Blast from the past, and why students today have it easy!

     This week we're going to step back in time to look at how the Oklahoma Museum of Natural History's Recent Invertebrates collection came about, and how those historical factors affect our current specimen holdings. The reason I'm bringing this topic up is because while cataloging some specimens for a loan (as well as specimens we're keeping here, too), I kept noticing how we have a lot of very old specimens. As in, early 1900's and quiet a lot in the 1930's. There were other specimens in later years, but the vast majority of our general collection is 1940's or earlier, and primarily Oklahoman.

Very old beetle from our collection...predates the Depression, Dust Bowl...etc.

      So, why do we have so much material from then? I decided to do a little digging into the history of the museum. The museum was established in 1899 by the Territorial Legislature (Oklahoma wasn't a state yet) and was to be associated with the University of Oklahoma, according to the document A History of the Stovall Museum of Science & History (the old museum building), University of Oklahoma by W. Eugene Hollon. When the museum started, it started with gusto and started accumulating and collection specimens from all over the state, nation and world. Unfortunately, though, there were two fires at the museum that destroyed most of the collections as they were just getting traction: one in 1903, and another in 1918. There were significant losses to several collections, and rebuilding them was a priority.
       The beetle in the picture above was probably donated after the 1918 fire, since Philip Spong was an entomologist and professor at Purdue University around that time. And we have several specimens collected in as early as 1911 that were also probably donated to our collection to help rebuild it. But donations like this, particularly from other states, are relatively small in comparison to the hundreds of specimens we have from counties all over Oklahoma from 1924 to the 1940's. Further, the collectors of these specimens aren't well-known entomologists, or possibly entomologists at all. How we did we get such a massive collecting spree of Oklahoma, from people that weren't doing research on them?
    The answer is: massive student labor! According to Mr Hollon's document, the Head of the Department of Zoology and Embryology (essentially all Life Sciences), a Dr. H. H. Lane, "recall[ed] particularly that during the fourteen years of his stay a the University, he required each class in entomology to make collections of at least 400 specimens, including ten or twelve of each species collected". Just so you know, that is a LOT of work! When I was a teaching assistant at Texas A&M University's Entomology department, our insect biodiversity course required that students get specimens from as many different families (groups) of insects as possible, with at least one specimen of 70 groups a passing grade, and that took a tremendous amount of time (especially the identifying). Can you imagine having to collect 400, and of each species you identify, have to have at least 10 to 12 specimens of it? No wonder we have so much material from that period!

Some of my current-generation students/colleagues at Texas A&M on an insect collecting trip. Collecting super-stars!

     So, thank you OU students from the past for helping provide the bulk of our rebuilt, post-fire collection, and providing a time capsule of that period in Oklahoma history! Even though I think its cruel and unusual punishment to ask that of our students today, every little contribution helps. That is our little dive into museum history for this week!

Little Surprises

  One of the best parts of working with museum collections is finding little surprises. In a few of the earlier blogs we've talked about specimens nearly 100 years old in jars, new state records of insects, and legacies of research recorded with our aquatic beetle collection. One of the newer additions to our collection is a small donation of butterflies and dragonflies in little sleeves of paper, collected in Nicaragua in 1993. These specimens were collected by our former Herpetology curator Dr. Laurie Vitt, who also is a prolific insect collector and has donated large amounts of insects to our collection from his trips and his various properties.
   The reason that these insects are in little paper envelopes is because winged insects, especially dragonflies and butterflies, take up a lot of space despite being so fragile. To protect their delicate wings, their wings are folded back on top of each other right after the insect is collected and while the body still soft. Then it is slipped into the paper envelope flat, and then labeled with the collecting information to keep with it. The specimen is then transported from the field, and either softened up again (relaxing) so it can be spread like a traditional butterfly or dragonfly specimen, or its kept in the envelope.
Link to more information about envelopes and other collecting equipment. 
More information from the United States Department of Agriculture Systematic Entomology Lab

Image of sleeved material from the Systematic Entomology Lab website linked above.

