About the collection
The Australian Museum entomology collection contains approximately four million specimens, including around 9500 type specimens (types are the original specimens on which the first description of a particular species or subspecies is based). The majority are Australian but there is a strong non-Australian representation of beetles, psocids (booklice), flies, butterflies and moths. The collection also has many undescribed species and species found in no other collections. The Australian Museum has the world's largest collections of bark lice and Australian acalyptrate flies and major collections of antlions, alderflies and beetles.
It is estimated that Australia has over 300,000 insect species, but only 160,000 have been named or described. Australian Museum entomologists spend much of their research time studying, describing and naming the many undescribed species contained in the vast collection.
Copyright © Australian Museum 2004