My Collection

I have been collecting insects since I was 9 years old, when I scraped together enough allowance ($1.25) to purchase the Golden Nature Guide, Insects (1956 edition), by Herbert Zim & Clarence Cottam. That book became my bible for the next several years – it survives today in my library, its binding taped and retaped from the heavy use it received those many years ago. Unfortunately, the insect specimens that I collected and identified using that book no longer exist – victims of kid neglect and a persistently mischievous cat. My present collection first took hold while I was an undergraduate, when I took Entomology 201 to start what I knew would be a life-long career in entomology. I didn’t know what I would do professionally, but I did know that I loved collecting insects and wanted to do it seriously. Three decades and countless collecting trips later, that collection now numbers approximately 75,000 specimens, surely one of the largest private insect collections in Missouri and rivaling the state’s largest public collection (University of Missouri-Columbia) in its representation of Missouri Buprestidae, Cerambycidae, and Cicindelidae. The collection is comprised chiefly of Coleoptera, with about two-thirds of the material representing species in the above named taxa (the subjects of my research interest). Scarabaeoidea and several smaller beetle family-group taxa are also well represented, though of hobby interest only, as are a few non-coleopteran taxa (primarily Cicadoidea and Membracoidea). Coverage is heavily Nearctic, with much of the material collected in the central states (Missouri, Kansas, and Nebraska) and across the southwestern U.S. (Texas, Arizona, and California). The Buprestidae holdings are the most comprehensive, with nearly two-thirds of Nearctic species and subspecies represented (several dozen represented by paratypes) and nearly twice as many species representing other world areas. Nearctic Cerambycidae and Cicindelidae are well represented as well. Neotropical holdings are also significant, with material collected mostly in southern Mexico and in parts of South America (Ecuador, Brazil, Argentina, and Chile). Old World holdings consist of material collected in South Africa and material from many areas acquired through exchange (primarily Europe, Japan, southeast Asia, and Australia). The collection is registered with the Florida State Collection of Arthropods with the coden: TCMC (Ted C. MacRae Collection).	Click on the links below for detailed inventories:
	COLEOPTERA DIPTERA HEMIPTERA HYMENOPTERA
The collection is housed in 100+ Cornell drawers in steel cabinets and 60 Schmidt-sized boxes. Cornell drawers are reserved for fully-curated specimens in research taxa and larger hobby taxa, while Schmidt-sized boxes are used for partially-curated material and smaller hobby taxa. Inventories are available for all research and several hobby taxa (links above) and will continue to be developed for additional hobby taxa as they become curated. Each inventory lists the species and number of specimens within the group’s higher classification. Some inventories also list species or higher taxa not represented in the collection – these are used as placeholders for desiderata or to indicate a complete higher classification and are denoted by use of light gray text. EXCHANGES & LOANS. I am interested in exchanges for Buprestoidea, Cerambycidae, and Cicindelidae, especially Nearctic species and higher taxa missing from my collection. In exchange, I can offer material in these and a variety of other taxa, as indicated by the inventories linked above. Specimens may also be loaned to interested individuals, especially those willing to determine unidentified material (with customary retention privileges). Please CONTACT me if you are interested in an exchange or loan of specimens. Please—no offers of insect specimens or merchandise for sale! Copyright © Ted C. MacRae 2007–2012