Collection from the Central Gulf Coast Subdivision of the Sonoran Desert

The UAIC houses an orphaned collection that was generated through 5 years of extensive collecting in various landscapes in the Central Gulf Coast Subdivision of the Sonoran Desert. This is a taxonomically broad, fully georeferenced, quantitative collection of insects from different land-use types. The 37,000 specimens, representing 24 orders, 217 families and more than 1,800 morphospecies were collected, sorted, and curated from Sonora, Mexico during a project sponsored with NSF International Program grants as part of a binational course for students from Mexico and the US. The taxonomic strengths of this collection are in Coleoptera, Diptera, Hemiptera, Hymenoptera, Orthoptera and Lepidoptera. This collection is housed in modern, standard sized unit trays, Cornell drawers and cabinets, but requires integration into the main collection as well as digitization and access on-line.