Importance of invertebrate collections

[Francis Dov Por]

As a response to Amy Edwards:
Museum collections of invertebrates are perhaps the most important =
zoological repositories. It is among the terrestrial invertebrates that =
we have the highest number of not yet identified species. The same is =
true,but to a lesser degree for the meiobenthic and planktonic taxa.  It =
is among the  invertebrates that we have the biggest lacunae in =
available taxonomist expertise. Therefore, in most of the ecological =
studies and surveys , the vertebrates  and perhaps also the mollusks  =
are identified to species. The rest appears as "Chironomids", "Acari" or =
"Nematoda" . The present value of such studies is doubtful. The =
inverteberate collections are important not so much for the identified =
specimens  they contain, but for the non-identified, and even not-sorted =
material which awaits future in depth study  which today cannot be done. =
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Dov Por