The insect collection

The insect collection: includes about 500,000 specimens on pins, 2,000,000 specimens in alcohol and also specimens on slides. The collection is divided into two parts: the Norwegian and the World collection. Since one of our goals is documenting the insect fauna of Norway we have the world's best collection in that area. We are particularly strong in Norwegian Coleoptera, Diptera, Hymenoptera, and Lepidoptera. Some small (in the Norwegian fauna) orders, such as Dermaptera and Orthoptera are also well represented. In the World collection our strength is due to work of particular individuals who work or have worked at the museum, or donated to us their collections. We have a good collection of Palaearctic and Australian Coleoptera and Palaearctic Lepidoptera. For more detailed information on particular orders please see below.

If you have a loan request please contact the curator (Vladimir Gusarov) who will be happy to assist you.

We recommend using the standard coden ZMUN (Zoology, Natural History Museum, University of Oslo, Norway) when referring to our insect collection (as listed on The Insect and Spider Collections of the World Website).

In our collection management we accept the profiling system developed at the Entomological Collection of the Smithsonian Institution. This system was originally described in two papers by Ronald J. McGinley (1989, 1992) and since then has been adopted by many museums. Click here to examine the profile of our collection.

The insect collection

More detailed information on particular orders

Our holdings

Information on the Norwegian fauna