Curation Status 1999
Completed by Jo Berry and Leonie Clunie, June 1999
Introduction
In 1985, the Smithsonian's Entomology Collections Committee developed the Smithsonian Collections Standards and Profiling System to address problems of collection management: conservation, accessibility, physical curation and data capture. This system allows for standardisation of data on collection holdings and thus for comparison between collections. It also provides for measurement of progress in curation within a collection after the establishment of a baseline curation status. The system works by assigning a numerical curation code to the basic units used in insect collections (see McGinley, R.J. 1989. Entomological Collection Management - are we really managing? Insect Collection News 2 (2): 19-24). Briefly, the levels are as follows:
Level 1: Conservation problem, either one of physical curation or one of potential information loss - for example unlabelled specimens in the general collection.
Level 2: Unidentified material, sorted only to major (usually suprageneric) groups and effectively inaccessible to the research community.
Level 3: Unidentified material, sorted to "Loanable units" (usually genus, but variable depending on group) and accessible to the research community.
Level 4: Material identified to species level but not incorporated into main collection (e.g., material identified for biodiversity or ecological studies, surveys etc).
Level 5: Identified and integrated material which is inadequately curated.
Level 6: Identified, integrated, and adequately curated.
Level 7: Physical curation complete, species level inventory complete (e.g., Fauna of New Zealand volume material).
Level 8: Physical curation complete, individual specimen label data captured (the only material in this category is the Hymenoptera holotype collection).
In June 1999, the curation status of the NZAC Hymenoptera collection was determined using this system. The basic storage units used in the NZAC are wooden boxes, and the number of specimens in a full box can vary from 12 (e.g., Megarhyssa) to over 250 (any microhymenopterans). Accordingly, numbers of individual specimens have been estimated for each category, instead of numbers of storage units. The estimates are approximate and have been rounded to the nearest 10.
The results are as follows. The collection was subdivided into the following groupings: Symphyta, Braconidae, Ichneumonidae, Chalcidoidea, "Proctotrupomorphs" (Proctotrupidae, Platygastridae, Diapriidae, Scelionidae, Ceraphronidae), and ants for comparison between groups. Apart from the Symphyta and the ants, groups of Parasitica and Aculeata which are poorly represented in New Zealand, e.g., Cynipoidea, Evanioidea, Chrysidoidea, Vespoidea, and Apoidea, have been included in the total category.
TOTAL - all pinned Hymenoptera specimens
| Category | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 |
| Specimens | 4,770 | 54,560 | 39,970 | 5,520 | 475 | 23,710 | 7,213 | 190 |
Symphyta
| Category | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 |
| Specimens | 0 | 50 | 0 | 20 | 335 | 500 | 0 |
Braconidae
| Category | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 |
| Specimens | 0 | 12,660 | 2,450 | 60 | 150 | 4,450 | 0 |
Ichneumonidae
| Category | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 |
| Specimens | 840 | 2,650 | 13,800 | 30 | 0 | 4,260 | 0 |
Chalcidoidea
| Category | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 |
| Specimens | 0 | 2,780 | 14,280 | 910 | 580 | 2,780 | 5,100 |
"Proctotrupomorphs" (Proctotrupidae, Platygastridae, Diapriidae, Scelionidae, Ceraphronidae)
| Category | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 |
| Specimens | 250 | 10,100 | 7,300 | 230 | 90 | 720 | 1290 |
Ants
| Category | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 |
| Specimens | 25 | 1200 | 140 | 570 | 115 | 3070 | 0 |
Results
Unsurprisingly, the smaller groups (ants and Symphyta, both with an extremely depauperate fauna in New Zealand), are the best curated, with a high proportion of specimens sorted to species (Level 6). The Braconidae are the most poorly curated major group, with most specimens not sorted to loanable units. The ichneumonid collection has been upgraded recently, following the visit of Dr Ian Gauld, Natural History Museum, London, and the profile has changed from a majority of specimens at level 2 to a majority of specimens at level 3, with a significant number at level 6. The chalcidoid collection is mostly at level 3, sorted to genus. The "proctotrupomorphs" (Proctotrupidae, Platygastridae, Diapriidae, Scelionidae, Ceraphronidae) are poorly curated with a majority of specimens at level 2.