Facilities
Research laboratories, teaching labs, and faculty and staff offices
The Entomology Department at North Dakota State University in Fargo, ND is located on the second floor of Hultz Hall . Administrative offices are in Hultz 202. In addition to a large lab used primarily for teaching ENT350, each faculty member has a lab located in Hultz Hall. There is also a common-use lab equipped for molecular research. Shared facilities include numerous walk-in growth chambers, a walk-in refrigerator and freezer, and an autoclave. Facilities for gas chromatography-mass spectrometry, liquid chromatography, and analytical chemistry, located in Stephen Foster’s lab, are available for use by other faculty, staff and students.
North Dakota State Insect Reference Collection
The North Dakota State Insect Reference Collection (NDSIRC) has been designated by the North Dakota Legislature as the State repository for insect specimens and it serves state, regional, national and world wide interests in the study of insects. At the local and state levels, the NDSIRC fulfills its primary duty as a reference source. Questions from producers, warehouse owners, shippers and retailers either directly, through the Extension Service or via the North Dakota Dept. of Agriculture are answered through reference to specimens in this collection. At the research level, the collection serves as a library of biodiversity and makes loans of specimens for research purposes to scientists in the state, region, nation and also internationally.
The NDSIRC has an emphasis on the Nearctic fauna (North America) but does contain species from all faunal regions. The collection includes just over a million specimens contained in Cornell drawers as follows (number of Cornell drawers): Coleopters- beetles (560), Lepidoptera- Moths & butterflies (380), Hemiptera (125), Diptera- flies (80), Hymenoptera- ants, bees and wasps (100), Orthoptera- grasshoppers (80) and miscellaneous smaller orders of insects (33). In addition there are approximately 50,000 vials of immature states of insects preserved in liquid, and 23,000 microscope slides. Special strengths of the collection are: Miridae, Cicindelinae, Chrysomelidae, Curculionidae and the Thysanoptera. Special collections include the V. M. Kirk collection of Coleoptera, the P. Slaybaugh collection of Cicindelidae, the R. L. Post collection of Thysanoptera and the M. Hebard collection of Orthoptera of North Dakota.
Greenhouses
Six on-campus large greenhouse units are allocated to Entomology. Each fall the Greenhouse Committee meets to review needs for greenhouse space in the coming year. Typically each faculty member that conducts research on insect-plant interactions is allocated one greenhouse unit. A shared use lab allocated to Entomology is located within the same building.
A new NDSU greenhouse facility is under construction.
Research Farms
NDSU has eight off-campus research farms that are part of the Research Extension Centers. Currently entomology faculty and staff are conducting research at Centers in Prosper, Carrington, Langdon, Minot, Williston, Hettinger, and Dickinson. Field equipment is available for use by Entomology faculty, students and staff.
North Dakota State University Electron Microscopy Center
The Center provides a wide range of electron microscopy services, as well as equipment for bright-field, dark-field, phase-contrast, polarizing, immunofluorescence, and confocal fluorescence light microscopy, and digital and film-based imaging, printing, storage, and retrieval capabilities. Technical expertise of the current staff, with a broad range of education and experience, assures quality research support and excellent maintenance and management.
