Task 6

Curation of invertebrates

I attended a session at the Oxford University Museum of Natural History (OUMNH) on 23 October 2023, led by Darren Mann (Collections Manager) and Dr Matthew Bulbert (Senior Lecturer in Conservation Ecology), where I got to see invertebrate collections, have a short tour of some of the rooms and practice mounting some specimens.

Main courtyard

The Huxley room

Dung beetle collection

If you were to prepare an invertebrate collection tomorrow what would you need to do?

Obtain Materials:

• Forceps – soft and hard.

• Card mounts – point mounts, other sized mounts for different sized specimens. Acid-free.

• Pins – come in varying sizes, best to use ‘continental’ style pin made from stainless steel – ensures no verdigris from copper. The pins will be the same length but of varying thickness.

• Pinning stage – an aluminium block with holes drilled to set depths, to allow specimens and labels to be placed at set distances (to ensure consistency across the collection).

• Cork board – a hard board to allow you to push the pin through the specimen.

• Mounting board – to mount the specimen on. Ensure that this fits into the box the collection will be kept in!

• Glue – acid-free pva style glue (water based).

Process of mounting/tips:

• Use the largest (width) pin for the specimen that won’t damage any characters.

• For Lepidoptera aim to pin through the prothorax. For Coleoptera aim to pin through one of the elytra (off-centre), as beetles are symmetrical it leaves one side undamaged.

• For larger specimens, direct pin. For smaller specimens these may need to be mounted. This can be done using a point card, bent to make a small step. The specimen may be glued here. Aim to have the point only going to the mid-point so that a side is visible.

• If it is a larger specimen you may have to ‘cross-pin’ to keep it in place and prevent it from spinning around.

• Ensure pins go through perpendicular, so the animal is parallel to the mounting board.

• Standard practice is to mount specimen so that the left-hand side is nearest to the pin.

• For Diptera, specimens are usually pinned on their side, often with micro-pins on a foam board.

• Remember that the purpose is for identification, so ensure characters are visible.

Labelling:

• Ensure labels are not too large (max. of 1.5cm x 3cm).

• Use acid-free card.

• ‘Stack’ labels at regular intervals if more cards are needed, use the pinning stage.

• Capture as much information as possible: place of capture, location including grid ref. or co-ordinates, date of capture, details of collection method and habitat, name of who collected it. Also an ID label, or the ‘det’ (determination) label to contain the species name, sex, name of determiner and year of determination.

Specimens collected by Charles Darwin

My attempt at mounting specimens

Tools of the trade

What did you enjoy about the experience of visiting the OUMNH?

I enjoyed the practical practice of mounting specimens to gain a better understanding of the difficulties involved. I also enjoyed aspects of the museum visit, not related to invertebrate curation, such as touching a Dodo bone and holding a live tarantula! The history of the venue was also interesting, e.g. the Huxley room where the Great Debate of Darwin’s theory of evolution by natural selection took place.

Me holding a tarrantula

What information did you find surprising?

I found it surprising to hear that some of the pre-industrial revolution pins were better than some of the pins used at later dates due to the materials used, and that people used to mount specimens on birch wood bracket fungus (Polypore). Learning that there is a particular rove beetle Velleius dilatatus that lives in hornets nests was also very interesting.

I was also surprised to learn of a misidentification that occurred in Panshanger, Herts. as I used to live in that area!