Lepidoptera Morphinae (Photo by Kasey Barton) The Entomology Collection of the University of Colorado Museum contains approximately 550,000 insects and arachnids. It is especially rich in material from the Rocky Mountain Region, but has representation from throughout the United States as well as some material from around the world. The strengths of this collection are the Lepidoptera (butterflies), Hymenoptera (bees), spiders, Coleoptera, and Orthoptera. Regional collections such as this are especially important to the ecological and systematic communities because of their historical value, the concentration of collecting in a particular area, and their unusually excellent label data. The Entomology section is located on the third floor of the newly renovated Bruce Curtis Building. We welcome visitors who would like to use the collection and encourage you to contact us (303 492-6270) should you wish to visit (directions). We are generally available by appointment from 10 - 4. Magna brachystola from the Alexander Collection The Gordon Alexander Orthoptera Collection The Entomology Section has recently been awarded an NSF Collections Improvement grant to curate and database the Gordon Alexander Orthoptera Collection (The Gordon Alexander Collections Improvement Grant). This collection is largely composed of 11,000 grasshoppers collected along an altitudinal gradient near Boulder, Colorado by Gordon Alexander and John Hilliard during the summers of 1958 to 1960 (Alexander and Hilliard 1969; see grant for citation source). Once the Alexander Collection has been curated and databased, our plan is to resurvey the main collecting sites used by Alexander and Hilliard to determine how climate change and land use patterns may have impacted the grasshoppers of the region.