While most people pay little attention to the creeping, crawling, and flying denizens of the insect world, Richard Brown is on a first-name basis with them.

Entomologist Richard Brown shows off some of the museum's 950,000 insect specimens.

"I began collecting insects during the 1960s in northwestern Arkansas," said Brown, an entomology professor who directs the university's Mississippi Entomological Museum. "As a student at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville, I became interested in the moths of the southern Ozarks."

Brown put his knowledge of insects to use as a medical entomologist in the military before completing his doctorate in 1980 at Cornell University. That same year he was employed as an assistant professor and director of the MSU museum.

"The museum was formed in 1979 under the leadership of MSU entomologist William Cross to combine several private and institutional collections in Mississippi," Brown said. "The research collection now contains more than 950,000 specimens, with more than 35,000 being added each year."

The museum contains row after row of drawers filled with mounted specimens of various insects. Part of the collection is more than 100 years old.

The Mississippi State collection works like a brokerage house for scientists who study insects. Brown and museum curator Terry Schiefer ship specimens to entomologists throughout the U.S. and overseas, who return the insects to MSU after they have been studied and identified.

"The museum also is a resource for Mississippi farmers, homeowners, and entomologists who need help identifying insects," Brown said.

To learn more about the real life of a bug, visit the museum website at <http://www.msstate.edu/Entomology/museum.html>.