MSU Arthropod Zoo

Location: Clay Lyle Entomology Building Lobby

Cost: It is still free!

Hours: The MSU Arthropod Zoo is open to the public during university working hours.

Tours

At your leisure: The MSU Arthropod Zoo is located in the Clay Lyle lobby and you can walk through and view the arthropods as well as an observation beehive.

Guided Tours of the MSU Arthropod Zoo and Insect Museum: Available by appointment or time permitting. We often divide guided tours into groups of 7 or 8 participants.

Special Tours: We can accommodate special zoo tour request such as STEM tours; butterfly rearing; Arthropod Classes (Taxonomy); Arthropod Care and Feeding, Teacher Tours; Invasive Species; Tarantula Handling; and Entomophagous tours that include edible insect treats for a fee.

Insect Museum: We often include our insect museum in tours. The research collection contains more than 1,000,000 pinned specimens, and more than 35,000 are added annually.

What to expect

Local arthropods, in season, that may include: praying mantids, katydids, grasshoppers, cicadas, bagworms, walking sticks, ticks, brown recluse and black widow spiders, fishing spiders, velvet ants, mosquitoes, termites, etc.

Permanent arthropod residents include: painted lady butterflies, tarantulas and assorted spiders, scorpions, centipedes, millipedes whipscorpions, tailless whip scorpions (in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire), isopods, blue death feigning beetles, confused flour beetles, Bess bugs, ant lions, Madagascar hissing and Dubia cockroaches, etc.

Observation Bee Colony including Bees and habitat, honey and wax processing equipment, and Do the Waggle Dance.

Other Exhibits: A Butterfly Face Board and a Corn Earworm Face Board for photographic memories of your visit. Miscellaneous exhibits in the lobby including: medical and forestry entomology, mimicry, etc. Pollinator Gardens and Wall: The north lawn, outside of our lobby, contains our pollinator garden and wall.