Natural world
National Museums Liverpool's arachnid collection is probably second in size in the UK after the Natural History Museum, London. It has undergone a period of rapid development during the last ten years and includes arguably the finest contemporary collection of spiders in Britain. The British collections are comprehensive for all groups except mites.
National Museums Liverpool enjoys very close links with the British Arachnological Society (B.A.S.) and administers its library. This comprises c15,000 reprints and is the finest in the world.
Tarantula
The c160,000 specimens of British spiders and harvestmen provide 82% species coverage and includes type-specimens. All pre-1993 material has been re-housed, re-identified and computer catalogued.
These were mainly acquired during fieldwork by National Museums Liverpool staff in Turkey and Europe and constitute a collection of c 5,000 specimens that are sorted to family and genus. A worldwide collection of c4,000 ticks was acquired with the donation of the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine's medically important arthropod collections in 1986.
Bugs
The c14,000 spirit and slide-mounted specimens of British pseudoscorpions, including adults and all instars for the majority of the British species comprise the most extensive pseudoscorpion collection in Britain.
The museum lacks a comprehensive mite and tick collection. There is, however a small collection of local pest species associated with stored food products.