Purchase and Installation of a Compactor Storage System in the Entomology Research Museum, University of California, Riverside

University Of California-Riverside, Riverside CA

Investigators

Abstract

With some 3 million specimens, UCR's Entomology Research Museum (ERM) is one of the 20 largest insect collections in North America, and one of the 10 largest strictly University-based collections. Given that insects represent the bulk of our biodiversity, and this diversity is highest in the southwest, the ERM is one of our nation's most important biological resource repositories. The ERM is, unfortunately, operating at a significant space deficit, preventing proper curation of the collection and inhibiting growth, affecting its ability to house reference material and vouchers for field research and biocontrol work. The need for additional space is immediate and compelling, but no such space is or will be available for the foreseeable future. The only viable solution is to improve the storage capacity of the existing space. Also, the present storage cabinets are inadequate; few offer an air-tight seal to deter destructive museum pests. By upgrading to a space-efficient compactor storage system with new high-quality cabinets, as requested, the ERM can add storage space for over 2 million additional specimens and simultaneously improve access to specimens, collection workspace, physical organization, earthquake safety, and pest control. The continued maintenance and acquisition of material by the ERM is vital to the identification of species in support of research, applied science, and for the training of new students of Entomology. The UCR Entomology department includes numerous faculty, staff, and students that work with and deposit specimens in the ERM, and the ERM participates in a global loan program, so its specimens are utilized all over the world. The ERM's parasitic wasp collection is one of the world's most diverse and fastest growing, and unlike most similar collections, the majority of its over 500,000 specimens have host records, making it one of the world's most valuable sources of information about beneficial parasitoids of agricultural pests. The value of this reference material of biocontrol agents (and pests) to agriculture cannot be overestimated, since the foundation of pest control is the ability to accurately identify the various organisms involved, and close ties to California's agriculture place the ERM in a recognized position of importance for the state's far-reaching biocontrol research. The ERM's bee collection is likewise widely recognized as one of the world's most important, with over 200,000 specimens representing over half of the 3,000 bee species native to the US, several of these being pollinators important to agriculture. The ERM's collections are also increasingly being used in making decisions relating to the environment (e.g., Multispecies Conservation Plans), including training of environmental consultants, plus acting as a repository and identification center for biodiversity surveys in California and elsewhere. The ERM itself has extensive ongoing collecting efforts throughout southern California, including surveys of several protected and restricted areas, and is not only crucial in assessing the present diversity, but the past, as well, as many specimens are 40-100 years old, representing species or populations that are extinct, in decline, or have changed substantially over the last century; a source of irreplaceable data on Californian insects, and some of the nation's most unique and/or threatened habitats. The ERM further serves as a valuable resource for people working with urban pest control, public health, and environmental biology, as well as for the general public. It plays an important role in UCR's educational outreach programs, and responds to requests by schools and individuals. It gathers and disseminates information, including through the Internet, and local and national media draw on the expertise of the ERM staff.