IARI-National Pusa Collection

Code

INPC

Status of collection

true

Personal collection

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Accession status

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Description

NPC is part of Division of Entomology, Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi. Division of Entomology is one of the first five Divisions of Indian Agricultural Research Institute established in 1905. The Division has pioneered in investigations in insect systematics and economic entomology vis-a-vis important crop pests. National Pusa Collections (NPC) with over five lakh specimen serves as a national repository for insect pests of crops. Eminent entomologists like H.M. Lefroy, T. B. Fletcher and M. G. R. Menon laid strong foundation for insect systematics research in NPC. Faunistic surveys led to the establishment of the National Pusa Collection (NPC), one of the largest collections of its kind in this world. Now this collection houses more than half a million specimens of which 0.1 million are authentically identified, comprising about 20,000 species. Over the last 50 years, 1500 new species of insects have been described from NPC. As a national service for pest diagnostics, every year, over 4000 specimens are identified by the taxonomists of this Division. Several taxonomic treatises on agriculturally important insects belonging to orders Lepidoptera, Coleoptera, Hemiptera, Orthoptera and Hymenoptera and class Acarina have been made from this Division.