To see the insect collections, one must get permission from one of the curators or collection managers. Do not mind the look they may give you as despite the pile on work on their desks, they look forward to the opportunity to help visiting colleagues. By the way, this is Terry Erwin, perhaps regretting he ever suggested that there were more than 30 million species of insects.

The collection is merely large number of insect cabinets, such as these. To find things, one merely search the labels on the cabinets for the appropriate scientific name, usually that of the order and family of species one seeks.

Each cabinet contains a series of drawers. The drawer labels list the contents, usually by giving the name of the appropriate family and genus.

Each drawer contains a series of unit trays. Each unit tray has a label identifying its contents. Only specimens of one species are placed in a unit. Frequently the unit label has a color coded dot to indicated the biotic regions from which the material came.

Each specimen or voucher will have labels indicating where the specimen was collected and by whom. When the label data has been entered into specimen-label database, then an unique bar code is also attached.

Some feel that this way to visit a museum to obtain BioSystematic Information is hard work. They are right. And that is a problem that museum curators and collection managers must solve for they are the source of the problem.

Some feel that new technologies, like computers and networks, can solve the problems of access to Biosystematic Information. To them the charging 5th Cavarly is an appropriate symbol, because their dissemination strategy is based on that of the Nathan Bedford Forrest:

Git thar fustest with the mostest.

So, return to our Diptera World Wide Web site and see how we want to disseminate Biosystematic Information in the 21st century.