Collections
The Biodiversity Collections are housed in three areas, the main campus, and the JJ Pickle Research Campus north of the main campus.
Billie L. Turner Plant Resources Center: https://biodiversity.utexas.edu/collections/plants
The TEX and LL Herbaria contain over 1,000,000 total specimens and are among the largest herbaria in the southwestern United States. The facility ranks 13th in size across the nation. About a quarter of the specimens were collected in Texas, the largest holdings of Texas plants in the world. Nearly half of the specimens are from Latin America, with an especially strong representation from Mexico and northern Central America. Presently the number of new specimens accessioned into the Plant Resources Center’s herbaria is growing at an approximate rate of 7,000 per year.
The Billie L. Turner Plant Resources Center is housed in the Main Tower on the main UT campus.
Entomology Collection: https://biodiversity.utexas.edu/collections/entomology
The Entomology Collection contains 500,000 pinned and 1.5 million ethanol-preserved specimens, with concentrations in Lepidoptera (butterflies and moths), Coleoptera (beetles), Hymenoptera (wasps, bees, and ants), and cave invertebrates.
Most specimens document the geographic and seasonal occurrences of insect species across Texas, but the collection houses important samples from other states, Canada, Mexico, Central and South America, Europe, Africa and Asia; as well as the historic Ludolph Heiligbrodt Collection (1870-1910) from Bastrop County; as well as a collection of insect-host plant voucher specimens. Voucher specimens from University of Texas research projects, including a number of landmark studies on fire ants, are also in the collection.
The Entomology Collection is housed in the Lake Austin Centre near the BFL. (https://utdirect.utexas.edu/apps/campus/buildings/nlogon/maps/UTM/LAC/)
Ichthyology Collection: https://biodiversity.utexas.edu/collections/ichthyology
The Ichthyology collection currently consists of more than 70,000 lots (over 1.5 million specimens), most of which are "wet" collections preserved for long-term storage in 70% non-denatured ethanol. They have a small selection of larval fish from Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands that are in 10% formalin. Their skeletal collection consists of around 1300 cleared and stained fish, as well as over 500 skeletal preparations. The alcoholic collections currently occupy 1586 square feet, spread out over two rooms. They also have a tissue collection with over 2000 samples preserved in 100% ethanol frozen in liquid nitrogen.
The Ichthyology Collection is housed in the JJ Pickle Research Campus in north Austin. https://goo.gl/maps/gko3xJ6mHUwzsUZ36
Herpetology Collection: https://biodiversity.utexas.edu/collections/herpetology
The Herpetology Collection includes more than 115,000 individually catalogued and databased specimens, including ~3700 skeletons, used for research by faculty, staff and students at the University, as well as by qualified researchers throughout the world. The collection is also used for teaching courses (e.g., Vertebrate Natural History, Comparative Anatomy, Herpetology, and Field Herpetology) in Integrative Biology.
The collection began as a nucleus of research and teaching materials assembled by W. Frank Blair and his students in the Zoology Department; these were transferred to the Texas Memorial Museum in 1950's. The Herpetology Collection, along with other units of the Texas Natural History Collections (TNHC) was transferred to the Department of Integrative Biology in 2014.
The Herpetology Collection is housed in the JJ Pickle Research Campus in north Austin. https://goo.gl/maps/gko3xJ6mHUwzsUZ36