ago, we didn’t know we would be extracting DNA from these specimens. Who knows what we’ll be doing with them fifty years from now?
This is a cabinet of specimens that leading experts on beetles have looked at, and they still don’t know what they are. If you’re interested in insects, it seems like there’s an infinite amount of work to do. Anyone with a backyard and some pins can start an insect collection. There’s even a new species that has been described right here from the Museum campus!
Thanks for having me! That was great!
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This version removes informal language, laughter, and any potentially inappropriate or unclear phrases while maintaining the essence of the conversation.
Insects – Small animals with six legs and usually one or two pairs of wings. – Example sentence: Insects like butterflies and bees play a crucial role in pollinating plants.
Collection – A group of objects or specimens gathered for study or display. – Example sentence: The science teacher showed us her collection of different types of leaves from around the world.
Specimens – Samples or examples of something, especially when used for scientific study. – Example sentence: The students examined the specimens of rocks under the microscope to learn about their properties.
Museum – A place where collections of objects, such as historical artifacts or scientific specimens, are displayed for public viewing. – Example sentence: We visited the natural history museum to see the dinosaur fossils and learn about ancient life forms.
Species – A group of living organisms consisting of similar individuals capable of exchanging genes or interbreeding. – Example sentence: The giant panda is an endangered species that is native to China.
Researchers – People who study a subject in detail to discover new information or reach a new understanding. – Example sentence: Researchers are studying the effects of climate change on coral reefs to find ways to protect them.
Beetles – A group of insects with hard wing cases, belonging to the order Coleoptera. – Example sentence: Beetles are known for their diverse shapes and colors, and they can be found in almost every habitat on Earth.
Mites – Small arachnids that are related to spiders and ticks, often living in soil or on plants and animals. – Example sentence: Mites can be beneficial in gardens as they help decompose organic matter and control pest populations.
Discovery – The act of finding or learning something for the first time. – Example sentence: The discovery of a new plant species in the rainforest excited the scientists and added to our understanding of biodiversity.
Cabinets – Storage units with shelves or drawers used to organize and protect items, often used in laboratories or museums. – Example sentence: The biology lab has cabinets filled with jars of preserved specimens for students to study.
