Zoology - Invertebrates

Working at the Natural History Museum of St.Gallen (NMSG) from 1954 onwards, Hans Hugentobler restored the beetle collections. During that time, he detected 500 beetle species that have not previously been described for Eastern Switzerland and 60 species that were new to Switzerland. He documented his finds in the book «Beitrag zur Kenntnis der Käfer der Nordostschweiz». Today, this landmark work is an important part of every Swiss coleopterists’ library. H. Hugentobler passed away in 1967 and the collection subsequently was split into two parts. One part (beetles that were collected in the canton of Thurgau) were transferred to the Natural History Museum of Thurgau, the other half remained at the Natural History Museum St.Gallen. Since then, the NMSG-part of Hugentobler’s collection stayed largely untouched, besides a few groups of beetles that were revised by experts. Currently, the Entomologischer Verein Alpstein works on the collection, transferring it to new drawers. However, the taxonomy of the beetles is outdated, and the collection is not yet inventoried and digitized. Thanks to this SwissCollNet project, Hugentobler’s collection can now be digitized and properly restored. We also plan to digitize the book “Beitrag zur Kenntnis der Käfer der Nordostschweiz», making it accessible online.

Spiders are the most important terrestrial invertebrate predators with an enormous ecological importance. They are good bio-indicators as they reflect accurately even minute climatic/microclimatic alterations in their habitats. Swiss Natural History Museums house a number of valuable spider collections, one of them is the collection of Konrad Thaler (1940 - 2005), the most important spider collection in the Natural History Museum Bern (NMBE). It contains ca. 125'000 specimens, mainly from the Alps and to a smaller part from outer-alpine Europe. These spiders were collected between the early 1960ies and 2005. Most of the material is trustworthily identified by Thaler himself. The data of around 45'000 specimens are already in the NMBE database, the remaining data should be added in the frame of this project and be made publicly available for research purposes and for the general public. This project complements two other running projects funded by SwissCollNet and will result in an almost complete dataset on alpine spiders in Swiss natural history museums, offering unique research possibilities, that range from taxonomic and phylogenetic studies, studies on effects of climate warming on the sensitive and unique fauna of the Alps to evidence-based conservation efforts concerning alpine invertebrates.

The Natural History Museum of Basel and the Museum.BL together archive more than 13’000 insect drawers with determined and sorted material. Databasing all of them is time-consuming, costly and not reasonable for each individual, due to differences in quality and scientific value. While curators have an overview on the state of their collections, external researchers and the public have not.

Taking photos of drawers and connecting them with general data about their content will facilitate decision making to start digitisation on individual level, will help external researchers to find objects they are looking for and will give the public and collection funders the possibility to scroll through our insect collections and get an impression about their value and their dimensions.

The entomological collection of the Naturmuseum Winterthur goes back to the 19th century. The very first collection housed at the museum was started in 1855 by Henri Ernst (1840-1899). The first donation came to the museum in 1870 from Jakob Heinrich Troll (1812-1870). Further collections were donated in the beginning of the 20th century. The former director of the Naturmuseum Winterthur, Gottlieb Geilinger (1881-1955), assigned the curation of the entomological collection to Hedwig Huber (1891-1966), a gynaecologist and local beetle collector. From 1953 on, Hedwig Huber re-organised and enhanced the entomological collection with help of Frieda Wening and Berta Benz. The three women wrote a systematic catalogue of the entomological collection and published the most important collections (Wening, 1964/66). After the death of Hedwig Huber, the entomological collections no longer had their own curator. The digitization in the entomological collection of the Naturmuseum Winterthur has therefore not yet started. We would like to collect this important biodiversity data on metadata (documentation of single subcollections) and specimen level (digitization of individual objects) as part of the present SwissCollNet project.

