U.S. National Tick Collection Temporarily Closes to Visitors; Re-opening Scheduled for Spring 2015

November 24, 2014

The U.S. National Tick Collection will be closed until Sprint 2015 in an effort to provide additional space for specimens, storage, research and improved fire protection.

The U.S. National Tick Collection (USNTC) at Georgia Southern University is temporarily closed to visitors and tours as it prepares for expansion and relocation. The collection will relocate to the Math and Physics building in an effort to provide additional space for specimens, storage, research and improved fire protection. The expected completion date is Spring 2015.

The staff of the USNTC has agreed to make additional efforts to accommodate loan requests during the transition. In the meantime, enthusiasts can view the tick collection online at the Zach S. Henderson Library’s institutional repository known as Digital Commons.

Housed at Georgia Southern since 1990, the USNTC is the largest continuously curated tick collection in the world with over one million specimens and roughly one-third of the primary tick types. Its taxonomic breadth includes 96 percent of recognized tick species, approximately 900, and all U.S. tick species. It contains specimens from all continents. The collection belongs to the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History.

For more information on the tick collection, email Daniel Gleason, director of the Institute for Coastal Plain Science, at dgleason@georgiasouthern.edu.

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