An award is made to the University of Oklahoma to support the Sam Noble Museum Recent Invertebrates Collection. This scientific resource documents biodiversity in the state of Oklahoma and beyond, and is one of the largest collections of invertebrates from Oklahoma. This award will support the installation of a mobile storage (compactor) system and provide new entomology cabinets. The project improves infrastructure to adequately and efficiently utilize existing space and increase the potential collection capacity. Collection security and physical access to the specimens is enhanced for researchers and students. The project will integrate with the existing ExplorOlogy Program at the Museum to engage K-12 students in research and encourage the participation of Native Americans, the largest underrepresented group in Oklahoma.
This project is the next phase in a long-term collection revitalization plan for rehousing and re-curating the ca. 400,000 pinned insect specimens at the Sam Noble Museum, the only active entomological collection in Oklahoma. The collection includes one of the largest and most comprehensive collections of Byrrhoidea, an aquatic beetle superfamily. The collection also contains ca. 160,000 Diptera from early and recent surveys, inventories, epidemiology studies, and vector ecology. The collection contains 2,796 primary and secondary insect types that have been cataloged and digitized, as well as historically important collections of dragonflies, butterflies and other beetle groups. Along with the installation of a new compactor system and new cabinets, a reorganization of the collection will be completed, and will incorporate recent knowledge on phylogenetic relationships of insects. In a state where natural habitats have been and continue to be replaced by agriculture, deforestation, grazing, and other land use change, these specimens provide an invaluable record of entomological diversity in the decades before and after statehood (in 1907; Oklahoma was designated as Indian Territory until the major land runs began in 1889). Currently this is the only digitized and readily accessible entomology collection in Oklahoma. All data resulting from this project will be shared with iDigBio (www.idigbio.org/), ensuring accessibility to researchers and the public.
