Chicago Academy of Sciences (CHAS-ENT)

The Chicago Academy of Sciences’ entomology collection consists primarily of insect species from North and Central America, with a focus on the Midwestern United States. The Academy has had several prominent entomologists in its history, primarily between 1930 and 1960. Donald C. Lowrie (1910-2000) studied spiders and their role in local dune ecosystems. Leonora K. Gloyd (b. 1902) conducted fieldwork on Odonata. Orlando Park published on the taxonomy and ecology of Coleoptera, particularly the Pselaphidae, in the 1940s. Stanley Auerbach researched centipedes in the Chicago area during the 1950s. Other major collectors include Andrew Bolter (collected between 1879-1910) and Harry D. Sicher (collected between 1940 and 1970), both of whom collected primarily Lepidoptera. The majority of the non-Lepidopteran specimens were collected in the Midwest and Western Great Lakes regions, with Canada, California, Florida, and the Southwestern U.S. also represented. Lepidoptera primarily include species from the Midwestern U.S. as well as Canada, Mexico, Central and South America, Alaska, California, Florida, and the Southwestern U.S. Temporal Coverage of this collection is 1834-Present, with the bulk of the non-Lepidoptera specimens collected between 1872 and 1911, and the bulk of Lepidopteran specimens collected between 1891 and 1964.

Contact: Dawn Roberts (droberts@naturemuseum.org)

Home Page: http://naturemuseum.org/the-museum/collections/invertebrates

Collection Type: Preserved Specimens

Management: Data snapshot of local collection database

Digital Metadata: EML File

Usage Rights: CC0 1.0 (Public-domain)

• 26,186 occurrence
• 10,159 (39%) georeferenced
• 3 (0.01%) with images
• 13,100 (50%) identified to species
• 437 families
• 2,249 genera
• 3,984 species
• 4,027 total taxa (including subsp. and var.)