The identification of specimens and cataloguing of Worcester Museum Coleoptera (beetle) collection (update June 2011)

David M. Green

davidmxgreen@gmail.com

Begun summer 2010, the identification of specimens and listing of data of the Coleoptera (beetle) collection of Worcester City Art Gallery and Museum, Foregate Street, Worcester, continues. This work was described in the previous issue of Worcestershire Record (Green 2010).

Number of specimens identified so far: 5 781

Number of species identified so far: 1 130

According to museum documentation:

Number of specimens in collection: 11 460

Number of species in collection: 1 772

Therefore approximately:

50% of the specimens in the collection are now identified to species.

64% of the species are now identified to species.

Most of the specimens not yet examined are the weevils and the Staphylinidae on which I am presently working having covered the subfamilies Tachyporinae and Staphylininae. Some specimens have been noted on examination as requiring further work for identification; these I expect to return to when the whole collection has been examined.

Reference

Green, David M. 2010. Identification of specimens and cataloguing of the Coleoptera (beetle) collection of Worcester City Museum and Art Gallery. Worcestershire Record 29:9-10