Kenneth S. Norris Center for Natural History, University of California Santa Cruz, Insect Collection

Project name: Trinational Monarch Knowledge Network

Dataset summary : The Kenneth S. Norris Center for Natural History at UC Santa Cruz houses collections that are mostly local to the Central Californian Coast, including habitats in the Santa Cruz Mountains, the Monterey Bay Area, and the Monterey Bay itself (seabirds and marine algae). Collections include: marine algae (400+), plants (10,000+), bryophytes (200+), fungi (1000+), lichens (200+), insects (90,000+), fish (500+), amphibians (500), reptiles (500), birds (1500), and mammals (800+). Notable collections include the Randall Morgan Insect Collection which contains ~70,000 specimens collected systematically at 39 locations from 1989-199 in natural and rare habitats in Santa Cruz County, California. For each specimen, the species of plant it was collected from was also recorded. Morgan collected systematically at each location over an entire year (and in some locations over multiple years) and kept precise records on plant phenology. The collection mainly consists of hymenoptera, diptera, and lepidoptera but also contains good representation of other common orders.