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Where are the Species Deposited?

The accumulation of specimens in any one museum is a result of geography, history, staff, and collectors. Despite the majority of species being found in the tropics of almost all of the world, Cicadellinae species described until the 1950’s had been by European workers. Much of this material had been deposited in major museums in central and northern Europe. During the study visit made by David Young in 1962-63 much of this was examined, lectotypes were designated, and he also loaned large numbers of unidentified specimens. As discussed above, Young did not give the details of the museums from where he studied specimens of the existing species. During the current imaging project (see below) we have accumulated information on over 30 institutions, which house significant collections in this group.

On completion of his monographs the specimens were returned to their original museums, but several representatives were retained for deposition in the NCSU collection, Raleigh. As a result, Raleigh has the largest number of species represented, followed closely by the BMNH, London and the USNM, Washington, D. C. Each of these institutions has around 50% of the world fauna represented. The BMNH is notable for both the number of Cicadellinae species and of historic types (Walker, Distant, and Fowler).

Other large museums have between 350 (NMW, HNHM) and 560 (NHRS) species but are very important because of the number of historic types present. The Bishop Museum, Honolulu has 75% of the species known from New Guinea (110 species: almost all endemic), although representatives are found in London (36%) and in Raleigh (51%). Table 2 gives information on the numbers of cicadelline species described by the 6 main authors and their presence in each of the 5 main collections. Perhaps not surprisingly the majority of species are found in the ‘home’ Institute (or place where the collection is deposited) of the author. This effect is especially seen in Fowler and Distant species, which are overwhelmingly represented in the BMNH, London. This may also be an effect of their working on a regional fauna. It is less obvious among Signoret species, perhaps because he was an early pioneer whose species are likely to be among the more commonly encountered and also because he described on a world basis. The NCSU, Raleigh also has the largest percentage of species described by David Young, although compared to other authors, Young species are represented in a lower percentage (see Table 2). Young did retain some representatives in NCSU when he described species, but he also studied specimens from many other institutions. Additionally, Young described many species based on a single specimen and he did deposit all his primary types in the USNM.

Interestingly only around 20 cicadelline species are found in all of the 10 largest collections. Even the top 7 contain only 86 species, but this number rises to 170 in the largest 5 institutions, and to 281 in the top 4. The overlap in the 3 largest institutions for this group is, however, considerable, and 468 species are found in all of these, and between NCSU and BMNH, 694 species are found in common. Naturally, in common with most insects, the majority of cicadelline species are known only from the type material, with 282 species found only in the largest 5 collections (with BMNH having 120 of these). Most institutions have numerous species unique to them.

Codens for Specimen Depositories

Abbreviations (Codens) for depositories for species follow Evenhuis, N. L. 2004a. The insect and spider collections of the world website: Http://hbs.bishopmuseum.org/codens/