Modernization of the Bohart Museum Mosquito Collections

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Abstract: Modernization of the Bohart Museum Mosquito Collection, #0346603A grant has been awarded to the University of California at Davis under the direction of Dr. L. Kimsey to modernize the mosquito collections at the Bohart Museum of Entomology (BME). Between 2001 and 2002, four collections of mosquitoes totaling nearly 175,000 specimens were donated to the BME. These donations have increased the total number of mosquitoes at the BME by 150%, adding 377 new species to the previous holdings of 384 species. There are numerous undescribed species in the donated material. Each of the donated collections includes pinned adults, microscope slide-mounted larvae and pupae, and alcohol-preserved larvae and pupae. With this grant, the staff of the BME will bring the specimens of the donated collections up to acceptable curatorial standards, and intercalate them with the existing BME collection into one integrated whole.There are many curatorial issues with the donated collections that the staff of the BME will address. First, many of the specimens are labeled only with code numbers that refer to records and field books that accompany the collections. These specimens will be properly labeled and entered into the museum collection database. Second, some pinned specimens are mounted using corrosive cork blocks, and will be remounted using proper pinning media. Finally, all alcohol-preserved specimens are in glass vials with decaying rubber or neoprene stoppers, and will be transferred to more appropriate alcohol vials. In addition, through the process of curation of these collections, the BME staff will train undergraduate and graduate students as specialists in mosquito taxonomy and systematics. At the end of their training these students will be fully qualified for employment by mosquito abatement districts or vector control agencies.Mosquitoes are the most common vectors of pathogens worldwide. By improving the collection at the BME, it will be the only one of its size that is housed at a university, and because of this it will be used to train the next generation of mosquito specialists. Furthermore, the collection itself will play a critical role in the identification of mosquito species as disease carriers. Historically, the identification of insect vectors of disease has been challenging, and is based on the meticulous accumulation of data and specimens over many years, and across large geographical areas. After incorporating the donated material, the BME collection will include specimens from around the world, collected over the last 60 or more years. It will be one of the three largest and most complete mosquito collections in the Western Hemisphere. It will be particularly valuable because it is located on the campus of the University of California Davis, which is the west coast center for the study of insect-borne diseases.