Das Projekt Curculionoidea des Naturhistorischen Museums Bern hat zum Ziel, die verbleibenden etwa 9000 Exemplare der Überfamilie Curculionoidea oder Rüsselkäfer (Coleoptera) der Sammlung zu digitalisieren. Rüsselkäfer sind eine superdiverse Käfergruppe (>62.000 Arten weltweit, 1100 Arten in der Schweiz). Rüsselkäfer sind überwiegend herbivor, entwickeln sich und fressen an und in verschiedensten Pflanzenteilen und fungieren auch als Vektoren für Pflanzenkrankheiten. So sind Rüsselkäfer von überaus grosser ökologischer und ökonomischer Bedeutung. Die Sammlungen des NMBE enthalten etwa 55.000 Exemplare von Rüsselkäfern, was sie zu den drittgrössten Sammlungen der Schweiz zählen lässt. Die verbleibenden, bisher unbearbeiteten Rüsselkäfer sind ¼ der Entiminae, die Unterfamilien Hyperinae, Lixinae, Mesoptilinae, Molytinae, Orobitinae, sowie die weniger umfangreichen Familien Dryophthoridae, Erirhinidae, Nanophyidae, Nemonychidae, Raymondionymidae, und Rhynchitidae.

Auguste Forel (1848-1931) était un entomologiste, neuroanatomiste et psychiatre suisse. Il fut l’un des plus importants myrmécologues de la fin du 19e et début du 20e siècle. Il a décrit plus de 6000 taxons (genres, espèces et sous-espèces) de fourmis. Il a également constitué l’une des plus grandes collections de fourmis du monde. Comprenant plus de 65’000 épingles, souvent avec plusieurs spécimens par épingle, et plus de 10’000 types (les spécimens témoins ayant servi à décrire les taxons), cette collection a été déposée principalement au Muséum d’histoire naturelle de Genève et au Musée cantonal de zoologie de Lausanne. Le Naturmuseum de Soleure en possède également quelques cadres.

Le travail principal consistera à digitaliser et photographier une grande partie des spécimens types, soit au moins un pour chaque taxon représenté par un type. Les données de localité et date de collecte, collecteur, détermination, nombre d’individus et castes seront relevées et intégrées aux bases de données respectives des musées. Pour la collection de Genève, la plus importante en termes de nombre d'espèces et de spécimens, un représentant de chaque espèce sera également numérisé. La collection de Lausanne et celle de Soleure seront entièrement digitalisées.

A Genève et à Lausanne, une partie de la collection est restée dans les boites d’origine utilisées par Forel qui ne répondent plus aux normes actuelles de conservation. Ce matériel sera reconditionné dans de nouveaux cadres entomologiques.

The Epstein Collection was deposited at the Museo cantonale di storia naturale (MCSN) at the end of the 1980s. It comprises 60’000 specimens of diurnal butterflies collected by Hans Epstein and his family for over 20 years, and is estimated to inlcude 70% of the species found in the Palearctic and Nearctic regions. One third of these specimens had already been mounted before donation and could thus be reordered, revised and digitised during the past decades. However, as time during expeditions is always limited and the work required to mount insects is enourmous, many specimens were stored in glassine envelopes: around 40’000 specimens are today still in envelopes of glassine paper or newspaper sheets and are stored in various different boxes (plastic, aluminium and cigar boxes). Although the MCSN has received all the relevant documentation related to the Epstein Collection (epistolary, maps and field diaries), the detailed content of the boxes is still unknown and the difficult accessibility makes a revision and digitization challenging. The main scope of processing the papered butterflies of the Epstein Collection is to make specimen data digitally available in order to know the detailed content of the envelopes as well as to improve access of the data to experts in Switzerland and internationally for further research. Digitisation will be accompanied by a physical reorganisation of the material facilitating the finding of material and its long-term preservation.

Spiders, which unfortunately often do not enjoy a good reputation in the population, are in fact fascinating and very diverse organisms. For this reason, they are often used in bio-indication studies, including in Ticino. For regional museums, as the MCSN, it is important to have collections of the species present in the territory they represent, both as an intrinsic value for the institution itself and as reference material for researchers. In the last 35 years, samples from researches carried out in Ticino, in different environmental types and representative areas of the Canton, have been delivered in a heterogeneous way to the MCSN.

