Acquisitions
Specimens for the museum are acquired in various ways. Most have been acquired over the years by faculty and students in the Department of Entomology as a result of their research activities. More recently, accessions have come largely from specific collecting trips funded by grant monies and donations, but helped occasionally with University monies. A few specimens have been purchased and some donated by private collectors. About one-third of our 3.25 million specimens are in the undetermined portion of each family in the collection and therein are many new and undescribed species to science. If every undetermined specimen were identified, instead of 47,000 species, the collection might contain closer to 90,000 species.