Science - September 14, 2010

Insect collection has flown

The insect collection of the Laboratory of Entomology was moved to Naturalis in Leiden last week. This is made known by professor Marcel Dicke.

Entomology professor Dicke has handed the collection over to the Netherlands Centre for Biodiversity in Leiden. This centre received extra funds last year from the government to manage all the cultural historical collections of universities and to display them in Naturalis Museum. The insect collection had been stored away for the past year in Wageningen after entomologists moved to Radix on the campus.
Ichneumon wasps
Initially, the chair group had intended to take the collection along to the campus, but the high housing costs in Radix would mean having to spend seventy thousand euros a year. The collection comprises about 600,000 different types of insects in 3,700 insect boxes. Its foundation was laid in 1882 by Professor Jan Ritzema Bos. The collection features large numbers of Ichneumon wasps, beetles, bees, bugs, cicadas, moths and butterflies.
Dicke is impressed by the move. 'Since the collection cannot remain in Wageningen, its coming under Naturalis is the best option.'