This project aims at revising, reorganising, conditioning and digitising the estimated 9’000 spider specimens from Ticino and stored at the MCSN. The reorganized collection will allow an easier management of samples in the long term, including any new material that will be deposited at MCSN in the future. Very important will be the standardisation of the structure of the database and the systematics that will make these data easily integrated into the SVNHC.

Finally, this project will promote both training and collaboration between two museums, Lugano and Basel, and the young biologist hired for this job will have the opportunity to become familiar with spider identification and systematics, as well as with museum conservation techniques.

Les éphémères et les plécoptères sont deux ordres d’insectes de taille modeste mais de première importance pour les écosystèmes d’eau douce ; ils sont très largement utilisés comme bioindicateurs. Les collections d’éphémères et de plécoptères conservées dans les institutions muséales suisses ont une grande importance au niveau national et international ; elles contiennent le matériel qui a servi à la description de près de 700 espèces, soit 10% de toutes les espèces connues.

Nous allons procéder à la numérisation des 100 000 occurrences d’éphémères et plécoptères conservés dans les institutions suisses, à l’aide de nouvelles procédures plus performantes. Des photos à haute résolution des spécimens seront prises. Les identifications seront confirmées par des experts ; le matériel typique sera clairement individualisé, étiqueté et identifié en le confrontant à la description originale. Les collections seront conservées selon des standards leur permettant une préservation à long terme. Toutes les données extraites et les photos seront intégrées dans les bases de données des institutions puis dans le portail SVNHC.

Ce projet va également renforcer les liens entre les institutions en partageant les compétences et les connaissances. Finalement, ce projet permettra de valoriser les collections des musées et d’accroitre leur accessibilité et leur visibilité.

La collection des helminthes parasites du Musée d'histoire naturelle de Genève (MHNG) est la plus riche de Suisse et, pour certains grands taxons, l'une des plus uniques d'Europe. Le noyau de la collection provient des collections de quelques influents parasitologues suisses au cours des 19e et 20e siècles, dont le dévouement et les découvertes sont encore méconnues du grand public. Ce projet vise à numériser les spécimens types des espèces décrites par Otto Furhmann (1871-1945), Jean-George Baer (1902-1975), George Dubois (1902-1993), ou Franco Bona (1922-2014), et les précédents scientifiques du MHNG, Claude Vaucher, Alain de Chambrier et Jean Mariaux, afin de faciliter la pratique de la conservation et de promouvoir l'échange d'informations et la mise à disposition des scientifiques de ces spécimens fragiles et précieux. La collection de Platyhelminthes parasites (vers plats) comporte 1269 enregistrements de spécimens types appartenant à 609 espèces du monde entier décrites par les chercheurs susmentionnés. Cet effort favorisera la recherche en taxonomie dans un groupe encore en expansion et établira les bases de la numérisation par microscopie d'autres taxons dont les spécimens sont aussi conservés sur des lames de microscope. Les nouvelles images et les normes élevées de conservation de cette collection seront certainement un atout pour le développement du portail en ligne des collections virtuelles suisses d'histoire naturelle.

Ce projet vise à digitaliser une partie de la collection Delessert, collection malacologique privée la plus importante d’Europe au 19 ieme siècle, et plus grande collection malacologique hébergée dans une institution Suisse. Cette collection, qui constitue l’ossature de la collection malacologique du MHNG, contient de nombreux types non répertoriés. Dans la pratique, nous souhaitons saisir sur la base de données 12.500 des 60.000 lots de spécimens estimés, mettre à jour la taxonomie, identifier les types et les photographier de manière standardisée.

