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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
Staff
(Partially extracted from: Report on the Entomological Department
Collections in the South African Museum and Proposed Plan for their
Reorganisation by H. G. Robertson. December 1990).
Although there were insects at the Museum from its earliest days, it was really
only when Roland Trimen first became involved with the Museum in 1866 that the
Museum's insect collection had its inception. Trimen laid the foundation of
butterfly research in South Africa and his three volume work, South African
Butterflies, published from 1887 to 1889, is highly regarded. Although most of
his primary type material was deposited in the British Museum (Natural History),
we still have a substantial number of butterflies dating back to his period. The
earliest specimen we know of in the collection is Amauris (Amaura) echeria
echeria (Nymphalidae). SAM-LEP-A014355. Collected in Knysna, S.A. in 1858 by R.
Trimen.
During Trimen's era, Louis Péringuey began work at the Museum as a clerical
assistant. He worked his way up, and in 1906, became Director of the Museum.
Péringuey was not a trained entomologist but had an enthusiastic interest in
beetles. Just as Trimen had laid the foundation of butterfly research in South
Africa, so did Péringuey for South African beetles. Although Péringuey did not
deposit his type material in foreign museums, he did have a private collection
that was bought by the University of Pretoria after his death and eventually
donated to the National Collection of Insects. Although the Museum does not hold
all of Péringuey's types, it still houses a valuable collection of beetles
resulting from Péringuey's work.
During most of Péringuey's period of service at the Museum, Robert Lightfoot
acted as a clerical/scientific assistant and amongst other activities, was a
prolific collector of insects and other land invertebrates.
W. F. Purcell started working at the Museum in 1896, marking the beginning of
the arachnid and myriapod research at the Museum. This research was continued by
R. W. E. Tucker, R. F. Lawrence and R. H. N. Smithers, and ended only in 1935
when Smithers resigned.
Dr. A. J. Hesse began work at the Museum in 1924, overlapping with Péringuey by
about a year. When he began the job, he was well qualified as a parasitologist
but had no entomological training. Hesse holds the record as the longest serving
member of staff in the Museum having worked here for 51 years. He reached
retirement age in 1955 but was employed for 19 years after this, only leaving
the Museum in 1974. Hesse's main research interest was flies and he published
some large revisions of the bombyliids and mydids. He also did a great deal of
fieldwork in conjunction with C. W. Thorne and H. Zinn who were general
technicians at the Museum.
During the Hesse period, H. G. Wood worked as an honorary entomologist and
produced a monograph on the crane flies of the south western Cape. K. H.
Barnard, although employed as a marine biologist, made a substantial
contribution to entomological research in the Museum, producing some important
papers on endemic insects of the Cape, such as one on mayflies and another on
Colophon beetles.
S. H. Skaife was a trustee during the 1940s, 50s and 60s and although well known
as an entomologist, there are no records of any outstanding contribution made by
him to the Entomology Department other than some specimens he donated.
H. Andreae was a beetle enthusiast who worked in an honorary capacity during the
1940s, 50s and 60s. Besides the collecting he did, he also identified huge
numbers of beetles in the collection.
F. W. Gess, worked at SA Museum from 1959 to 1968 and then move to the Albany
Museum in Grahamstown. Besides doing general curatorial work, he conducted an
interesting study of Protea associated insects.
Near the end of the Hesse period, I. T. L. Pearse, C. J. Taute and T. J. D.
Coates worked in the Entomology Department for brief periods.
In 1971 A. J. Prins was appointed, later to retire in 1989. His main interests
were ants and forensic entomology but he also had a very good knowledge of
insects that was usefully employed answering entomological queries by the
public.
In 1973 Dr Vincent B. Whitehead took over as Head of Department and Dr Hesse
retired the following year. Dr Whitehead retired in 1988 and continued working
until 2002. His research mainly concerned ladybird beetles and bees, more
specifically oil-collecting bees, Melittidae and Fideliidae.
In 1989, Dr Hamish Robertson was appointed as the new head of Entomology. The
Entomology Department operated as a separate section until October 1993 when the
departments of Entomology, Marine Biology, Herpetology and Ornithology
amalgamated and became the Division of Life Sciences with Dr H. G. Robertson as
the Head of Division. Dr Simon van Noort was appointed in 1992. The research
staff complement was made up of Hymenopterists. Dr Whitehead worked on bees, Dr
Robertson worked on ants, more specifically Camponotus and Dr van Noort worked
on wasps, mostly parasitic wasps and fig pollinators. In 2005,
Nokuthula Mbanyana was appointed on contract as a trainee scientist and worked with Dr
Robertson on the Formicidae.
Helen Rae assisted Dr Whitehead for a few years until about 1981 and Amanda Roux
assisted Dr Prins for a short time until his retirement in 1989 when they
married and he retired. Mrs Cathy Carr was an arachnologist and worked for a
brief period in the 1980s until she and her husband emigrated to Australia.
Gerhard McShane worked as a technician for a short period from about 1990 to
about 1992. Mrs M. A. Cochrane (neé Macpherson) was employed in 1982 and became
the collections manager and Mrs Dawn Larsen was employed in 1992 and became the
assistant collections manager. Her husband, Norman Larsen, is an amateur
arachnologist and his extensive knowledge has assisted the department over the
years. Many technical assistants were employed on contract to assist with
processing vast amounts of field material collected by Drs van Noort and
Robertson. The longest serving is Aisha Mayekiso. Originally she worked on
material collected by ant specialist, Dr Brian Fisher, of California Academy of
Science while based at SA Museum.
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