Maine Forest Service Insect Collection

Background >Instructions (access the search engine)

Background

The records contained in this listing are derived from insect specimens in the Maine Forest Service (MFS) Insect Collection. This collection is comprised primarily of specimens collected during the course of MFS field work and serves as a reference collection of Maine forest insects. There are almost 50,000 pinned specimens in the collection housed at the MFS Entomology Laboratory in Augusta, Maine.

Many of the specimens have been identified by specialists, although there still remain segments of the collection that need identification confirmation. The majority of the nomenclature has been aligned with "Nomina Insecta Nearctica - A Checklist of the Insects of North America" edited by R. W. Poole & .P Gentili, although there are some species that retain their original determinations.

All specimens are listed even those identified only to order or family.
- Scientific names only are used in this list.
Locations are listed by their biophysical regions as well as town, county and state.
- Specimens with an * under "Town" had no location written on the specimen label.
"Site" includes whatever additional information was written on the label.
"zz" indicates no determination for that field.

A project to catalog the carabids of Maine is currently underway. Records are being obtained through field collecting and securing information from other collections. The information gathered will be published at this site when the carabid project is completed.

This site is part of a project to 'Develop Electronic Access to the Information in Public Insect Collections in Maine'. It is a joint venture between the Maine Department of Conservation, Maine Department of Environmental Protection (DEP)and the University of Maine (UM)and was funded by the Maine Outdoor Heritage Fund. To visit the DEP aquatic insect collection click Biological Monitoring of Streams and Rivers. The University of Maine insect collection is currently off-line, to check its status visit the University of Maine School of Biology and Ecology Facilities and Collections page.

Instructions

To search the database, use any portion of: scientific name, town, state, county, biophysical region, site, author, collector, date range. Multiple terms may be used. Seperate terms by a space. Use only one term/ field. Second page of search engine provides dropdown lists of orders, families and states included in the list. Use landscape orientation to print.

Thanks to Darlene Bobich for entering the information into the computer from minute specimen labels.

MFS Collection Search Engine

Please direct comments to: Charlene Donahue (207) 287-3244

Since January 2, 2001, you are the person to visit Forest Health & Monitoring's Insect Collection.

GO to Forest Health & Monitoring Division home page.
GO to Maine Forest Service home page.
GO to DEPARTMENT OF CONSERVATION home page.