Smithsonian Institution
Planetary Biodiversity Inventory: Plant Bugs
Smithsonian Institution:  The National Museum of Natural History Smithsonian Institution: The National Museum of Natural History

10th Street and Constitution Ave., NW
Washington, D.C. 20560

www.mnh.si.edu/rc
www.sel.barc.usda.gov/selhome/selhome.htm

About the Organization

The United States National Museum of Natural History is part of the complex of museums and facilities that form the Smithsonian Institution. The entomological collections of the National Museum were started by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA)S. They have now become one of the largest collections of insects in the world, and are jointly managed by the more than 35 research scientists employed in the Department of Entomology of the National Museum of Natural History and the Systematic Entomology Laboratory of the Agricultural Research Service of the USDA.

Senior Scientist Thomas J. Henry is a senior research scientist in the USDA Systematic Entomology Laboratory. He is responsible for management of Miridae, Reduviidae, and other major groups of Heteroptera in the National Museum collections.


Contribution to the Project

Collections: The Heteroptera collections of the National Museum are worldwide in scope with excellent coverage in many of the family groups. Collections from eastern North America are particularly strong. Like the Heteroptera collections overall, the collections of Miridae are among the largest in the world with extensive taxonomic in most subfamilies, particularly for the New World. The National Museum collections incorporate virtually all of the material studied by P. R. Uhler and H. H. Knight, authors who are responsible for describing most of the North American fauna. They are rich in types of Miridae, including representatives of many taxa described by Carvalho, Henry, Knight, Reuter, Uhler, and others.

Library: The National Museum maintains a world-class natural history library. Possibly more important for heteropterists is the exceptional reprint collection which has been assembled and organized over the decades by a large group of renouned true bug workers.

Imaging: The combined facilities of the National Museum and the Systematic Entomology Laboratory include scanning electron microscopes and a Microptics-USA digital imaging system similar to that deployed for use at the American Museum of Natural History and the Australian Museum.


Individual at the Smithsonian Institution

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