Background
Collins was born in 1922 in Institute, West Virginia.
Collins was born in 1922 in Institute, West Virginia.
She started college at age fourteen and earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Biology from West Virginia State University in 1943.
She earned a Doctor of Philosophy degree from the University of Chicago in 1950. Her Doctor of Philosophy work focused on zoology and her mentor was Alfred East. Emerson. She taught at Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University and at Howard University.
Collins did extensive field work in North and South America, specializing in the insects of Guyana and Florida.
From the late 1970s through 1996, Collins was a research associate in the Smithsonian"s National Museum of Natural History, Department of Entomology. Her primary area of study was termites of the Caribbean.
Collins died April 27, 1996 during a research trip to the Cayman Islands.