[Taxacom] Accessing type specimens

[Fabian Haas]

Dear All,

good to hear that some one is writing such stories. Another one, how 
technology is helping taxonomy, is it makes things much faster, and 
relieves you from quarantine and possible ABS issues.

At icipe, we have to id some insects which might be of quarantine 
relevance, though mostly dead. Sending images clearly avoids that. We 
also avoid drafting loan and material transfer agreements, when we have 
to send things abroad. These make the legal way more and more 
complicated for us, many developing countries are trying to restrict the 
exhange of material, for the fear of possible products, all in teh wake 
of Access and Benefit Sharing discussions in the CBD. So with digital 
images you are much safer.

Best
Fabian



Richard Pyle wrote:
> Hi All,
>
> I've been in contact with a writer doing a story on how technology can
> assist taxonomy.  One of the things he wants to understand better is the
> difficulties associated with accessing type specimens.  In particular, he's
> interested in these two questions:
>
> (a) why the need to examine type specimens slows down the process of
> taxonomy; and
>
> (b) why museums seem reluctant (if they do) to send type specimens all over
> the place to people.
>
> We all know the importance of examining type specimens when trying to
> determine whether something is a new species and/or when conducting
> taxonomic work (and so does he). But he's trying to make sure he understands
> correctly what the difficulties are in doing so.  On the first question, I
> was able to give him my own perspective for the groups I work on (fish type
> specimens are scattered all over the planet), but it would be good to get a
> broader spectrum of input & experience on that.  For example, I know there
> have been threads on Taxacom before about accessing types in private
> collections, etc.
>
> As for the second question, I explained to him that many Museums are (and
> always have been) hesitant to send type specimens on loan, for fear they may
> be lost, damaged, or never returned.  However, it has also been my sense
> that this trend of reluctance has been increasing in recent years.  In
> particular, I recall after the anthrax scare (soon after 9/11), the U.S.
> postal service began irradiating mail, and (I think) some Museums (e.g.
> Smithsonian) stopped sending type specimens (all specimens?) for a while.  I
> don't have any objective data to support my sense of the increasing trend of
> reluctance to send type specimens around the world, so I wanted to find out
> if others have detected the same trend over the last 10-20 years, and how
> this has affected the pace of taxonomy.
>
> Many thanks in advance!
>
> Aloha,
> Rich
>
> Richard L. Pyle, PhD
> Database Coordinator for Natural Sciences
>   and Associate Zoologist in Ichthyology
> Department of Natural Sciences, Bishop Museum
> 1525 Bernice St., Honolulu, HI 96817
> Ph: (808)848-4115, Fax: (808)847-8252
> email: deepreef at bishopmuseum.org
> http://hbs.bishopmuseum.org/staff/pylerichard.html
>
>
>
>
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-- 

**********************************************************
fhaas at icipe.org, Extension -2052

The African Insect Taxonomy Toolkit AITT 
http://taxonomy.icipe.org


Dr. Fabian Haas
Insect Taxonomist and ABS Specialist
ICIPE - African Insect Science for Food and Health
Duduville Campus, Kasarani
P.O. Box 30772 - 00100
N A I R O B I
Kenya

Telephone No. 	+254 (0)20 8632000
Fax No.	+254 (0)20 8632001
Cell Phone	+254 (0)728 132868

This position is supported by CIM, the Centre for International Migration www.cimonline.de