PULLMAN – More than 3 million specimens of insects and arthropods preserved in cabinets and flasks for eternity await the curious at Washington State University’s MT James Entomological Collection.
The WSU Collection of Insects, Arachnids, and Myriapods is a teaching and research resource and the largest in Washington, expanding each year with tens of thousands of specimens collected and donated.
“As humans, we love to catalog,” said Rich Zack, professor of entomology and longtime curator. “We want to know what’s out there.”
The collection helps entomologists by providing real, just non-living, insect models backed by a knowledge library. Since the 1890s, each specimen has at least some information about where and when it was collected.
“It gives us the ability to understand change,” says research assistant professor Silas Bossert. “Our mission is to understand natural history and our place in the world.”
The custodians of the James Collection say it is among the best in the nation for size, historical and scientific value.
The oldest specimens date from the Washington Territory period. WSU has large collections of insects from Washington, Idaho, and Oregon, and strong collections from other western states. Among the extinct specimens preserved here is the Xerces Blue butterfly, whose habitat on the California coast has disappeared.
Other treasures in the collection include thousands of samples taken by Zack and colleagues on the Hanford Nuclear Reservation, a 500-square-mile piece of land that has been virtually untouched since the 1940s.
“These represent species that used to be found in the greater interior northwest but have been wiped out due to urbanization and agriculture,” Zack said, drawing a Hanford case full of tiny moths and butterflies. “But they still exist on the site, and we document them all.”
Zack holds a pinned Hercules, the longest of the bugs and known for his strength. Males fight with their antler-like horns.
Living gems are here: harlequin and jewel beetles brought back from the Central American jungle. Zack made a specialty out of Guatemalan insects and says James has perhaps the second best collection after Guatemala itself.
Among the largest animals in the collection: a spooky 25 cm winged White Witch Moth from the jungles of Panama.
“I collected these in the field,” said Zack. “They flutter in gently like a great white bat.”
Then there are the Hercules beetles from the rainforests of Central America: “Huge, but harmless,” says Zack. Up to seven inches long, males fight for mates, knocking over their opponents with their antler-like horns.
What is the deadliest creature in the collection? No scorpion, spider or wasp?
“There is nothing in the world of any kind of animal that is more dangerous than a mosquito,” Zack said. The tiny flies spread malaria and other diseases that kill more than 700,000 people each year.
Almost a third of the specimens here have never been positively identified. Categorized as “miscellaneous”, these can be studied by visiting entomologists or loaned to other institutions.
“They’re sending us the bugs that we’re experts at,” Zack said. “A lot is traded between the collections.”
Insect specimens are not sprayed or treated with fixatives. All that’s left of them is their exoskeleton—”everything else dried up and was gone,” Zack said. Stored carefully, these skeletons will not crumble. “As long as we treat them with respect, they should last forever.”
Zack opens a box of Central American Jewel Beetles. Treated with care, insect exoskeletons can be kept in collections for centuries.
Other creepy crawlies — tarantulas, giant centipedes, oversized caterpillars, scorpions — are preserved in alcohol jars. Their fleshy bodies shrink, making for poor bottleless specimens.
Not actually part of the collection, live tarantulas and scorpions are kept in the department.
“Arachnids and myriapods are cool,” said Collections Director Elizabeth Murray. “Yes, some are venomous, but they won’t come out to bite you. They all play a role in the ecosystem and are generally considered useful as well. I think tarantulas are beautiful and some make pretty good pets.”
In an increasingly digital age, entomologists are taking physical samples online. Bossert and Murray are working on an upcoming digital collection of pollinators. A website on Pacific Northwest moths was created in collaboration with Western Washington University, the State of Oregon, the University of Idaho, and the USDA.
Insects are small, “but when you have millions, they add up,” Zack said. With constant new arrivals, space is one of the biggest challenges, and the team regularly works to free up space at its location on the first floor of WSU’s Food Science and Human Nutrition Building.
The creatures here may be silent, but “we are active and growing,” Murray said. “We have served the state of Washington since 1892, and we plan to take good care of the insects so they will continue to exist for centuries to come.”
