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see also:
- Out of Africa there is always something
new by J.A. van den Heever
-
Growth of a Collection (Ethnology Collection)
by E. M.Shaw
Collection history
The Entomology collections house over a million dry insect specimens, nearly
25000 bottled Insecta, Arachnida, Myriapoda, Onychophora, Acarina and about 2600
microscope slides. There are nearly 9000 type series, over 7200 of which contain
primary type material. While the collection is relatively small by world
standards, it is a very valuable collection in that it is rich in type material
and is representative of the threatened and unique fynbos biome.
In 1981 the South African Museum received the Hymenoptera collection of the
Bulawayo Museum in exchange for their Zimbabwe birds. This was a highly
contentious exchange that caused considerable ill feeling among entomologists
and which resulted in the resignation of most of the entomological staff at the
Bulawayo Museum. The exchange was conducted at a high level between the South
African and Zimbabwean governments and entomologists had little to say in the
matter. This collection has now been fully integrated with the South African
Museum Hymenoptera collection and bear blue labels stating the donor.
In about 1988 it became clear that the arachnid collection was impossible to use
as there were multiple vials of different accession numbers in a single jar. M.
Cochrane and A. Roux commenced rebottling the collection, placing each accession
number in a vial or jar of its own. In the old storage system many accessions
were crammed into a single jar resulting in damage to specimens and a collection
that was impossible to use. During re-bottling each sample was separated and
checked and re-bottled into its own jar or vial. This re-bottling was finally
completed in 1992 and the computerization of the data completed in 1996. Those
involved with this task were G. McShane, M. Cochrane and D. Larsen.
Soon after he started work in 1989,
Dr Robertson conducted an analysis and
evaluation of the dry insect collections and listed the entire collection to
genus level. This, and the restructuring of the budgeting system in 1989, marked
the beginning of the major reorganisation programme. In 1992, H. Robertson, M.
Cochrane and M. van der Merwe (Marine Biology collections manager) attended the
International Symposium and First World Congress on the Preservation and
Conservation of Natural History Collections in Madrid.
Dr S. van Noort was
appointed shortly afterward and all these events marked the beginning of a new
era of collection management for the South African Museum Life Sciences
collections.
The re-organisation of the dry collection began in earnest in 1993. Over the
years the shortage of space had resulted in the collections becoming dissociated
and disorganized and about 45 per cent of the dry material had been stored in
old field boxes. Re-organisation of the dry collection involved sorting the
material into series groups (material with the same collection data) into the
unit tray system and each series was then numbered and later computerized. Those
involved with the re-organisation were H. Robertson, S. van Noort, V. B.
Whitehead, M. Cochrane, D. Larsen and G. McShane. In the early stages the
department also had the help of voluntary workers; Mrs G. Wheeler re-organised
the Bombyliidae (Diptera) and part of the Nymphalinae and Mr T. Brinkman
re-organized the Hesperiidae and Charaxinae, and Mr A. Heath assisted with the
Lycaenidae.
By July 1997 the Hymenoptera collection had been re-organized and all, but the
Sphecidae, computerized. Other groups re-organized but not computerized were;
the Diptera, of the Lepidoptera the Lycaenidae, Hesperiidae, Nymphalinae and
Charaxinae; and of the Coleoptera the Carabidae to the Lucanidae, Tenebrionidae,
Coccinellidae and Buprestidae and of the Scarabaeidae the Cetoniinae, Aphodiinae,
Hopliini, Dynastinae and Troginae. This resulted in the contents of 61 per cent
of the field boxes being integrated back into the collections.
By August 1998 the remaining uncomputerized Hymenoptera had been computerized
and M. Cochrane completed the re-organisation of the Scarabaeidae, Cossyphodidae,
Clambidae, Byrrhidae, Dryopidae, Elmidae, Heteroceridae, Limnichidae, Eucnemidae,
Throscidae, Elateridae, Cantharidae, Prionoceridae, Drilidae, Lampyridae,
Lycidae, Dermestidae, Anobiidae, Ptinidae, Bostrychidae, Lymexylidae,
Trogossitidae and Cleridae and D. Larsen had re-organised the Cicadidae (Hemiptera),
Embiidina, Psocoptera, Plecoptera, Thysanoptera, Mecoptera and Neuroptera. By
this time, 74 per cent of the field boxes had been integrated back into the
collections.
In 1990 the collection was housed in 44 cabinets and by July 1997 they were
housed in 74 cabinets (3026 drawers). By August 1998 there were a further 6
cabinets (300 drawers) that had already been filled and the department was once
again needing more space for the re-organisation program. By the end of 2006 all
that remained for reorganisation was the completion of the moths at which stage
the collection was housed in 5028 drawers in 115 cabinets.
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