1. Severin-McDaniel Insect Research Collection Paul J. Johnson & Rita I. Veléz Ruiz Insect Biodiversity Lab South Dakota State University NSF InvertNet Project

2. SMIRC Staff Director-Curator: Paul J. Johnson, Ph.D. Coleoptera, esp. Elateroidea Collection Manager: Rita I. Velez, M.Sc. Neotropical Colletidae, esp. Caupolicanini Graduate Students: – Veronica Calles Torrez – switchgrass predators – David Drons – Black Hills bee inventory – Laura Winkler – ants of reconstructed grasslands Undergraduate Students (7)

3. SMIRC Contents 1.2 million specimens Largest taxonomic units – Lepidoptera – Orthoptera – Coleoptera – Hemiptera Fastest growing taxonomic units – Hymenoptera: Apiformes – Coleoptera Focal collections & enhancement topics – insects of the Black Hills – Prairie pollinators – Cicadelloidea – Orthoptera Increasing 7000-9000 specimens per year

4. SMIRC Setup Newly remodeled space, c. 800 sq.ft., with HVAC climate control 110 cabinets (53 post-1970’s Lane & Steel Fixture) 57 steel or wood cabinets (1930’s – 1940’s) 2128 drawer maximum capacity

5. Current Efforts Replace labels, unit trays, and drawers Taxonomic update Data capture by specimen Data imagining Dreaming: Replace cabinets with compactor

6. InvertNet Creating Capacity Data capture and database development Digitization of the specimens Improved pest and environmental management Identification of unsorted specimens Updating of nomenclature “Cleaning efforts”

7. InvertNet Accomplishments: Curatorial Cleaning and reorganization – Replacement drawers and unit trays – Inserting sorted and identified specimens Curation – Noctuidae: Arctiinae, 9 drawers – Apiformes, 20 drawers – Heteroptera & Auchenorrhyncha, 53 drawers – Orthoptera, 70 drawers

8. InvertNet Accomplishment: Personnel & Technical Hired GRA/part-time collection manager 40 hr/wk undergrad hourly assistants 40 hr/wk summer hourly assistant Dedicated iMac, dual-core Active SPECIFY6 database Data-entry via Excel and WorkBench

9. InvertNet Accomplishment Life returns to the SMIRC!

14. SMIRC History 1886 → I.H. Orcutt, M.D., Ph.D. 1888 → John M. Aldrich (contributor) 1892 – 1894 → Thomas Albert Williams 1895 – 1903 → De Alton Saunders, A.M. 1903 – 1906 → William Archie Wheeler, M.S. 1906 → Robert Matheson, B.S.A. 1909 → H.C. Severin “no collection of insects in the college worthy of the name” – 1918 – 1954 → head of Dep. Entomology-Zoology – 1917 – 1943 → George I. Gilbertson 1965 → Edward U. Balsbaugh, Jr. curator Burrus Mc Daniel, Ph.D. (1966) → curator 1976 1990 → Severin-McDaniel Insect Research Collection 1993 → Paul J. Johnson, Ph.D.

15. An overview of the Severin-McDaniel Insect Research Collection South Dakota State University Brookings, SD Paul J. Johnson, PhD. Insect Biodiversity Lab, Curator-Director SMIRC, SDSU paul.johnson@sdstate.edu paul.johnson@sdstate.edu Rita I. Velez M.Sc., Ph.D. student, Graduate Research Assistant, Collection Manager SMIRC, SDSU rita.velez@sdstate.edu