Colorful collection

Richard Hoebeke, assistant curator of the Cornell Insect Collection, shows Julia Schneider, 12, a DeWitt Middle School seventh-grader who's working on a 4-H butterfly collection, several of the 3,000 drawers of butterflies and moths. The full collection is 5 million specimens strong in a custom-designed, climate-controlled facility in Comstock Hall. Nearly a quarter-million insect species, from toe-biting African tiger beetles to moths the size of grapefruit, are housed in about 12,000 drawers; some 100 drawers are added each year. Frank DiMeo/University Photography