Established in the 1940s as a small collection dealing with agricultural pests, it has grown to one of the largest and most comprehensive research collection of arthropods in the southwestern United States.
The University of Arizona Insect Collection (UAIC) is a part of the Department of Entomology in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at the University of Arizona.
The UAIC is a regional collection for one of the most diverse and species-rich areas of country, the Sonoran Desert Region. This region includes the Sonoran Desert and all of its included mountain ranges and adjacent biomes in the U.S. and northwestern Mexico.
A great variety of natural habitats occur here, including coastal and inland sand dunes, dry deserts, thornscrub, tropical deciduous forest, riparian corridors, and upland habitats that include the southern Colorado Plateau and the Sky Islands, with a vertical succession of biomes from desert scrub to montane forest and subalpine conifer forest.
In many ways the Sonoran Desert Region is still largely a scientific frontier where numerous new species are discovered and described every year. The arthropod fauna of the Sonoran Desert Region is poorly known and relatively little understood, yet it is exceedingly important to the maintenance and functioning of healthy, productive ecosystems within the region. The region is being strongly affected by climate change and changes in land use. A better understanding of its arthropods will allow for a more comprehensive understanding of the effects of habitat modification and perturbations, and climate change in this region. Such knowledge will lead to better decision-making and more reasoned and effective policies for land management and other practices. The historic holdings of the University of Arizona Insect Collection (UAIC) provide a valuable baseline for research designed to track and evaluate those changes.
UAIC Visiting Arthropod Systematist
The UAIC is pleased to announce the first annual competition for a Visiting Arthropod Systematist Award up to $25,000. The first Award will support a visit of between four and nine months occurring during the 2013-14 academic year (August 2013 to July 2014).
We seek applications from outstanding arthropod systematists with taxonomic expertise and active research programs. For 2013, we encourage applications from experts in Diptera or Hymenoptera. The UAIC Visiting Arthropod Systematist Award is intended to help offset expenses for systematists to visit Tucson and work in the UAIC. Preference will be given to systematists on sabbatical leave from their home institution who will work on Sonoran Desert Region members of their taxon of expertise. Visiting systematists will work with the permanent staff to oversee the curation and databasing of specimens in their focal taxon housed in the UAIC.
For details, full application instructions, and requirements please visit: http://cals.arizona.edu/ento/UAIC/visiting_systematist.
To Learn More about Sonoran Desert Insects and the UAIC
Search our databases and visit our digital image collection.
Check out the museum’s history.
Participate in insect festivals and outreach programs.
Arrange for a research visit. The UAIC is open to the public.
RESOURCES
OUTREACH
Map of the main divisions of the Sonoran Desert. courtesy of Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum.