Les collections du Musée d’Histoire naturelle de Fribourg sont une véritable mine d’or d’informations sur le passé de notre environnement. Parmi elles, se trouvent les collections de Hans Pochon (1900-1977) et du Chanoine Nestor Cerutti (1886-1940), composées de plus de 30’000 scarabées, charançons, coccinelles et autres insectes de l’ordre des coléoptères. Tous les spécimens récoltés et épinglés par ces deux passionnés d’entomologie au cours du XXe siècle sont d’une grande valeur scientifique puisqu’ils témoignent de l’état de la faune de cette époque, spécialement pour les cantons de Fribourg et du Valais. Ces collections restent toutefois intouchées depuis près de 100 ans et ont sérieusement besoin d’être remises en ordre. C’est pourquoi ce projet aura comme but de réorganiser les insectes en fonction d’une classification moderne du vivant, les stocker dans de nouveaux cadres hermétiques pour qu’ils soient protégés des nuisibles des collections, ainsi que de numériser toutes les informations des anciennes étiquettes pour qu’elles soient accessibles au monde entier. Le projet inclut aussi de visiter d’autres musées pour inventorier leurs coléoptères de Pochon et Cerutti, ainsi que d’inviter des spécialistes à vérifier l’identification des insectes de la nouvelle collection du MHNF. Ce gros travail permettra non seulement de mettre en lumière de nombreuses informations sur les insectes en Suisse, mais également d’assurer leur accessibilité à la communauté scientifique dans le futur.

The project Pteromalidae in Swiss Collections aims to establish a comprehensive database of the dry mounted specimens in as many Swiss institutions as possible. The Pteromalidae collections are housed in 7 major institutions: Natural History Museums of Aargau, Basel, Bern, Geneva, Lausanne and Solothurn, as well as in the Entomological Collection at the ETH in Zurich. The collections comprise about 22000 specimens. The Pteromalidae are a major group of parasitic wasps, important in basic and applied research. Having a complete specimen database of the Pteromalidae in Swiss Collections on the Swiss Virtual Natural History Collection (SVNHC) platform will bring the family automatically to forefront of research considerations. As most specimens were collected in the context of biological control projects, the result will not only be a specimen database, but also a database on host-parasitoid relationships. Finally, the specimens will not only be databased, but also be largely re-identified. Hence, it is to be hoped, that this project will stimulate the interest of future generations of specialists in this ecologically and economically most important group.

La collection de mollusques et coraux du Muséum d’histoire naturelle de Neuchâtel trouve son origine il y a plus de 200 ans et contient de nombreux spécimens à haute valeur scientifique et historique. Cette collection a poursuivi son accroissement au fil des siècles jusqu’à atteindre, à ce jour, plus de 35'000 lots. Alors que la version papier de l’inventaire a été mis à jour jusqu’au début du 20ème siècle, très peu de spécimens ont été saisis dans une base de données. De plus, coquilles et coraux nécessitent un reconditionnement adéquat avec du matériel non acide pour les préserver de dégradations futures et de la poussière. Les deux ans nécessaires pour mener à bien ce projet représentent une opportunité unique tant pour sécuriser au long terme ces spécimen, pour les digitaliser dans la base de données que pour amorcer leur révision. Dans ce sens, le matériel suisse sera entièrement révisé ou déterminé par des spécialistes, puis la priorité sera mise sur les ensembles les plus représentatifs de la collection. En outre, ce projet inclus des développements de base de données pour d’une part améliorer la visibilité de la collection auprès d’une audience internationale et d’autre part pour traiter et associer un grand volume d’images aux spécimens inventoriés.

The Natural History Museum Basel (NMB) has obtained a private collection of 15'922 Cholevinae (Coleoptera; Leiodidae). This collection contains 781 species (698 from the Palaearctic), including 15 holotypes and 611 paratypes of 99 species. This collection increases the number of species of Cholevinae at the NMB by over 40%. They are represented worldwide with a bit more than 2000 species. The main distribution area is in the western Palaearctic, and many species occur as endemics in a highly restricted range. The high degree of endemism is due to their often restricted mobility and their particular way of life in vertebrate nests, in underground mammal burrows, or caves. Due to their specific way of life, they can be exciting and essential indicator species for questions in biodiversity, environmental, or habitat protection.

The Chlevinae of the obtained private collection will be digitally recorded in this project. In addition, the type material (holo- and paratypes) will be photographed with high-resolution photo stacking imaging and also included in the database. The digitization will make data, including photos of the type material, of about half of all known Cholevinae species worldwide accessible to researchers and interested individuals.

