Category: Life Collections

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And the winner is…

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Katherine Child, Kate Santry, Peter Eeles, James Hogan and Darren Mann (l-r)

Congratulations to our fabulous Life and Archival Collections teams! They’re a pretty friendly bunch, always keen to help researchers and enthusiasts, giving unrivalled access to their knowledge and their collections. This welcoming attitude has now been recognised by the organisation UK Butterflies, who have awarded them with an Outstanding Contribution Award.

Peter Eeles (l) presents the award to James Hogan
Peter Eeles (l) presents the award to James Hogan

This is the first time that the award has been given to an organisation, rather than an individual, which was apparently “in special recognition of the role that this team of committed individuals has played in helping bring the UK Butterflies website to a whole new level.”

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Peter Eeles, who developed and runs the UK Butterflies website, has been visiting the Hope Entomological Collections (part of our Life Collections) for many years. He says that the staff have always been “encouraging, knowledgeable and welcoming” and have truly helped advance the mission statement of the organisation; Building a community of responsible butterfly enthusiasts.

Peter Eeles admires some Camberwell Beauty butterflies.
Peter admires some Camberwell Beauty butterflies.

James Hogan, from the Hope Collection, has worked closely with Peter and his colleagues and says;
“It’s a great honour to be recognised and it’s always a pleasure to welcome the UK Butterflies members.

“They’re always enthusiastic about what they do and I learn a huge amount about our collections, too. There’s no point having collections if no-one uses them!”

The Library and Archives, run by Kate Santry, has been vital in research into the history of entomology. Last year, Mark Colvin, a contributor to the website, used the collections to study the life and works of James Charles Dale. By combining diaries and photos from the Archives and specimens from the Life Collections, he built up a thorough report on the entomologists’ work. Peter interviewed Kate about her work back in December last year and put the interview onto the website.

Mark and Peter talked about the impressive ‘open door’ policy that the staff have, and this doesn’t just extend to entomologists. Kate is always very keen to point out that the Library is open to anyone who would like to visit. Just drop her an email on libary@oum.ox.ac.uk to arrange a good time to call in.

Thanks to Peter, Mark and all at UK Butterflies, for this exciting award – now to find the perfect spot to show it off!

Rachel Parle, Interpretation and Education Officer

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It must be autumn – the interns have flown

James organising the South Sudanese butterflies
James Evry organising the South Sudanese butterflies

It seems very quiet this week, now the last of our undergraduate interns has left us. A week ago, third year Earth sciences student Keyron Hickman-Lewis identified and numbered his last tray of specimens from the 19th century Parker collection, photographed some of the finest Jurassic fish jaws, sharks’ teeth, and other beautifully preserved fossils, before heading home to enjoy a well-earned break.

We’ve been running paid undergraduate internships for several years now, supported by grants from the University’s E.P.A. Cephalosporin Fund. The students tackle curatorial projects – sorting, identifying, numbering and cataloguing specimens, or helping to organise and list archives. This enables us to get a lot of curatorial work done, and it gives the interns a chance to handle and learn about a wider range of specimens and materials than they would ever see on their degree courses, while learning new skills which will be useful in their future careers. This year we also had interns funded through Oxford University’s own internship scheme, all tackling projects with more of a research focus.

Naomi (l) and Branwen (r) numbering Freeman collection minerals
Naomi (l) and Branwen (r) numbering Freeman collection minerals

Second year biologist, Ellen Foley-Williams worked on the Long-horn Beetle collection, but she’s really interested in science communication, so we set her an extra challenge of running a blog where all the interns could share their experiences; have a look at More Than an Intern to discover more.

Naomi (r) showing off some Cumbrian iron ore from her home county, and a an iron meteorite from space in ‘Spotlight specimens’

Some of the interns rose to the challenge of joining our ‘Spotlight Specimens’ rota. Every weekday afternoon at 2.30, a member of staff takes some favourite specimens from behind-the-scenes, and talks about them to museum visitors. It may be a bit scary first time, but every one of the interns said it was really fun to do – if sometimes a little challenging with such a varied audience.

In total, we had eleven interns, each spending six weeks working on a specific project. So Branwen, Cecilia, Ellen, Emily G., Emily T., Grace, James, Keyron, Max, Naomi, and Steph, we’d like to thank you all for being hard-working and lots of fun to have around. We hope we’ll see lots more of you all in coming years.

Monica Price, Head of Earth Collections

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Not Just Dead Bugs

A glimpse from behind the scenes in our Life department to see what the interns are getting up to.

morethananintern's avatarMore Than An Intern

Longhorn4Not many people know that the Oxford University Museum of Natural History doesn’t just consist of the specimens on display – it also houses the Hope Entomological Collection: the second largest entomological collection in the UK. The space contains thousands of incredible pinned specimens as well as some live ones too (Geraldine the stick insect on the right). Entomology is the study of insects, and so the department is responsible for the curation of thousands of invertebrate specimens collected over hundreds of years by biologists such as Darwin and Wallace. We have all sorts in the collection – from beetles and flies (Coleoptera and Diptera) to bees and ants (Hymenoptera).

The collection consists of over five million specimens, which keeps the staff, volunteers and interns well occupied.  Each person working in the department has their own role and

Max6often their own speciality. Not only are the permanent staff experts, but the…

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Experience gained

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Over the past few days the ranks of the Museum have been swelled by the arrival of a host of summer interns from the University of Oxford Internship Programme and the EPA Cephalosporin Fund scheme. Overall, twelve internships are being run at the Museum, and the new faces have been squirreled away into the various departments and collections throughout the building.

