Invertebrate Collections

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Basic information about the entomology collections, anthozoa collections malacology collections and arachnology collections

Since the receipt of the first extensive collections (malacological collection of Robert James Shuttleworth, 1874; insects collection of Moritz Isenschmid, 1878), the collections of the NMBE have increased steadily.

Today they contain roughly
1.7 Mio insect specimens (6000 drawers)
1.2 Mio mollusc specimens (2000 drawers)

Specimens are steadily revised by specialists and inventoried in an electronic database (actual state of inventoried specimens: 250.000 insects and spiders, 150.000 molluscs).

Taxa represented in our collections by numerous specimens are:
Lepidoptera, 1 Mio specimens
Coleoptera, 370'000 specimens
Hymenoptera, 170'000 specimens
Diptera, 50'000 specimens
other insects, 130'000 specimens

Gastropoda (shells), 1 Mio specimens
Bivalia (shells), 200.000 specimens

Crucial collection parts are
Lepidoptera from Switzerland: Coll. Vorbrodt.
Buprestidae: ca. 16.000 specimens, coll. Hans Pochon.
Carabidae, Nebriinae: ca. 10.000 specimens of the genus Nebria from the palaearctics.
Carabid larvae: ca. 2.200 specimens, 140 taxa, conserved in ethanol.
Chalcidoidea: ca. 12.000 specimens.
Apidae from Switzerland: Coll. Frey-Gessner, Coll. Amiet.

Database
All revised collections are inventoried in an electronic database (ORACLE), and the total information on the labels is registered.
The systematic and faunistic data can be enlisted down to species level.

The use of Specimens in Molecular Based Studies
The NMBE (official abbreviation for science purposes) welcomes the opportunity to make its collections available for scientific study. To ensure that the needs of both contemporary and future users can be met the following guidelines have been drawn up.

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