Deans mikó ecn2013

Transition and rebirth at the Frost Entomological Museum (PSUC)

Andy Deans & István Mikó

Frost Entomological MuseumPennsylvania State University

History

1850s

Penn State Libraries

“an institution for the education of youth in the various branches of science, learning and practical agriculture”

Stuart W. Frost1927

Google

retirement, 1957

Patterson Building

Penn State Libraries

W. Wayne Boylecurator,

1957–1967

Arthur Chapman

Derek Sikes

Sandy_R

Ke Chung “K.C.” Kimcurator, 1968–2008

Today

Museum has >3600 ft2 (>335 m2). Systematics program has >5600 ft2 (>520 m2).

collection

public

prep rooms

office

office

office

librarystorage

A bit dated.

public

Penn State

Glenda Sims

Location, location, location

Expansion, renovation, redesign. Reopen fall 2014!

Anoplura* 15,000 slides Kim collection; 300 spp.

Araneae 30,000 specimens many paratypes

Coleoptera 160,000 specimens 5,500 spp.

Collembola** >650,000 specimens

Diptera 100,000 specimens 2,000 spp.

Hemiptera*** 160,000 specimens Pepper aphid collection

Hymenoptera**** 150,000 specimens 1,700 spp.

Lepidoptera 70,000 specimens Patterson butterflies

Odonata***** 64,111 specimens >1,000 spp.; Beatty collection

remainder 600,000 specimens many in project cabinets

The collection ≈ 2,000,000 specimens

** 508,852 collembolans in these six vials.

Unconventional strengths

● Insects of Pennsylvania

Nicholas A. Tonelli

Unconventional strengths

● Insects of Archbold

Bug G. Membracid

Unconventional strengths

● light-trapped insects

Unconventional strengths

● leaf miners

Rylee Isitt

link

Unconventional strengths

● Ophiocordyceps-infected insects

Pinned insects:

● USNM-style storage● 1,668 drawers ● 130 Lane/Ward’s

cabinets● no fumigants

● plus some non-standard cabinets

Wet specimens:

● Shell vials in non-archival glass jars● Glass vials without polyseal gaskets● 728 metal drawers

Odonata:

● Cellophane envelopes or paper triangles ● 1,100 Kraft boxes on open shelves

Slides:

● Canada balsam● standard slide boxes● slides stored horizontally on

open shelves

Recent activities

Curation

Treat / re-house exposed specimens,rescue specimens from Riker mounts

Curation and rebuilding

teaching collection!(we need Grylloblattodea)

Inventory and profiling

first since 1990

http://bit.ly/PSUCinventory

http://bit.ly/FrostSOPs

Loans audit

Training

Summer intern program

We are looking for grad students!

Digitizing and databasing

Species File / mx (TaxonWorks)http://taxonworks.org/identifiers/barcodesimages ● PSUC_FEM 70710

Mexican Odonata:http://volunteer.ala.org.au/project/index/2677524

Eastern U.S. Odonata:http://volunteer.ala.org.au/project/index/2816097

Eastern U.S. Bombus:http://volunteer.ala.org.au/project/index/2812917

Volunteer:

1. transcribe2. copy and paste3. use mapping tool for lat/long

PSUC:

4. verify 5. export6. import into DB

http://gigamacro.com/

Collaboration with Powdermill Nature Reserve, Carnegie Museum of Natural History

See it at GigaPan:http://bit.ly/PSUCslides

Ongoing research

systematics: taxonomy, faunistics, phylogenomics

DNA: functional genomics,evolutionary developmentalbiology

museology: effective exhibits, curation practices

informatics: ontologies, semantic phenotype representation

Collaborations

imaging: CLSM, in vivo SR-µCT (van de Kamp talk!), laser ablation tomography

morphology: biomechanics, finite element, nanoindentation analyses

Benjamin Hall

knock-down in Drosophila genotype-phenotypequantify w/rigorneuroanatomy

Santhosh Girirajan, Janani Iyer

Outreach

Friends of the Frost MuseumPSU Master GardenersGreat Insect FairEGSA

Curators' blog

@FrostMuseum

Facebook flickr

James L. MonroeButterflies (and other insects) of Pennsylvania (and elsewhere)

Jana Scott http://www.janascottfineart.com/

More than you can chew. Sarah Swist, 2013.

Sarah Swisthttp://www.saraheswist.com/

Hard to swallow. Sarah Swist, 2013.

The physical possibility of gravity in the mind of someone standing right here.Sarah Swist, 2013.

Oil and age. Sarah Swist, 2013.

Acknowledgments

K.C. Kim, “Butterfly” Bob Snetsinger, Bob Foottit, Hal White, Justin Schmidt, Nick Sloff

Entomology graduate students, Friends of the Frost Entomological Museum

2013 Frost Biodiversity Interns: Sal, Angela, Karah, Brian

Gary Felton, Dave Love, CAS administration

Jim Monroe, Jana Scott, Sarah Swist

Janani Iyer

http://bit.ly/PSUCrebirth (this slide show)

http://sites.psu.edu/frost/ (Frost Curators’ Blog)

http://psuc.speciesfile.org/(PSUC database)

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