Termites are a fascinating group of social insects that live in large states and have a pronounced caste system. Only the queen and king of a state produce offspring, while the remaining individuals are employed either as workers or soldiers. Termites are well-known for their skilfully constructed mounds and their positive effects on soil fertility. Most of the about 3,100 species live in Africa and South America, and many species are difficult to distinguish morphologically.

This project concerns the unique termite collection of Eberhard Ernst, which after his premature death reached the Natural History Museum in Basel. The collection, which consists of more than 11'000 vials with an estimated 100'000 specimens, is in urgent need of reconditioning, as E. Ernst's system with individual glass vials filled with ethanol bears the danger of desiccation of valuable specimens. We aim to bring together detailed locality and ecological data from various documents and notes and match it with the worker, soldier and king and queen specimens. The digitized collection will prove a unique resource for termite specialists, ecologists and climate change scientists from all over the world.

It is well known that there are many new discoveries to be made in the tropics, but it might be more surprising that also about 1/5 of the Swiss fauna is still considered to be unrecorded. Darwin wasps (Ichneumonidae), and especially their poorly researched subfamily Campopleginae, are believed to harbour many of these “hidden” species. They attack mainly the caterpillars of small moths, and due to this parasitoid lifestyle, they are at the top of the insect food web and thus play an important regulatory role in agriculture.

This project aims to fill some of the gaps in our knowledge of the Swiss biodiversity by conditioning, identifying, and digitizing about 5,800 Campopleginae specimens already preserved in the natural history collections of Basel, Lausanne, Bern and St. Gallen. Through detailed macro-photography, we are furthermore going to provide virtual access to the primary types of about 115 Campopleginae species, mainly from the J. F. Aubert collection in Lausanne.

Our knowledge on this highly neglected taxon will be drastically improved, including historical data to allow inferences about faunal changes in this ecologically and economically highly important group. The project will put applied research about the use of these parasitoids as natural enemies and biocontrol agents in agriculture on a solid basis, and the training aspects will help overcome the shortage in taxonomic expertise on these wasps in our country.

Karin Urfer

Naturmusem St.Gallen

The natural history museum St.Gallen owns a small but very valuable snail shell collection inherited from Johann Daniel Wilhelm Hartmann (1793-1863). He collected the shells together with his father between 1820 to 1860. This shell collection bares a number of type specimens that are of high scientific value. Currently, the shells are housed together with other shells Hartmann received from colleagues in 16 original cherrywood drawers. Unfortunately, the glue that Hartmann used at the time now slowly degenerates and the shells are getting loose. Loose shells also mean the loss of information concerning locality and the original species determination, which are written on the base of the drawers. Therefore, we intend to restore the collection and revise the species determination. With the support of the SwissCollNet we can now hire the mollusc expert Dr. Eike Neubert. He will support K. Urfer to professionally restore and redetermine the shells. We will then store and digitise these precious snail shells. Finalising this project means a complete digitalization of all Swiss snail shells housed at the Naturmuseum St.Gallen, which are then made accessible for the scientific world and everyone else who is interested in the collection of Johann Hartmann.

Le Musée d'histoire naturelle de Genève (MHNG) abrite une très riche collection d'araignées qui se classe probablement parmi les 10 meilleures au monde. Au cours du siècle dernier, plus de 3000 araignées de Suisse ont été collectées par les anciens conservateurs de la collection d'arthropodes du MHNG et par des naturalistes indépendants locaux. Cependant, la majeure partie de ce matériel n'est toujours pas identifiée en raison du manque d'intérêt des spécialistes contemporains qui restent plus focalisés sur la faune tropicale. L'objectif du présent projet est d'identifier ce matériel dormant et de mettre les données à disposition des spécialistes par le biais de plateformes naturalistes et d'inventaires de la biodiversité en ligne. Le travail prévu contribuera ainsi à augmenter la valeur et la visibilité de la collection locale d'araignées du MHNG. De plus, les données de distribution nouvellement générées permettront d'améliorer notre connaissance des aires de distribution et de la diversité arachnologique en Suisse, ainsi que d'évaluer plus précisément les changements induits par les changements climatiques et environnementaux sur cette faune au cours du siècle dernier.

