Behind-the-Scenes Tours at the Smithsonian’s National Insect Collection

Behind-the-scenes tours of the National Insect Collection will be offered at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C., July 20-26

Dr. John Brown, research entomologist with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, will offer one hour-long tour per day from 2 p.m. to 3 p.m., Monday through Friday of that week. Tours will be limited to 10 visitors. Registration is required by contacting Brown by email at John.Brown@ars.usda.gov.

The museum houses the world’s largest collection of natural history specimens and one of the world’s largest insect collections, estimated at 35 million insect specimens, including nearly 2.4 million moths. The tour will focus on Lepidoptera but will also include beetles and other insects, and highlight the collection storage facilities and research areas.

This is sure to be a really cool event. If you’ve never had the opportunity to see the collections at a museum and you’re in the DC area, you should definitely check this out!