The Canadian National Collection (CNC) of Insects, Arachnids and Nematodes is considered one of the best collections of its kind in the world in terms of size, species representation, and level of curation. It is maintained and developed by Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada as part of its systematics research program, and is housed in the K.W. Neatby Building in Ottawa (Figure 1). The collection is estimated to contain approximately 16 million specimens systematically arranged in 1400 steel cabinets (Figure 2). Specimens are stored mostly as dry-mounted pinned specimens (Figure 3), but certain groups (e.g. larvae, aquatic insects, spiders, mites, aphids, midges, fleas, etc) are stored in liquid preservative (Figure 4) or mounted on slides (Figure 5). The majority of specimens are from localities throughout Canada and North America, but significant holdings are present from other biogeographic regions.

CanaColl Foundation

History of CNC
Role and Uses of CNC

Collection Manager (Jim Troubridge)

National Identification Service (Eric Rickey)

Arachnida (Mites, Ticks, Spiders)
Coleoptera (Beetles)
Diptera (Flies)
Hemiptera (True Bugs)
Hymenoptera (Sawflies, Parasitic Wasps, Ants, Wasps, Bees)
Lepidoptera (Butterflies, Moths)
Miscellaneous Insect Orders
Nematoda (Roundworms)

Illustrators

Entomological Collections, Societies and Institutions (off site links)

Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada/ECORC
American Museum, Invertebrate Zoology
Australian Biological Resources Study (ABRS)
Biological Survey of Canada
Bishop Museum, Entomology
British Museum, Entomology
California Academy of Science, Entomology
California State Collection of Arthropods (CSCA)
Canadian Biodiversity Information Facility (CBIF)
Canadian Forest Service
Canadian Journal of Arthropod Identification (CJAI)
Canadian Museum of Nature, Invertebrate Collections
Canadian Systematists (Biological Survey of Canada)
Carnegie Museum, Invertebrate Zoology
Cornell University, Insect Collection
CSIRO Entomology
Entomological Society of America
Entomological Society of Canada
Entomological Society of Ontario
Expert Center for Taxonomic Identifications (ETI)
European Biological Collections
Fauna Europaea
Field Museum, Zoology Collections
Fiji Arthropod Inventory
Florida State Museum of Entomology
Great Lakes Insect Collections
Hawaii Biological Survey
Index to Entomological Resources (Iowa State University)
Index to Entomology (Geller-Grimm)
Index to Entomology Collections (Iowa State University)
Index to Entomology on the WWW (Colorado State University)
Insect and Spider Collections of the World (Bishop Museum)
Insects of Cedar Creek (photos of thousands of species)
Los Angeles County Museum Collections
Museum of Comparative Zoology, Entomology
Ohio State University Insect Collection
Ontario Natural Heritage Information Centre
Oxford University Museum of Natural History
Pennsylvania State University, Frost Entomological Museum
Philadelphia Academy of Sciences, Entomology
Queensland Museum Entomology
Smithsonian, National Museum of Natural History, Entomology
Society of Australian Systematic Biologists (SASB)
Systematic Entomology Laboratory, Diptera, USDA
University of Arizona Entomology
University of California, Berkeley, Essig Museum
University of California, Davis, Bohart Museum
University of California, Riverside, Entomology
University of Georgia Insect Collection
University of Guelph Insect Collection
University of Kansas Snow Entomological Museum
University of Kentucky Entomology
University of Michigan Entomology
University of Minnesota Insect Collection
University of Queensland Insect Collection
University of Wisconsin, Madison Insect Collection
University of Zurich Zoological Museum
Washington State University, James Entomological Collection