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DEPARTMENT OF ENTOMOLOGY

318 West 12th Avenue
Aronoff Laboratories
Columbus, OH 43210
Phone: (614) 292-8209  


What is the butterfly?

Buckeye (Junonia coenia)

      Insects and related terrestrial arthropods comprise over 80% of the life forms on earth. The Class Insecta alone is suspected of containing between one and five million species at a minimum. Biological studies on most of these are sorely lacking, and very probably fewer than half the extant species have been named and described. Insects, by virtue of their small size and rapid reproductive capability, are major competitors with humans for resources. These same characteristics, together with ease of handling and breeding, make them ideal organisms for the elucidation of basic biological principles. Insects are also extensively involved in the spread of many pathogenic microorganisms that impact plants and animals, including humans.

      The Department of Entomology at The Ohio State University is the only academic and research center for entomology in the state of Ohio, and exists as a necessary response to the central place occupied by insects in our society. The Department of Zoology and Entomology dates from 1891. The first Ph.D. in Entomology was awarded in 1904; as of Spring Commencement 2002, 418 Ph.D. and 561 M.S. degrees had been granted in Entomology. Close cooperation between entomologists at the Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center in Wooster and those on the Columbus campus began in 1947, and the two units thereafter evolved into a single administrative unit. The former Department of Zoology and Entomology became two separate departments within the College of Biological Sciences in 1967. Formal merger of OARDC and The Ohio State University occurred in 1982, though the Department of Entomology has functioned as a unit since its inception.


Created: 3 September, 1994 || Last modified: 23 June, 2003 L. Musetti

Norman F. Johnson: Johnson.2@osu.edu