[update & repost] SE Brazil insects available

[Doug Yanega]

It was pointed out to me that many people had their e-mail turned off while
they were in Vegas for the ESA conference, and also there have been a few
minor misunderstandings, so I've rewritten the message to be a little
clearer. This has generated a huge response so far. Why don't people do
this more often?

--------------
Hi, all. The time has come for me to make a concerted effort to "farm out"
much of the material I've personally accumulated here over the last two
years (about 10,000 specimens), as well as finding people who might be
interested in material (in alcohol) from a massive, intensive, year-long
malaise sampling program (approx 1 million total specimens). The vast
majority of this material is from the "cerrado", and some from the "campo
rupestre". Another student in the lab here works in local caves, and also
has material available for study. We are seeking taxonomists who are or
have been working with taxa from this region, and can give us the best IDs
possible; facilities in Brazil are more than adequate for maintenance of
and access to material, it's IDs that are the problem. Studies in our lab
will continue and expand, so contacts made now are intended to be long-term
and mutually beneficial.
        I've already been in contact with a number of people (you know who
you are) interested in various taxa, and accordingly there are a fair
number of groups which are already effectively "spoken for" at present.
Notable among these are bees, ants, symphyta, and virtually all parasitic
and aculeate wasps (except Evanioidea, pompilids and scoliids), clerids,
meloids, staphylinids, ptinids, nitidulids, anobiids, anthribids, leiodids,
carabids, elaterids, lampyrids, cerambycids, chlamisine, criocerine, and
cassidine chrysomelids, scolytines, buprestids, cicadas, fulgoroids,
membracids, coreids, pentatomids, ascalaphids, dolichopodids, bombyliids,
tephritids, phorids, ensifera, and virtually all macrolepidoptera. If you
have an ongoing revision in one of the above groups which requires
Brazilian material, and have not been in contact with me before, it *may*
still be possible to make arrangements; bear in mind that if possible, we
are giving priority to S. American researchers. Virtually anything not in
the listing above is effectively up for grabs, assuming we've got any -
even if it's a *very* obscure group, just ask and I'll tell you if we've
got 'em.
        Among the malaise material is a VAST amount of diptera, but the
nematocera and acalyptratae are not sorted to family, though the brachycera
and calyptratae are, for the most part. Malaise lepidoptera are mostly
unsorted, and are mostly microleps. The coleoptera and hymenoptera from the
malaise samples *are* sorted to family (2 months' worth so far), but the
remaining orders (mostly hemiptera and homoptera) are all together with the
unsorted nematocera. This material will not be sent out until and unless it
is sorted, but a list is being made of people who need it. Note also that
there are almost no aquatic taxa or strictly nocturnal taxa represented
(the nematocera are mostly cecidomyiids, sciarids, and mycetophilids), and
few orthopteroids - the malaise traps were run only during daylight hours.
        Interested folks should contact me directly (please don't respond
to the list), within the next two weeks at the latest, giving details of
the work for which the material would be used. Something to bear in mind is
that we have no museum here, and almost no boxes suitable for shipping
pinned material, so a general request is that people who want pinned
specimens may need to send as many such units as they can spare.
**If there are multiple requests from people at a single institution, it
would be MUCH better if you could coordinate so we can take care of
everything in one shipment. Please try to contact everyone at your
institution who might be interested in the material; this can save a lot of
expense.**

As long as I'm here, I'll post the "general loan condition" statement, so I
won't have to send a separate copy to everyone interested (over 50 people
so far):
------------
General loan conditions:

The only absolute requirement is repatriation (to a Brazilian museum of
your choice, since UFMG has no museum presently) of primary types. Other
than that, just a strong request that if there's anything you already have,
or for which there is more than one specimen, that you return IDed material
to UFMG to help them build their research collection (which is *planned* to
be expanded into a formal museum, but with the present state of funding,
this is questionable in the near future). For malaise material, things are
a little more complex, as various grad students here are now hoping to work
up studies on seasonal patterns of diversity and phenology. None (at
present) are interested in taxonomy, so it is not required that all the
specimens themselves be returned, though obviously we would like IDed
vouchers, as above. Accordingly, all that is *really* required with the
malaise material is that you record details of collection data (trap number
and date) and note morphospecies - diversity analyses such as are planned
do not *require* species names, but sorting only to levels higher than
morphospecies is not very useful. Obviously, if the amount of malaise
material being sent to you is small, we would be most appreciative if you
would consider working it up in a timely manner, to make it possible for
the students to include the data in any planned publications; we also
realize that not all taxa will offer useful data, we can discuss this
case-by-case.
        Along these lines, if you yourself are interested in writing up
phenology/diversity analyses using the material, then the people here would
like to be considered for coauthorship, if only for writing up the
Materials & Methods. For taxonomic works, as things stand a simple
acknowledgment should be fine. The final consideration is that it would be
appreciated if you could help defray the costs of shipping, the easiest way
being exchange of materiel (we could very much use pins, or small
liquid-tight vials, such as those small microcentrifuge tubes with rubber
O-ring seals) - it might be a small amount for each shipment, but our lab
has no budget for mailing out specimens, and with the number of responses
already, costs will add up; if a packet of pins saves us money, then that
offsets the monesy spent on postage. Alternatively, reprints of old keys or
descriptions for Brazilian taxa would be helpful. Naturally, we hope to
receive copies of any publications resulting even in part from the material
itself.
        Details regarding the study site(s), students working with the
various taxa, and other details will vary from group to group, and we can
discuss this all separately.

Peace,

Doug Yanega    Depto. de Biologia Geral, Instituto de Ciencias Biologicas,
Univ. Fed. de Minas Gerais, Cx.P. 486, 30.161-970 Belo Horizonte, MG   BRAZIL
phone: 31-499-2579, fax: 31-499-2567  (from U.S., prefix 011-55)
                  http://www.icb.ufmg.br/~dyanega/
  "There are some enterprises in which a careful disorderliness
        is the true method" - Herman Melville, Moby Dick, Chap. 82