We’ve got people working on a wide variety of activities, from audience research for Oxford ASPIRE, to the curation of longhorn beetles (Cerambycidae) in the Life Collections, to work on the archive of 19th-century entomologist James Charles Dale.

One of the interns, Grace Manley, is pictured above peering into a microscope. Grace is working with Dr Tracy Aze, a research fellow at the Museum who is studying planktonic foraminifera – fossils of single-celled organisms found in deep-sea sediments – to investigate marine extinctions. Tracy explains how Grace is contributing to the work during her internship:

Grace is helping me to test some methodological practices that will feed into how I conduct my future research. She has been involved in all the stages of micropalaeontological processing, from washing down core sediments and microfossil identification, through to imaging specimens on the scanning electron microscope.

The project gives her the opportunity to learn many of the common practices that micropalaeontologists use in a lab today and is excellent experience should she decide to continue to work in this field, or other areas of palaeontology.

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Grace Manley working on the planktonic foraminifera as part of her internship with Research Fellow Dr Tracy Aze

For Grace, the internship provides ‘a practical experience of scientific research in the field of environmental change and extinction’. At the same time, she is enjoying ‘the chance to learn about the hugely diverse range of collections in the Museum and how they are actively used for scientific research today.’

We hope that all the interns across the Museum are finding a similarly rich and rewarding experience and we’ll feature some of the highlights of their work on this blog over the coming weeks.

In the meantime, a big welcome to Naomi Saunders, Stephanie Faulkner, Grace Manley, Emily Giles, and Samuel Peacock on the University of Oxford programme; and to Branwen Snelling, Keyron Hickman-Lewis, Ellen Foley-Williams, Max Brown, James Evry, Cecilia Karlsson, and Emily Tibly on the EPA Cephalosporin Fund scheme.

Scott Billings – Public engagement officer

 

 

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Ento Kids R Us

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As we head towards the end of National Insect Week this year it seems like a very good time to introduce you to one of the hardest-working people in bugworld – Sally-Ann Spence of Minibeast Mayhem. If you’ve ever visited the Museum on one of our bug-handling days you may well have met Sally already, quite probably holding a stick insect.

Through Minibeast Mayhem, Sally does a lot of work to support the budding entomologists of tomorrow, running invertebrate-based educational workshops for schools and public outreach events around Oxfordshire. Sally is also a committee member of the Amateur Entomologists Society’s Bug Club, an entomological club for children.

We asked Sally to tell us a bit more about her work and her desire to encourage bug-loving kids. Here’s what she has to say:

Sally-Ann Spence and her Minibeast Mayhem Bug Science kit
Sally-Ann Spence and her Minibeast Mayhem Bug Science kit

“When I meet a child with a passion for bugs I always suggest to their family that they should join a society such as the AES Bug Club where they can take part in many events and their interest can be nurtured. Sometimes it becomes apparent that a child has more than just a passing interest in bugs; in fact they have a true passion that could extend well beyond childhood. Unfortunately the UK has no BSc in Entomology so the subject is often missed in our schools careers advice. This can leave some children and their families at a loss for how to pursue their interest.

So I decided to set up a voluntary mentoring scheme – the Ento Kids – not only for enthusiastic children but also to support their families. The scheme has been successful, thanks to the incredible support I have received from expert individuals, landowners, universities, entomology-related companies and museums and their staff.

The aim of the Ento Kids is to support children through a CREST Award and a two week work experience placement. We offer advice on GCSE and A level choices and suitable university courses, as well as provide access to sites for research projects (and potential future employers).

Ento Kids hard at work in the Museum
Ento Kids hard at work in the Museum

Ento Kids take part in active fieldwork on research experiments to learn practical skills and are introduced to a network of professional entomologists who share their expertise from previous experience.

Theory is also fundamentally important and this is where museums such as the Museum of Natural History in Oxford are vital. Darren Mann, Head of Life Collections, and his team in the Entomology Department encourage the Ento Kids unreservedly. The children are taught about fieldwork in various habitats around the world and about the processes involved for collected specimens. They are taught about active scientific research, the importance of the collections and how to conserve them. Best of all, they learn all of this in a hands-on way with the staff in the Museum itself.

We need our entomologists, both from the past and today, and National Insect Week is a celebration of insects that everyone can take part in.”

Sally-Ann Spence – Minibeast Mayhem

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Peanut-Head Bug

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It’s National Insect Week this week, and insects are creatures close to the hearts of many people in the Museum. So to celebrate here’s a Peanut-Head Bug, chosen as a favourite specimen from Hope Entomology Collections by Gina Allnatt in our Life Collections department. Gina explains why:

This species – Fulgora laternaria – is also referred to as the “Alligator Bug” because of the grin-like markings on the head process when viewed from the side. This is probably the biggest specimen of this species I have ever seen in any collection. It was obtained from the Amazon by Rev. A. Miles Moss who presented them to Edward Bagnall Poulton, the second Hope Professor of Zoology at the University of Oxford. The specimen was exhibited at the Royal Entomological Society in 1932.

It's pretty big!
It’s pretty big.

The strange looking head is hollow, and its purpose may be to afford the insect some protection through mimicry. The insect sits on the side of a tree trunk, with its head pointing upwards. When viewed from the side it looks like a lizard. And if this doesn’t deter a predator it will then open its wings to reveal “eye” spots, complete with white markings that mimic light reflection.

Despite its fearsome appearance, the insect is completely harmless, and is a stunning example of adaptation in the insect world.

Gina Allnatt, Life Collections