D3316: The insects of Capitol Reef: The creation of a field guide

The long standing relationship that Utah Valley University has with Capitol Reef National Park has led to the publication of many field guides and papers from undergraduate researchers. However, as of yet, there has been no field guides published on the diversity of the insects that are found within the park. This project focuses on the collection techniques used in the National Park over a period of 5 years, a total of 4,961 specimens from 157 families were collected. It also outlines the curation and cataloging of the resulting collection. Both of these processes provided the information for another project that compiled a list of species that are common, rare, or large flashy into a well ordered, informative field guide that can be used by novice and expert alike. This not only demonstrates the effectiveness of an insect collection but also shows that without curation and cataloging that collection can not be used as effectively in future studies.