Lyman Entomological Museum and Research Laboratory

The Collection

The Lyman Entomological Museum was founded in 1914 through a bequest from the noted lepidopterist Henry Herbert Lyman (1854–1914). Lyman’s collection of approximately 20,000 butterflies and moths formed the nucleus of the Museum's collection, which was subsequently expanded through important contributions from early curators and researchers, including Albert Winn, George Moore, Keith Kevan and Vic Vickery, as well as through donations of private insect collections and specimens resulting from student research.

Today, the Lyman Entomological Museum houses nearly three million insect specimens and is the second largest insect collection in Canada and the largest university-based insect collection in the country. The collection supports research, teaching and biodiversity studies and includes important holdings from Canada and around the world. It contains significant collections of butterflies and moths, beetles, flies, grasshoppers and crickets, among many other groups.

The Museum also preserves irreplaceable type specimens and historically important material, including specimens collected during the nineteenth century.

Great Golden Digger Wasp carrying a katydid which will serve as food for its larvae - Lyman Entomological Museum