Insect Collection of the University of Madeira
The UMa Insect Collection is an excellent tool for providing university students with a comprehensive training and for establishing a relationship between several curricular units. Furthermore, it stimulates students' curiosity and interest in topics such as biodiversity decline, invasive species, nature conservation, climate change and emerging pathogens. This broad understanding of the diversity and complexity of living things also serves to develop attitudes of respect and love for nature.
The material in the Collection supports various curricular units of the Degree in Biology, Master's Degrees in Ecotourism, Master's Degrees in Applied Biochemistry, the Higher Nature Guide Course, or in the Training of Educators and Teachers. The specimens come from student collections, research and service projects, academic work such as Master's or Master's theses, or the training of teachers and educators. Our collection documents the presence of species over time and is an invaluable source for recording changes in the distribution of species. aqui. Our collection documents of the presence of species over time and is an invaluable source for recording changes in species distributions.
The Collection in numbers
In March 2021, the University of Madeira began a programa de voluntariado with the main goal of digitizing the Insect Collection of the University of Madeira. Get to know the updated numbers resulting from this programme.
Number of Specimens by Order
No Data Found
* This value refers to specimens that are without identification in the database. This does not mean that the specimens in question have no identification in the collection.
The UMACI collections
The Insect Collection of the University of Madeira is composed of 3 collections. Get to know a little more about each one of them.
Collection
Pedagógica
Collection that results from the material of the students that attend entomological subjects in UMa.
Medical and veterinary interest collection
Collection with the largest geographical range, with the first specimens collected in the 1950s.
Collection of Hemiptera Auchenorrhyncha
Collection including insects from Greece, the Iberian Peninsula and Macaronesia, the first specimens collected in 1992.
Utility of UMa's Insect Collection
No âmbito da investigaçãodata from the Collection can be used for:
- Species identification
- Discovering new species;
- Studying evolutionary relationships;
- Recognise endangered and threatened species;
- Assess the status and quality of habitats over space and time;
- Help define and implement conservation programmes;
- Determine the arrival and increase in distribution of exotic and invasive species;
- Assess the effects of global climate change;
- Locating populations of medical and veterinary importance;