Plant Pathology Herbarium and Insect Collection

The Plant Pathology Herbarium and Insect Collection holds most of the known plant pathogens and insect pests that occur in Queensland. These collections underpin the reliable and accurate identification of plant diseases and insect pests in Queensland.

Supporting the Biosecurity Act 2014, the collections enhance Queensland's biosecurity through the early detection of new and emerging plant diseases and pests.

The Plant Pathology Herbarium contains:

• more than 90,000 specimens
• approximately 1,800 fungal species
• about 20,000 living cultures of fungi
• 700 bacterial cultures.

The Insect Collection has about 1.5 million pinned insect specimens and 52,000 slide-mounted specimens.

Access to the collection

You can access the collection records of specimens held in the Plant Pathology Herbarium and Insect Collection through the Department of Agriculture and Fisheries and Biological Collections portal and the Australian Plant Pest Database.

If you are a researcher, you can access the collection by prior arrangement—contact the curator by phone.

You can read about the standards for managing the collections on the Department of Agriculture and Fisheries Biological Collections portal.