The Canadian National Collection (CNC) of Insects, Arachnids and Nematodes is considered one of the best collections of its kind in the world in terms of size, species representation, and level of curation. It is maintained and developed by Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada as part of its systematics research program, and is housed in the K.W. Neatby Building in Ottawa. The collection is estimated to contain approximately 16 million specimens systematically arranged in 1400 steel cabinets

Specimens are stored mostly as dry-mounted pinned specimens.

However, certain groups (e.g. larvae, aquatic insects, spiders, mites, aphids, midges, fleas, etc) are stored in two different ways. The first is in liquid preservative in cold storage, such as room freezers (temporary)

or walk-in freezers (more permanent), organized in metal cabinets.

The second method of storage is mounting on slides.

The majority of specimens are from localities throughout Canada and North America, but significant holdings are present from other biogeographic regions.

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Page updated 2009-12-28