INVERTEBRATE COLLECTIONS IN DEVON
Tristan Donovan & Peter Smithers
University of Plymouth.
Biological collections provide an invaluable resource when dealing with the identification of
unfamiliar groups of organisms, or specimens that display unusual variations. The
comparison of field material with voucher specimens can simplify and greatly accelerate the
identification of those specimens. Reference collections however take time and energy to
assemble and access to existing collections is hampered by a lack of information regarding
biological collections in the public domain. The only available document to date is Kelvin
Boots report to the Area Museums Council for the South West (Boot 1996). This outlines the
potential that exists in the SW and lists museum collections under a series of broad categories
which include Insects as one and Other Inverts as another. It is clear from this report that the
county possesses a large number of collections held by both museums and other institutes as
well as a number in private hands. The aim of this article is to provide a more detailed
overview of the invertebrate collections held in Devon’s museums and Universities thus
making the county’s entomologists aware of the invaluable resource that exist on their
doorstep.
In addition to the identification benefits of these collections, they contain details of the
location, habitat and date of capture, thus providing an excellent source of spatial and
temporal data at a species level, which can be of great use in studies of changes in diversity
or autecology. These collections contain a potential goldmine of invertebrate information
which has yet to be fully exploited.
Ilfracombe Museum,
Wilder Road, Ilfracombe, Devon, EX34 8AF
01271 863541
Curator: Mrs. J. Slocombe.
Lepidoptera
Moths (7946),
British Butterflies (3946),
South American Butterflies (1875), Total = 13,681
Coleoptera
British (873 specimens, 245 species + various unidentified species)
University of Plymouth.
Drake Circus, Plymouth, PL4 8AA.
Arachnida.
A collection of spiders, pseudoscorpions and harvestmen from SW Britain.
Contact Peter Smithers. 01752 232956.
Museum of North Devon.
The Square, Barnstable, EX32 8LN.
01271 346747
Curator: Jerry Lee.
Coleoptera
Local and British collections.
19th century world wide collection (no data).
Modern world wide collection (no data).
Lignicolus and saproxylics; Local. J Lee personal collection.
Carbidae, Dytiscidae and other families; local, J Lee personal collection.
Hymenoptera.
Pompiloidae; local, 40 specimens,J Lee personal collection.
Sphecoidae; local, 200 specimens, J Lee personal collection.
Apoidea; local, J Lee personal collection.
Mutillidae and associated groups; J Lee personal collection.
Diptera.
Byerley collection; N Devon and SE Britain, Tabanidae, Syrphidae and Conopidae.
Lepidoptera.
Byerly collection; Wide coverage of British species.
Several other collections.
19th century world wide collection.
19th century British collection.
19th century Hong Kong collection.
Arachnida.
Local collection.
Odonata.
Local collection.
Other groups.
A small number of collections of local and overseas invertebrates.
Plymouth City Museum
Drake Circus, Plymouth
PL4 8AJ
01752 304 774
Curator (Post vacant as we go to press).
Lepidoptera (40,000 specimens)
Devon branch of the Butterfly Conservation Society butterfly collection
Moor collection.
Bignel collection.
Lidstone collection.
Dewhurst collection.
May collection.
Coleoptera (26,000 specimens)
Keys collection (mainly British but 26 drawers of foreign specimens ).
Bignell collection.
One box of specimens from the Canary isles and St Helena. Collector unknown.
Hymenoptera.
Bignell collection; 40 drawers of parasitic hymenoptera. One of the most important
collections in the UK. Contains 19 species that were new to science, type specimens are held
at the BM.
Four boxes of assorted hymenoptera. Collector unknown.
Hemiptera.
Two boxes. Collector unknown.
Diptera.
Three boxes. Collector unknown.
Orthoptera.
Three drawers. Collector unknown.
Royal Albert Museum
Queen Street, Exeter, EX4 3RX
01392 265858
Curator, Dave Bolton.
As the collections housed at the Royal Albert Museum are the most extensive in the county,
Dave Bolton has kindly agreed to produce a detailed catalogue which will be published in the
next issue of the DIF bulletin.
References.
Boot K. 1996. Arks in the South West - A report on natural history collections in museums.
(Area Museum Council for the South West)