[Taxacom] Accessing type specimens

[John Grehan]

Electronic images may provide a potential supplement, but not
necessarily unambiguous solutions. I had a situation where I could not
directly access the type for a moth species  (due to my inability to
travel, not a restriction by the institution) but I received an image of
the genitalic region. However, the relatively low magnification did not
allow definitive confidence of the represented species in comparison
with specimens in my possession. As it turned out, subsequent specimens
obtained through colleagues conformed exactly to the type and so
corroborated the species in question, but in the absence of those
specimens there would have remained uncertainty and potential error.

John Grehan  

-----Original Message-----
From: taxacom-bounces at mailman.nhm.ku.edu
[mailto:taxacom-bounces at mailman.nhm.ku.edu] On Behalf Of Fabian Haas
Sent: Friday, November 27, 2009 2:27 AM
To: Richard Pyle
Cc: 'TAXACOM'
Subject: Re: [Taxacom] Accessing type specimens

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


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The Taxacom archive going back to 1992 may be searched with either of
these methods:

(1) http://taxacom.markmail.org

Or (2) a Google search specified as:
site:mailman.nhm.ku.edu/pipermail/taxacom  your search terms here