Modernization of the Bohart Museum Mosquito Collections

摘要：Bohart Museum Mosquito Collection的现代化项目（#0346603A）已获得加州大学戴维斯分校（University of California at Davis）的资助，由L. Kimsey博士负责对Bohart Museum of Entomology （BME）的蚊子藏品进行现代化改造。在2001年至2002年期间，向BME捐赠了四批蚊子标本，总数近17.5万份。这些捐赠使BME的蚊子总数增加了150%，在之前384种的基础上增加了377种新物种。在捐赠的材料中有许多未被描述的物种。每个捐赠的藏品包括固定的成虫，显微镜载玻片上的幼虫和蛹，以及酒精保存的幼虫和蛹。有了这笔拨款，大英博物馆的工作人员将把捐赠藏品中的标本提高到可接受的策展标准，并将它们与大英博物馆现有的藏品整合成一个整体。BME的工作人员将解决捐赠藏品的许多策展问题。首先，许多标本的标签上只有编号，这些编号参考了随藏品而来的记录和野外书籍。这些标本将被适当地标记，并进入博物馆的收藏数据库。其次，一些固定的样品是使用腐蚀性软木块安装的，并将使用适当的固定介质重新安装。最后，所有酒精保存的标本都在玻璃小瓶中，用腐烂的橡胶或氯丁橡胶塞，并将转移到更合适的酒精小瓶中。此外，通过整理这些标本，BME工作人员将培养本科生和研究生成为蚊子分类学和系统学方面的专家。培训结束后，这些学生将完全有资格在灭蚊区或病媒控制机构就业。蚊子是全世界最常见的病原体传播媒介。通过改进BME的收集，它将成为唯一一个在大学里安置这种规模的实验室，正因为如此，它将被用来培养下一代蚊子专家。此外，收集本身将在鉴定作为疾病携带者的蚊子种类方面发挥关键作用。从历史上看，疾病媒介昆虫的识别一直具有挑战性，并且基于多年来在大地理区域内对数据和标本的细致积累。在纳入捐赠的材料后，BME的收藏将包括来自世界各地的标本，这些标本收集于过去60年或更长时间。它将成为西半球最大和最完整的三个蚊子收藏之一。它将特别有价值，因为它位于加州大学戴维斯分校的校园里，这是西海岸研究虫媒疾病的中心。

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.