Explore our places, collections and stories
The Invertebrate Collections contain the largest number of specimens in the museum. They can be broadly divided into Insects (Entomology) and Marine Invertebrates (including sponges, jellyfish, shrimps, crabs, worms, bivalves, gastropods, octopuses, and sea urchins). In addition there are discrete collections of other terrestrial forms (e.g. spiders and millipedes) and freshwater invertebrates (e.g. snails). The collections are separated into wet preserved specimens, dried specimens and models, and microscope slides.
We house several historically significant collections and in recent years we have acquired a number of large and scientifically important collections of marine invertebrates through collaboration with a variety of institutions with an emphasis on retaining samples from British waters.
There are now nearly four million specimens of marine invertebrates in the collection, which form an invaluable resource for the research of British marine fauna, especially the North Atlantic deep sea.
You can find out more about the development of the marine invertebrate collections here.
The Invertebrate Section also includes an extensive Entomological collection containing a further two million specimens from all over the world with particular strengths in Lepidoptera, Odonata, Hymenoptera, small orders and certain Coleoptera and Diptera. Although worldwide in scope, the collection is particularly rich in Scottish material and the collection is frequently consulted for this reason.
You can find out more about the development of the entomology collections here.
Specific responsibility: Head of Invertebrate collections. Curation and development of the collection of marine and terrestrial invertebrates, including insects.
Research interest/expertise: Taxonomy of fungus gnats (Diptera: Sciaroidea); systematics, phylogeny and palaeontology of true flies (Insecta: Diptera); biodiversity informatics.
Email: v.blagoderov@nms.ac.uk
You can find out more about Dr Vladimir Blagoderov here.
Specific responsibility: Curation and development of the collections of marine invertebrates including Porifera (sponges), Cnidaria (jellyfish, sea anemones, corals and hydroids), Crustacea (barnacles, shrimps, lobsters, crabs), Bryozoa (sea mats), Echinodermata (sea urchins, starfish, sea cucumbers) and Tunicata (sea squirts); research loans and enquiries.
Research interest/expertise: Development of the collections of Scottish marine invertebrates; taxonomy and biogeography of benthic harpacticoid copepods; subterranean biology and the ecology of invertebrates inhabiting terrestrial cave environments.
Email: f.ware@nms.ac.uk
Specific responsibility: Curation and collection development of Mollusca and brachiopod collections (worldwide).
Research interest/expertise: Taxonomy and biogeography of the British Hydrobiidae (mud snails). Ecologically orientated work has included studies of the distribution of the molluscan faunas around Britain.
Email: s.pye@nms.ac.uk
You can find out more about Sankurie Pye here.
Research interest/expertise: Polychaete taxonomy (names of marine worms) with a special interest in temperate Cirratulidae, Polynoidae and tropical Sabellaridae. Also the zoogeography of chaetognaths, a different group of planktonic worms.
You can find out more about Susan Chambers here.
Specific responsibility: Curation and development of the insect collections; research loans and enquiries.
Research interest/expertise: Development of the collections of British insects; key interest is Coleoptera (especially Silphidae – carrion beetles); science communication (see power of social media for more).
Email: a.whiffin@nms.ac.uk
Research interest/expertise: Flies (Diptera) - especially lower Brachycera and Empidoidea – and other terrestrial insects of riverine and upland habitats.
You can find out more about Stephen Hewitt here.
Research interests/expertise: Scottish and European Diptera. Regularly donates data-rich specimens to the National Museums Scotland collections, including type material from his own studies. Ongoing collaborations involve several individual projects on specific dipteran groups, particularly on taxonomic and conservation subjects.
Research interest/expertise: Diptera (flies), especially Syrphidae (hoverflies) and saproxylic Diptera (dead wood flies); their larvae, functional morphology; phylogenetics (identifying and understanding biological relationships), biodiversity and conservation.
You can find out more about Graham Rotheray here.
Research interest/expertise: Taxonomy, biology and ecology of parasitic wasps, especially Western Palaearctic Ichneumonidae and Braconidae.
After nearly five months of closure, we have started to welcome visitors back to our museums with a phased reopening.