Entomology

Overview

Welcome to the University of Alaska Museum Insect Collection. The collection was established as part of a NSF - funded Arctic Archival Observatory grant in late 2000.

The UAM Insect Collection is the northern-most facility of its kind in the United States. It has the potential to become a world-class depository for dry, alcohol, and preserved-tissue samples of northern arthropods (and other terrestrial invertebrates), primarily from Alaska.

Although a young collection (begun in 2000), we have recently surpassed 425,000 records representing over 2 million specimens in various curatorial states (as of Jan 2026), making this dataset among the top ten largest in entomology based on data served to iDigBio. Over 99% of these records have been georeferenced. As of 2026, approximately 95% of the 282,206 specimens in the pinned collection had been databased. Our database holds ~90,000 records of ethanol preserved specimens but it is unknown how much of the wet collection remains undatabased. At least one specimen of every lowest identification, in both the pinned and wet collections, has been databased so we have a complete online taxon inventory of the collection. 226,830 specimen records have been identified to the species level - these represent ~4,867 species. We have been building a DNA barcode library of Alaskan species and, with help from collaborators, have so far obtained DNA barcodes for 7,529 specimens representing ~2,500 species. 190,000+ UAM Insect Collection specimen records have been cited or otherwise used in >150 peer-reviewed publications.

Mission

To create a resource that makes publicly available as much information as possible concerning the non-marine arthropods of Alaska.

We hope to answer these questions: Which species occur in Alaska? Where do these species occur? Are they changing? Surprisingly, despite over 200 years of science, we don't know if we've documented even half of the species in Alaska.

Volunteers

If you have a few hours a week and would like to volunteer in the Entomology Department please contact the Curator, Derek Sikes.

Donations

If you are thinking of starting a project that will produce non-marine invertebrate specimens which you would like to donate, please contact the Curator to discuss details such as which pins to use if you are pinning specimens (stainless #2 are highly recommended) and how to record latitude / longitude for your labels. See the section devoted to donations.

If you would like to make a monetary donation to support student and other entomological research in Alaska, you can do so at this website: https://uaf.edu/giving/ways/how.php

Important - In the gift designation or comments box, put “Kenelm W. Philip Entomology Fund.”
Thanks!

Specimen Data

SEARCH the Insect Collection Database, ARCTOS, or download static snapshot datafiles below:

DNA Barcoded specimens
Potential Alaskan endemic arthropods*
Non-native non-marine annelids and arthopods*
Draft checklist of nonmarine Arthropods of Alaska (species, smaller list)*
Draft checklist of nonmarine Arthropods of Alaska (any IDs, larger list)*

 

 

List of phyla, classes, and orders cataloged in the collection.
List of phyla, classes, orders, and families cataloged in the collection.
List of all identified species cataloged in the collection.

A growing collection, primarily of Alaskan bees, is mantained by our colleagues at the Alaska Center for Conservation Science at the University of Alaska Anchorage. They are running the Alaska Bee Atlas - a citizen science effort to document Alaskan bees.

(*Note these lists include records from the literature of taxa not represented in the collection.)

Derek S. Sikes         
Curator of Insects, Professor of Entomology
University of Alaska Museum
1962 Yukon Dr.
Fairbanks, Alaska 99775

907 474 6278
dssikes 'at' alaska.edu