Collecting

[Jones, Brian Dr]

The question of depositing voucher specimens sounds great, but as has been
previously noted, the cost has to be borne by someone.  Its not just the
up-front cost of depositing the specimens, but the ongoing cost of curating
the material (even just topping up the alcohol and keeping the bugs off) and
providing shelf space (which also has a real on-going cost).

Secondly voucher specimens are not much use if there is no access to them by
specialists, which implies some sort of list of holdings, and especially if
there are no more specialist taxonomists anyway.

Most institutions are struggling to cope as the winds of economic
rationalism blow (Just ask a museum curator in the former Soviet block).  I
doubt they could cope with a large increase in deposits.  In 1994 a
spokesperson for the New Zealand Treasury (which has a strong Harvard
Business School influence) was quoted as saying, with reference to the
national museums, "we do not fund stamp collecting" and I don't think things
have changed much.

We need a much better 'press' if things are to improve.  For example, there
was a recent article in the Australia media about plans to clone a
'Tasmanian tiger' from an alcohol fixed embryo, collected at the turn of the
century.  While the proponents pointed out that the embryo was 'priceless'
there was no mention of the foresight of the initial collector, the teams of
curators who, over generations kept the specimen in good condition and who
catalogued it so it could be found on the shelf. It would be nice to think
that the museum collections would benefit from the project, but somehow I
doubt it.

Dr Brian Jones
Senior  Fish Pathologist, Fisheries WA
phone +61-8-9368-3649 fax +61-8-9474-1881

> ----------
> From:         Mary Barkworth[SMTP:Mary at BIOLOGY.USU.EDU]
> Reply To:     Mary Barkworth
> Sent:         Sunday, 21 November 1999 11:54
> To:   TAXACOM at USOBI.ORG
> Subject:      Collecting
>
> Several comments have been made about the need to persuade consultants to
> collect voucher specimens, but it is not just consultants that need
> persuasion.  I recently asked where a student had deposited the voucher
> specimens for a habitat study that was conducted under the auspices of the
> US Forest Service.  There were no voucher specimens. I do not know whether
> this was exceptional, but I suspect not.  Why were there no voucher
> specimens prepared? There was no time and, obviously, no one on the
> committee considered them of any importance.  I was not on that committee,
> but I confess to forgetting to demand voucher specimens from a plant
> breeding thesis committee that I was on.  Mea culpa!
>
>
> Intermountain Herbarium, Utah State University, 5305 Old Main Hill, Logan,
> Utah 84322-5305, U.S.A.
> mary at biology.usu.edu; 435-797-1584 (voice); 435-797-1575 (FAX)
>