Natural History Museum acquires huge Hawkmoth collection – potential new species
21/10/2008 11:28:50
10 hawkmoth facts:
1) Hawkmoths form a family of some 1,400 species
2) Occur on all continents, except Antarctica
3) Hawkmoth eggs are laid individually rather than in group and are generally translucent green colour
4) Hawkmoth caterpillars are large, often marked by stripes or eyespots and with a conspicuous horn at their rear end
5) Adults are generally nocturnal or crepuscular, that is, active at twilight or just before sunrise
6) Are the only moths capable of hovering in front of flowers to feed, in a manner resembling that of hummingbirds
7) Some species have very long tongues, which are used to pollinate long, tubular flowers
8) Play a unique role in pollination of some plants e.g. some orchids in Madagascar can only be pollinated by one species of hawkmoth, so should the moth become extinct the orchid would inevitably follow
9) Some species have the capacity for fast, long distance and often migratory flight
10) The Rothschild and Jordan monograph published in 1903 is still used today as the basis for classifying species
The Natural History Museum acquires scientifically important hawkmoths
October 2008. The Natural History Museum has secured a scientifically valuable collection of over 200,000 hawkmoths which will join the Museum's current butterfly and moth collections (No wonder some of these moths are so rare, they were all collected. Ed.). After launching an appeal in early summer, the Museum has received almost £150,000 in over 350 generous donations from members of the public, ensuring that the Cadiou hawkmoth collection will be incorporated in the world famous building.
Target exceeded
Thanks to the phenomenal response to the appeal by supporters the Museum exceeded its target and the extra funds generated by the appeal will go towards transportation; deep freezing, to kill pests that damage specimens, using an industrial freezer and storage & special curation. Visitors to the Natural History Museum, will be able to see some of the new hawkmoths when they go on display in January 2009.
92% of known hawkmoth species
The Cadiou collection was named after its pre-eminent hawkmoth specialist, Dr Jean-Marie Cadiou and is the second largest collection of hawkmoths in private hands.It is the most important collection to become available for many years.
Potential new species
The pinned collection alone doubles the size of the Museum's collection. The addition of the 53,000 pinned and 176,000 papered specimens will mean that the Museum now has examples of 92% of the world's hawkmoths in its collections. The collection will join the rest of the Lepidoptera collections in the second phase of the Darwin Centre which opens in September 2009. Cataloguing and documenting such a vast collection will take a lot of time, but an initial examination found three specimens that may well be new to science.
Dr Ian Kitching, Lepidoptera researcher at the Museum and collaborator of Jean-Marie Cadiou said; "It's such a delight that we're able to receive such a scientifically valuable collection. The 200,000 plus moths will now join the millions of others we have here in the Museum allowing scientists of the future to study this interesting group of insects."
Dr Jean-Marie Cadiou
Dr Jean-Marie Cadiou was pre-eminent among recent non-professional lepidopterists with a passionate interest in hawkmoths. He started his collection in the 1960s until his unexpected and untimely death in 2007. The collection will be used in cutting edge scientific research, such as important DNA barcoding work allowing researchers to identify moths quickly and accurately.
Vital pollinators
Hawkmoths have long been recognised as important plant pollinators, so much so that some plants, for example orchids, have evolved to be pollinated solely by hawkmoths. So if the moth becomes extinct, so will the plants. In 1862 Charles Darwin observed that the spur of the Madagascan Star Orchid, Angraecum sesquipedale was so long that the nectar within the flower could not be reached by any other insect. At the time, Xanthopan morganii praedicta, the hawkmoth in question, had not even been discovered.
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