Water mites are one of the most species rich groups in fresh water ecosystems. They are used as bioindicators for water quality and on top of that visually attractive. In Europe, exist almost 1’000 species of which more than 150 are solely connected to springheads.

In Switzerland, the collection and study of water mites had a long tradition at the Natural History Museum of Basel, including unique so-called type specimens among the several 1000 microslide preparations. Recently, uncountable numbers of water mites were collected during national biodiversity initiatives and stored at the Museum of Zoology in Lausanne without further investigation. However, water mites remain understudied in Switzerland and the access to data of the collected specimens is difficult.

The Swiss water mite digitisation project will change this. Historical collections will be screened for type specimens and their data digitised. Already available data will be translated to international standards and so far untouched samples will be sorted, prepared, determined, properly stored and digitised to make the objects and object data finally available for research.

Heidi Günthart from Dielsdorf (ZH) has investigated and documented the Swiss Auchenorrhyncha fauna for more than 50 years. As one of the first female entomologists in the country, she has contributed significantly to the current state of knowledge and over time has built up an Auchenorrhyncha collection that is unique in Switzerland. Thanks to her research, the number of reported species from Switzerland has increased from 70 to almost 500. Most of the records originated from the Swiss National Park (SNP) and the surroundings.

The collection, which was donated to the Natural History Museum Basel (NMB) by Heidi Günthart in 2012, comprises approx. 140 plastic boxes with around 60 glass tubes each. There is a total of 486 species from 15 families with about 31,000 specimens.

The collection of Heidi Günthart needs to be integrated into the existing entomological collection of the NMB and specimen records digitised.

The revised collection will serve as a reference for Auchenorrhyncha, unique for Switzerland, and thus support the scientific potential of collections for present and future research and expertise in taxonomy.

In biological nomenclature, "types" are specimens that are present when a species is described. In natural history collections, types are among the most valuable specimens and are studied by researchers worldwide. They are at considerable risk of damage or complete loss due to excessive handling, shipping, and inappropriate storage during loans. To protect these valuable type specimens, the current project will generate digital representations of the physical specimens by 3D imaging. These can easily be sent around the world and worked on. 3D technologies allow not only for detailed studies of traditional morphological features such as distances, textures, and patterns, but also for measuring surface areas and volumes, which so far have been neglected in taxonomic descriptions. The applicants would be the first entomological collections to establish 3D imaging in Switzerland. In the current project, around 2'200 name-bearing type specimens and 200 exemplar specimens will be 3D scanned using photogrammetry. In addition, special use cases are being investigated in (inter)national collaborations, e.g. scanning of very small, flat or relatively large insects. A user group and a workshop on 3D imaging will help other Swiss collections to introduce the technology in their own institutions. Lessons learned will be published as a best practice paper.

Parmi les spécimens qui se trouvent dans les collections d'histoire naturelle, les spécimens types revêtent une importance particulière car ils sont les seuls spécimens qui peuvent être consultés pour évaluer l'application correcte d'un nom scientifique. En tant que tels, ils sont indispensables à la recherche taxonomique et systématique. Les institutions détentrices de spécimens types doivent donc s'assurer que ce matériel est à la fois visible et accessible à la communauté scientifique internationale. L'objectif de ce projet est d'améliorer les conditions de stockage et la visibilité du matériel type zoologique conservé dans les institutions du canton de Neuchâtel, à savoir le Musée d'histoire naturelle de Neuchâtel et le MUZOO de La Chaux-de-Fonds. Nous avons l'intention de reconditionner les spécimens de type, de numériser les informations des étiquettes, de photographier les spécimens et de publier en ligne toutes les données et métadonnées relatives à nos collections de type. Les données seront publiées sur des plateformes telles que la Collection virtuelle suisse d'histoire naturelle (SVNHC) et la plateforme GBIF selon les Fair Principles et le schéma ABCD-EFG pour l'échange de données sur la biodiversité. Les résultats de ce projet faciliteront la recherche scientifique dans les domaines de la taxonomie et de la systématique ; ils favoriseront aussi une meilleure compréhension des collections types du canton de Neuchâtel et sensibiliseront le public au contenu de nos collections.