Collections
Entomological Collections
The focus of the collections at the UNT Elm Fork Natural Heritage Museum are its collection of North American Aquatic Insects. The collection is numbered at approximately 100,000 specimens. The centerpiece of this collection is the stonefly (Insect: Plecoptera) nymphs and adults from North America. Prior to 1975 there were no comprehensive stonefly nymph collections in major museums or personal collections (Stewart and Stark 1988). Kenneth W. Stewart built the UNT Plecoptera holdings through many extensive expeditions to regions throughout the country to collect and rear material representing a broad spectrum of species than includes all genera known from North America. Beginning in the mid 1970's Stewart and his students began using these collections to produce a number of taxonomic revisions and regional guides to Plecoptera. These collections provided the foundation for the seminal work Nymphs of North American Stonefly Genera (Plecoptera) (Stewart and Stark 1988). Also included in the museum holdings are the original illustrations for this publication. The collection also contains good regional coverage of all aquatic insect orders. Included in these collections are representative of Stephen Moulton's collections used in his publication Caddisflies (Trichoptera) of the Interior highlands (Moulton and Stewart 1996).
Although not nearly as extensive as the aquatic invertebrate alcohol collection the museum holdings include approximately 25,000 pinned insects. These specimens date back to the 1950’s and provide a good representation of North Central Texas terrestrial insects.
