Voucher specimens

[ernst neering]

There are good musea in many countries which can keep types well, but there 
are also many, especially in the tropics, which can not.

I remember seeing storage boxes with insects in a museum in a humid tropical 
country, that had holes drilled in them. All ballpointpen written labels were 
unreadable.
The room where the collection was stored was not airconditioned full time due 
to shortage of funds and powercuts. The preserved specimen had mildewed and 
somebody had suggested to drill holes to aerate the contents and spray 
diluted ethanol over them to kill the fungus. There were ants active in the 
room, harvesting the edible parts of what was left in the boxes.....

Anybody would agree that such a place is not suitable to store types. However 
duplicates could be deposited there, to be shown to schoolkids etc. I would 
suggest, however, to keep types in appropriately equipped musea in well 
accessible places under condition that the place is really accessible for 
everybody, including amateurs.....

Regards,
Ernst Neering, the Netherlands