The insect collection

Image may contain: Insect, Green, Arthropod, Blue, Beetle.

The insect collection includes about 2.200.000 specimens, 1.275.000 of them on pins, 900.000 in alcohol and the remaining as microscope slides.

The collection is divided into two parts: the Norwegian and the World collection. Since one of our goals is documenting the insect fauna of Norway we have the world's best collection in that area. We are particularly strong in Norwegian Coleoptera, Diptera, Hymenoptera, and Lepidoptera. Some small (in the Norwegian fauna) orders, such as Dermaptera and Orthoptera are also well represented. In the World collection our strength is due to work of particular individuals who work or have worked at the museum, or donated to us their collections. We have a good collection of Palaearctic and Australian Coleoptera and Palaearctic Lepidoptera. For more detailed information on particular orders please see below.

Search the collection

If you have a loan request please contact our curators who will be happy to assist you.

We recommend using the standard coden ZMUN (Zoology Collection, Natural History Museum, University of Oslo, Norway) when referring to our insect collection.

In our collection management we accept the profiling system developed at the Entomological Collection of the Smithsonian Institution. This system was originally described in two papers by Ronald J. McGinley (1989, 1992) and since then has been adopted by many museums.

The insect collection