The Alcohol Tubes of Lepidoptera (ATOLep) collection currently contains over 14,000 specimens, representing 107 families, stored in 100% ethanol at -80 degrees C (suitable for both DNA PCR and RT-PCR). (Those listed in the Status Matrix represent the sampling plan and the current status of sequencing progress.) The downloadable spreadsheet at the bottom of this page (under "Attachment") lists the >2070 genera (>10% of the world total) represented in the collection.

The higher classification follows the authorities in the Kristensen (1998) Handbook, with occasional departures. (The chief aberration is Noctuoidea, where we employ a mishmash of recent systems which, while arbitrary, is no more confusing than the current state of systematics in that group!)

As in the Status Matrix, the numbers in the 'Sort' column of the spreadsheet roughly follow the sequence in which the families occur in the Handbook.

The ATOLep collection represents over 20 years of contributions from dozens of lepidopterists. We now seek to expand the holdings to as many genera as possible of all lepidopteran families and subfamilies. The ATOLep Collection is intended as a permanent world resource for lepidopteran systematics. Now housed at the University of Maryland, it will be moved to the National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, at the conclusion of the Leptree project.

More than a dozen research groups around the world are already using specimens from the ATOLep collection, and we welcome inquiries from other lepidopterists who would like to do so (contact C. Mitter). Arrangements are made as needed.

We also welcome inquiries from lepidopterists who would like to contribute to the ATOLep collection.

We also urge other researchers to post information on this site about material for sequencing that they have and would be willing to share. Eventually we hope to add the ability to access, from this site, all available data bases of lepidoptera material preserved for sequencing.

Numbers of genera on hand in representative major groups as of 22 November 2008:

Trichoptera - 8
Micropterigoidea - 4
Nepticuloidea - 9
Hepialoidea - 9
Incurvarioidea - 14
Tineoidea s.s. - 62
Gracillarioidea - 26
Yponomeutoidea - 31
Gelechioidea - 83
Zygaenoidea - 71
Cossoidea - 16
Sesioidea - 17
Choreutoidea - 10
Tortricoidea- 76
Pterophoroidea - 5
Pyraloidea - 137
Thyridoidea - 10
Sphingidae - 113
Saturniidae - 92
Lasiocampidae - 36
Mimallonoidea - 8
Bombycoidea - 244
Geometroidea - 199
Drepanoidea - 20
Hesperioidea - 117
Papilionoidea - 134
Notodontidae - 99
Noctuidae:
  Quadrifines - 152
  Trifines - 302
Nolidae - 21
Arctiidae - 102
Lymantriidae - 20

Further detail on holdings in the quadrifid noctuidae,provided by Reza Zahiri, November 2007:
Family Arctiidae:
- 281 specimens
- 6 subfamilies
- 9 subtribes
- 90 genera

Family Noctuidae (Quadrifine)
- 455 specimens
- 11 subfamilies
- 149 genera
Aganainae (4 genera), Calpinae (19 genera), Catocalinae (76 genera) (including Erebinae), Euteliinae (9 genera), Herminiinae (14 genera), Hypeninae (7 genera), Ophiderinae (6 genera), Rivulinae (3 genera), Sarrothripinae (4 genera), Stictopterinae (6 genera).

Family Nolidae:
- 43 specimens
- 5 subfamilies
- 17 genera
Subfamily Bleninae (1 genus), Careinae (1 genus), Chloephorinae (7 genera), Collomeninae (1 genus), Nolinae (7 genera).

Family Lymantriidae:
- 156 specimens
- 3 subfamilies + undetermined
- 20 genera