Reading Museum Service Insect collection: Current services, history and description of collection David G. Notton, Curator of Natural History, Reading Museum and Archive Service, Blagrave Street, Reading, RG1 1QH. [email protected]. http:\\www.readingmuseum.org.uk 2/8/2002 INTRODUCTION The purpose of this article is to introduce the entomology collections of Reading Museum Service and to outline key services that may be of use to anyone carrying out in depth study of insect specimens. CURRENT SERVICES The Study is a quiet area for members of the public to carry out in depth study and other creative projects using the entomology collection, which is stored nearby. Entry is free and by appointment with the curator. Visits are welcome from groups or individuals, specialists or beginners, naturalists and artists alike. Collections available in the Study include: • The Museums collection of approximately 150,000 pinned and dried insects including material from Britain and overseas of all orders. • The Museum’s microscope slide collection - some 2,500 glass slides including many insect preparations dating from the 1900’s to the present day. In addition • There is a small fluid collection principally of British specimens of aquatic orders, which can be examined in the research room of the Museum’s out of town store. • Butterflies from the Bretherton collection are currently on loan to the British Entomological and Natural History Society at Dinton Pastures where they may be examined by application to the curator. • The Museum Education Loan Collection contains a variety of insects packaged in glass-topped boxes so that they can be handled – these can be loaned out for educational activities to schools and other bodies. Much of the collection is databased and indices are available. Low and high powered binocular microscopes, a compound microscope and standard insect identification guides are available for use. The Museum provides a number of other entomology/natural history related services including a natural history gallery, talks, education loans service and education sessions. Entry to the public galleries is free. Loans Loans of insects may be arranged to institutional addresses. RECENT EVENTS These have included: • The official launch of the Study at the Museum was well attended by members of the BENHS, with a fitting tribute to the life of Brian Baker, former Deputy Director of the Museum and Curator of Natural History and a dedicated member of the BENHS. • visit by the Berkshire Network for Invertebrate Conservation to study the insect collection • Year of the Artist project ‘Brilliant Creatures’ sponsored by Southern Arts to produce jewellery and run education sessions inspired by the insect collection. MAKING AN APPOINTMENT Please contact David Notton, Curator of Natural History for an appointment or to discuss your project on 0118 939 9800, or e-mail on [email protected]. General information on opening hours and services including booking loans boxes may be found on 0118 939 9800 or the Museum’s website www.readingmuseum.org.uk. HISTORY OF THE COLLECTIONS The collection currently comprises about 150,000 insects representing most orders, focussing on Berkshire and the South of England. It has been built up since 1883 when William Holland presented a major collection of Reading moths and butterflies. The first museum ledger records the Holland collection ‘A series of Lepidoptera – (butterflies and moths) mostly taken in the neighbourhood of Reading. The collection was offered through Dr. Stevens to the Free Library and Museum Committee, conditionally that a suitable cabinet should be provided for it by the Committee. Cabinet of 40 drawers subsequently furnished by Mr. Joseph Brady, 3 Tanners' End, Edmonton. Price of Cabinet £26.’ The Museum has had a long relationship with the Reading and District Natural History Society since the foundation of the Society in 1881 by Dr. Joseph Stevens, the first Honorary Curator of the Museum. Much of interest relating to the Museum’s collections may be found in the society’s publications, particularly the entomology recorder’s reports in the Reading Naturalist. A large number of publications exist which give biographical details of entomologists associated with Reading and the Museum’s collections including: Brian Baker (Carter, 1984; anon, 2000; Grinstead, 2000a; Notton, 2000a; Young, 2001), Mrs E. Bazett (Baker, 1994), Eric Burtt (Carter, 1984; Baker, 1987), G.C.Champion (Philp, 2002), Frederick Cocks (Anon, 1929a & b), Henry Dolton (Baker, 1969, 1987 & 1994; Carter, 1984), C. G. Eastwick-Field (Baker, 1994); William Fowler (citations in Gilbert, 1977; Earley Local History Group, 2000), Edward Ernest Green (anon, 1949; Laing, 1949; Wigglesworth, 1950), Albert Hamm (anon, 1951; Hobby, 1951; Richards, 1951; Carpenter, 1951 & 1952; Smith, 1986; Baker, 1994), Philip Harwood (Brown, 1958; Worms, 1958), William Holland (Wallis, 1929; Tarbet, 1930; W., 1930; Carter, 1984; Smith, 1986; Baker, 1987 & 1994), Mary Kimber (Baker, 1994), Donald Leatherdale (Baker, 1987), Frank Lees (Worms, 1974; Lees, 1975), Newton, J. (Anon, 1995); L. M. Parlett (Carter, 1984), Edward Poulton (Carpenter, 1948; citations in Gilbert, 1977; Smith, 1986), Arthur Price (Carter, 1984; Baker, 1985), Lewis Rudland (Carter, 1984; Baker, 1987), Conrad Runge (anon, 1962; Baker, 1987 & 1994), R. Degge Sitwell (Carter, 1984; Baker, 1994), William Smallcombe (Baker, 1987 & 1992), John Tomlin (Carter, 1984; Trew 1990 and citations therein). DESCRIPTION OF COLLECTION Carter (1983) published a previous survey of the entomology collections and Baker (1994) gives details of the Lepidoptera. The following provides much new details and is arranged by broad taxonomic groupings and by classified categories. Collections by taxon Coleoptera The beetle collection comprises about 10,000 specimens of which about 9,300 specimens are currently databased. The collection mostly dates from the 1885 to 1925 when there was a major concentration of coleopterists living in the Reading area. This group included: W. E. Butler, F. W. Cocks, C. E. Collins, A. Dowsett, W. W. Fowler, W. Holland, N. Joy and J. R. le B. Tomlin - exchanges of material and publications show that they collected around Reading and collaborated closely (Tomlin, 1916; Cocks, 1917; Fowler, 1920b; Joy, 1930). The greater part of the Museum’s beetle collection is that of F. W. Cocks, made between 1900-1929 from localities in Berkshire and Oxfordshire, accompanied by his collecting diaries, and including specimens from Joy, Fowler, Tomlin, Champion and Butler. Cocks’ specimens were numbered and arranged according to the list of Beare and Donisthorpe (1904). Cocks was no doubt spurred on by the Berkshire list of Holland & Joy (1906) and, having built up a substantial collection, may have assisted Joy in the preparation of his magnum opus (Joy, 1932). Other, smaller but nonetheless important, collections include those of Butler, Collins and Price. W.E. Butler was a local businessman, politician and the Honorary curator of Entomology at Reading Museum and his collection, made between 1887-1913, includes specimens from A. Dowsett and like Cocks’ collection, was numbered according to Beare and Donsithorpe’s list. Butler’s entomological collecting notebooks are to be found in the Butler family archive in the Berkshire Record Office. The Charles Edwin Collins collection was made between 1880’s and 1918 and includes the first British specimen of Medon dilutus, one of only two verified British specimens (Peter Hammond pers. com.). Arthur Price’s collection is small but included the Reading spectacular and rare Reading speciality Carabus auratus and his natural history diaries. Price published a list of water beetles collected at light at the Museum’s field station, Woolhampton (Price, 1961). A number of groups have recently been redetermined: Meligethes (Nitidulidae) by Ashley Kirk- Spriggs (Kirk-Spriggs, 1996); Elateroidea by Howard Mendel; Scaraboidea by Darren Mann. A selection of stag beetles and other larger Coleoptera are on display in the Green Space natural history gallery and tropical beetles form a popular item in the education loans collection. Diptera The fly collection comprises about 16,000 specimens of which about 14,000 specimens are currently databased. The greater part of the collection was made by Dr Eric Burtt, honorary curator of entomology, and Hugh Carter, keeper of natural history, and comes from Berkshire and Oxfordshire. More recent acquisitions include a reared series of Volucella zonaria from Berkshire. The Carter material is supported by his list of Diptera of the Reading area and supplement (Carter, 1978 etc.), also manuscripts relating to this list, correspondence on translations of Hennig’s keys to Anthomyidae and manuscripts on the etymology and pronunciation of the names of Diptera. Other collectors represented include Jonathan Cole, P. N. Crow, J. P. Dear and R. G. Leeke. Representatives of some groups have been authoritatively determined including: Nematocera by R. I. Vane-Wright; Mycetophilidae by Peter Chandler; Brachycera by H. Oldroyd (Oldroyd, 1969); Dolichopodidae by A. E. d'Assis Fonseca (Assis Fonseca, 1978); Syrphidae and Pipunculidae by R. L. Coe (Coe, 1953); Conopidae, Empidae and Syrphidae by K. G. V. Smith (Smith, 1969); Anthomyidae by N. Wyatt (Notton, 1999b); Anthomyidae, Muscidae and Sepsidae by Adrian Pont (Pont, 1979); Acalypterata by B. H. Cogan and Chloropidae by John Ismay. In addition there is a drawer of tsetse