In our case, the specimens were kept in paper envelopes for the past ten years. This has unfortunately led to mold, discoloration, and other problems that need to be remedied. So, like opening little Christmas presents, I've been slowly opening up each envelope and moving the specimen out into its new home, a glassine envelope. The information for the specimen is also being cataloged, and the number for the record is temporarily written on a piece of the old envelope and clipped to the envelope until we can print new labels on acid-free paper to put in with the specimen. The process can be seen below:

Some examples of pre and post re-sleeved butterflies

  Right now I've been working with Nymphalidae butterflies, with a lot of them being Heliconid butterflies. These butterflies (the best example being the orange and black striped one on the top) are very prevalent in the New World Tropics, and a lot of the material we have belong to this group. They can be identified by their almost oval-shaped front pair of wings, versus the more triangular and similar-sized front and back wings in other groups of butterflies. You can really see the colors of the butterflies and can identify them better in the clear envelopes versus the old, dirty paper ones they used to be in. Now researchers can look at them and actually be able to know what we have!
      I still have that large stack of butterflies left to go on the left, but I'm really enjoying seeing what we've gotten and putting them into their new fancy homes. I'll keep you posted with what other little gems we find along the way!
     Have a great weekend everyone!

Centered around Centipedes

Whats up in the Recent Invertebrates this week? Well, we recently received a shipment of 9 vials from a scientist in Eastern Oklahoma State College, each containing about 1-3 specimens of the arthropod group Chilopoda, or Centipedes. These centipedes from Arkansas are a really important donation to our collection because many species of centipedes from that state also can be found in our state. By having representatives from both, we can compare variation across the habitats and environments.

Vials of some of the centipedes we got. There are about 3 genera and 5 species in the donation, all from Arkansas.

 These neat little (and sometimes really big) arthropods are worm-like predators with one pair of legs per segment of their body. Having only one pair of legs per segment is what separates them from the Diplopoda, or Millipedes. Millipedes are primarily herbivores (they eat plant material) and have two or more pairs of legs per body segment. The millipede's ability to walk in synchrony without stepping on their other legs always fascinated people, and fascinated one person enough to actually write a mathematical paper about how it works. Below is a video of a millipede walking.

 Interesting stuff, but back to centipedes. Centipedes don't have that same walking problem, and because they only have one pair of legs per segment are much faster runners than millipedes. This aids in their predatory lifestyle and ability to run down and catch prey rapidly. The video below is a bit over dramatic, but its still a good example of centipedes catching and eating prey. 

   In the front of their head, they have very large "venom claws" that they use to sting and paralyze their prey. If they bite you (which is very very rare, as in you have to stick your finger in their mouths to get them to bite you), it can inflict a painful sting. However, most of the time these guys are found hiding under rocks, in crevices, and other flat areas for protection (unlike the video...I think they intentionally got the centipede really hungry that it would eat on an exposed leaf like that).
  Inspired to look into our standing collection of Oklahoman centipedes before we got these new specimens, we found this jar containing a centipede that is at least 5 inches long.

Specimen from our collection, collected from Latimer Co., Oklahoma in 1933! Picture by Laura Sohl Smith

  Unfortunately the specimen is dried out and in an olive jar (we'll take care of it soon, and put it into a new jar), but you can see how large it is next to my hand. The label inside the jar says Scolopendra magna, and it was collected in 1933 from Latimer Co., Oklahoma. I'm not sure if the species name is correct, but this old guy is definitely in that genus because most members of this group are very large. Most centipedes you find around here are not nearly that big, don't worry! For more information about this large genus, though, check out this page in Bugguide.net.
   So we have some neat centipedes now in our collection: some new ones from Arkansas that are at least 5 different genera and species, and lots of ones already in our collection that are old, big, and small from all over the world and our own back yard here in Oklahoma. Have a great week!

