Newsletter of the Biological Survey of Canada (Terrestrial Arthropods)

The Northern Forestry Insect Museum: Open for Business

News and Notes

Greg R. Pohl
Northern Forestry Centre Insect Museum, 5320 - 122 St., Edmonton, AB T6H 3S5

     The Northern Forestry Centre (NoFC) in Edmonton, Alberta is the Canadian Forest Service office responsible for the forested regions of Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, and the Northwest Territories. The facility was opened in 1970, when the Winnipeg and Calgary Research Laboratories merged. The NoFC insect museum has existed since that time, although much of the material housed here has a much longer history.

     The bulk of the museum’s holdings are made up of Forest Insect and Disease Survey (FIDS) specimens collected in the region. FIDS was most active from 1945 to 1970, with a team of forest rangers collecting and rearing insects and diseases to document outbreaks and population cycles. They typically spent their summers collecting samples, and their winters identifying and curating specimens. Collecting effort went far beyond important pest species, and resulted in much new knowledge about insects in Canada. Detailed host and locality information was recorded into a database containing hundreds of thousands of records; the FIDS specimens thus serve as a voucher collection for these data. In the past the FIDS database has provided historical pest information and contributed to knowledge of the biology of many species. Currently the Canadian Forest Service is computerizing the database to make the information there more accessible.

     For a time in the 1950s, the Winnipeg Forest Entomology Laboratory was responsible for shelterbelt surveys. This resulted in significant collections of prairie insects, primarily from research labs at Indian Head, Saskatchewan, and Aweme, Manitoba. The latter was the laboratory of the renowned Norman Criddle, Dominion Entomologist; many of his specimens from the early part of the 1900s now reside at the NoFC museum. Another significant acquisition was a voucher collection of cicindelids put together by the Winnipeg naturalist J.B. Wallis, following the publication of his “Cicindelidae of Canada” in 1961.

     By the time NoFC opened, the FIDS initiative was being wound down. Since 1970, specimens continued to be collected, though usually through the course of more directed research on particular groups. However, since 1989, scientists at NoFC have been involved in biodiversity work, which has produced a large amount of material to be housed in the museum. Significant voucher collections include carabids and staphylinids from various forest types in Alberta, insects from coarse woody debris, and Lepidoptera from Alberta and Saskatchewan. Some of these specimens have proved useful in genetic analysis for systematic work.

     To some extent, the content of the museum reflects the interests and expertise of the taxonomists who have been employed here. Sawflies are particularly well represented due to the tenure of Dr. Horne R. Wong from 1970 to 1988. Scolytids and Curculionids have benefitted from the presence of Dr. David Langor, beginning in 1989.

     In recent years, the NoFC insect museum has been neglected due to funding cuts. As taxonomic knowledge grew, the determinations on older specimens were rapidly falling out of date. The museum had reached a critical situation where older material was becoming less useful, and newer material was piling up beyond the capacity of the room. In the past two years, we have rectified this by doubling the number of cabinets, and installing a mobile track system to accomodate them. As well, a wall was removed to expand the museum into an adjoining laboratory. The taxonomically inclined entomologists here (myself, David Langor, and Daryl Williams) have begun re-organizing and re-determining the specimens to conform to modern classification schemes.

     Currently the NoFC Museum contains over 700 drawers of insects, with another 160 drawers available for expansion. In all, the museum houses over 100,000 pinned specimens, with many more in alcohol. It is particularly strong in Coleoptera (210 drawers), Hymenoptera (80 drawers) and Lepidoptera (260 drawers). Although forest insects such as wood borers and defoliators are particularly well represented, there are considerable holdings of other groups as well.

     Since taking over curatorial duties in 1997, I have worked primarily on carabid and staphylinid beetles, and Lepidoptera. However, I would like eventually to get the entire museum collection properly identified and curated. To this end, I invite interested experts to borrow material for their taxonomic studies, in return for up-to-date determinations. I am still in the process of sorting and organizing the collection, but I hope one day to have much of the label information available online.

     If you are interested in information or specimens from the NoFC insect museum, I can be reached as follows:

Greg R. Pohl, curator
Northern Forestry Centre Insect Museum
Canadan Forest Service
5320 - 122 St.
Edmonton, AB T6H 3S5
telephone: (780)-435-7211
electronic mail: gpohl@nrcan.gc.ca