Our new webpages are up and running!
You can find us now at http://www.biodiversity.ubc.ca/entomology/ and update your bookmarks accordingly.

The Spencer Entomological Museum was formally established in 1953 from the holdings of Dr. G.J. Spencer, a professor in the UBC Zoology Department. Thanks largely to the efforts of Dr. Spencer and later Dr. G.G.E. Scudder, director from 1958-1999, the collection now houses over 600,000 specimens. Most holdings are from BC, the Yukon, and Alaska. The collection moved from the Zoology Department to its new home in the Beaty Biodiversity Museum in 2009.

To view photos of our specimens, click on an Order, then on a Family, and then on a Genus and species from the alphabetical list that follows. Families that do not have links are not yet photographed. There are normally three photos of each specimen: a dorsal, ventral, and lateral view. To date, about 95% of the pinned collection's families are photographed, currently with only one specimen of each species represented. More photos will be added to the gallery as they are produced. Data for each specimen in the collection are being compiled and will be available, linked to each photo, in the future. The BC Rarities heading below will take you to photos of officially listed rare species in the province and the Types link will take you to photos of all of the holotype specimens in our collection.

This work was supported by generous grants from the Irving K. Barber Learning Centre at UBC and the Canada Foundation for Innovation.

For insect identification help and any other general insect questions please email bugs@zoology.ubc.ca. Please include sighting data (location & date) with your insect photos to help with identification.