AUGUSTA — The University of Maine’s collection of more than 107,000 insects is being moved to a climate-controlled storage facility at the Maine State Museum in Augusta.

The collection contains insects dating back to the 1800s and includes items such as rare, tropical butterflies.

Due to a lack of resources, the collection has been stored in an attic on the Orono campus and was in danger of being damaged. It also wasn’t accessible to be used.

The collection is being moved Thursday to its new home, where it’ll become part of the museum’s natural science collection. It will complement the state’s existing collection of 60,000 insects used for identification and research by the Maine Forest Service.

The university collection will be stored in 29 cabinets holding more than 500 drawers of insects.