Cataloging progress

One drawer of beetles waiting to be cataloged and curated

   This week's blog entry is going to be a brief entry about the progress we've made in cataloging and databasing our invertebrate collection. The reason we are doing this is because unless you know whats in a collection, its difficult to judge its value. And in recording and discovering what we have, we have found lots of really neat stories and diversity. We are able to accomplish this because the Institute of Museum and Library Sciences, who gave our department a grant in 2010, helped fund us to do approximately half of our insect collection. We estimated that half of the collection would be over 250,000 specimens! All of this information is then put on our online database, and also made available to scientists around the world on the Global Biodiversity Information Facility.

   As of last month, our catalog had 60,971 entries accounting for over 140,000 specimens, which is over half-way towards our goal! The reason we have more specimens than entries is because some material is stored in glass vials filled with alcohol. One vial that is cataloged may have up to 500 or more specimens, though most have only 2-5. Most of the vials in our collection come from Harley Brown's material of aquatic Byrrhoidea beetles, one of which is shown below.

Example of a vial with two beetle specimens. Photo by Chris Sohl

    Many of the vials and most of the material that is being cataloged is being re-curated and housed as its being worked with. For example, below are some of the vials that had ball-point ink written on labels dissolve in the alcohol, turning the solution purple. This was replaced with fresh, clean alcohol to protect the specimen from being dyed purple too by our collection assistant Laura and previous collection assistant Jaime.

When pen ink dissolves in the alcohol. Photo by Chris Sohl

     The pinned material is also worked with to help organize and protect the specimens as its being cataloged. For example, as Laura was working with the pinned specimens below, when she was done entering the information and putting the catalog label number on the pin she would reorganize them so they weren't too close together. This helps protect the specimens as they are pulled in and out of the boxes.

Box of pinned material before recuration, where specimens could hit each other if they weren't pulled out carefully. Photo by Chris Sohl

Recurated box of pinned material. Specimens have proper space and can easily be worked with. Photo by Chris Sohl.

    So as the collection's information is getting recorded and discovered, the specimens that provide the knowledge also get a preservation overhaul. This will ensure they are protected, and last as long as the data they provide. Its been a lot of work and time do to both, and we're really proud of the progress and the help provided by all the members helping in this project. We nearly there, great job guys!

The sound of summer - cicadas!

Now, if this isn't the sound of summer, I don't know what is: 

Now, let's have a little pop quiz. Don't worry, it's not for a grade.

1. What is making this sound? 

Is it: a.) a locust

        b.) a tree frog

        c.) a cicada

If you answered that cicadas are responsible for all of this racket, you'd be correct! If you answered that locusts are the culprit, you'd be wrong, but you certainly wouldn't be alone. I've noticed there is a lot of confusion about cicadas - people often seem to think that they are called locusts, which unfortunately is incorrect. 

Cicada

 

Locust

Locusts and cicadas are not even in the same order, so they really are not related at all. Cicadas are in the order Hemiptera - the "true bugs," which include water scorpions, water bugs, and shield bugs. Locusts are in the order Orthoptera, which include crickets and grasshoppers. They do look rather similar with their large wings and huge ocelli (what serves as their eyes), but they are not the same insect. 

Now that we've hammered out that distinction, let's see how the cicadas are making this ruckus. The cicada contracts a part of its abdomen (called the tymbals) to create and amplify its distinctive sound. To make the sound even louder, the abdomen of the male is mostly hollow, which amplifies the sound considerably. In fact, if, for some reason, you placed a cicada right next to your ear and it began to sing, it could cause permanent hearing damage! Their songs are used to find mates, and can differ between species. 

You've also probably seen cicada elytra (skins) hanging off of tree branches. Cicadas shed their exoskeletons as they become adults and are ready to mate, leaving their skin behind. They spend most of their lives as nymphs (juveniles) and live underground. Some cicadas can live quite a long time - up to 17 years!

Cicadas are harmless to humans, and are even considered a tasty snack in some parts of the world. Think you would try one?

Happy Friday, everyone!