Integrating an extraordinary Lepidoptera collection: The Ulf Eitschberger Collection at the McGuire Center for Lepidoptera and Biodiversity of the Florida Museum of Natural History

Eitschberger鳞翅目昆虫收藏是有史以来捐赠给公共博物馆的最大和最重要的蝴蝶和飞蛾收藏之一。它包含了来自所有主要群体和世界地区的近100万份标本，已经成为数百种科学出版物的基础。该项目将把这些收藏整合到佛罗里达自然历史博物馆(FLMNH)位于麦奎尔鳞翅目和生物多样性中心的鳞翅目收藏中，从而使科学界和普通公众能够获得这些收藏。目前，由于标本存储容器与博物馆的存储系统不兼容，Eitschberger的藏品基本上无法进入。因此，该项目将提供适当分类、鉴定、准备和存放这些标本所需的储存设备和科学专门知识。这一收集的整合将大大加强鳞翅目昆虫采集，同时将对其进行重组，并将通过互联网提供关键群体的标本数据。该项目团队将根据这些藏品完成几份出版物，并将为高中生和大学生提供博物馆技术培训。最终，艾茨伯格的藏品将向定期参观麦奎尔中心的学生、研究人员、爱好者、摄影师和作家开放，从而帮助博物馆展示自然历史收藏在社会中的重要性。

The Eitschberger Lepidoptera collection of is one of the largest and most significant collections of butterflies and moths ever donated to a public museum. Containing nearly one million specimens from all major groups and world regions, it has already been the basis for hundreds of scientific publications. This project will make the collection accessible to the scientific community and general public by integrating it into the Florida Museum of Natural History's (FLMNH) Lepidoptera collection at the McGuire Center for Lepidoptera and Biodiversity. Currently, the Eitschberger collection is largely inaccessible because the specimen storage containers are incompatible with the museum's storage system. This project will therefore provide the storage equipment and scientific expertise necessary to properly sort, identify, prepare and house these specimens.Integration of this collection will substantially strengthen the FLMNH Lepidoptera collection, which simultaneously will be reorganized, and specimen data for key groups will be made available via the Internet. The project team will complete several publications based on the collection, and training in museum techniques will be provided to high school and university students. Ultimately, the Eitschberger collection will be open to the students, researchers, enthusiasts, photographers and authors that regularly visit the McGuire Center, and will thus help the museum to illustrate the importance of natural history collections in society.