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Description: | The vast collections of over 350,000 botanical specimens have been developed by collectors since 1799 and today represent almost all of the British and Irish native flora and also contain worldwide specimens. The historic herbaria comprise mainly three collections. The Forster Herbarium (founding collection of the Liverpool Botanic Garden's herbarium) contains material collected on Captain James Cook's second voyage to the South Seas (1772-75). The Liverpool Botanic Garden also acquired another major collection (the Smith Herbarium) in the early 1800s from the collections of Sir James Edward Smith, co-founder of the Linnean Society of London in 1788. Smith's main herbarium is held by the Society itself. The Roylean Herbarium of specimens from southern India and the Himalayas, bequeathed to the Liverpool Royal Institution by John Forbes Royle, a director of the Saharanpur Botanic Garden, India.
The 190,000 flowering plants make up the largest group of specimens and there is also a significant group of flowering plans from the African continent, Atlantic Islands, Asian, the Americas, Australasia and Oceania. The European herbarium served as a reference for the 'Flora Europaea' project and was enhanced during this work by additions of material from the Mediterranean. The cultivated plant collection includes important voucher material and originates mainly from the herbaria of the Liverpool Botanic Gardens and the University of Liverpool's Ness Botanic Gardens. The museum also holds 11,000 ferns, 1,500 fungi, 4,500 lichens, 22,000 mosses and liverworts and 12,000 algae, together with a good reference collection of economic botany samples (roots, seeds, fruits, fibres etc) and 11,000 timbers. There are also over 70 collections of dried plant specimens mounted in bound volumes ('exsiccatae'), large amounts of research material and 200 anatomical plant models. See also Photographic (extensive collection of botanical Photographs, prints and drawings).
The zoology collection is based around the museum's founding collection from the 13th Earl of Derby in 1851 and has grown to include over 1.2 million vertebrate, spider, insect and shell specimens of worldwide origin, many rare and scientifically important on an international scale. There are c. 55,000 bird and 2,000 mammal skins and mounts, including the core material from the original gift by Lord Derby, which contains a high proportion of type and figured material. There are also bird and mammal specimens that are now either extinct or critically endangered including: one of only two known specimens of the Lord Howe Island Gallinule (Porphyrio stanleyi), named after Lord Stanley, the collection founder; the only Paradise Parrot from Gould's original type series; the type of Lord Derby Opossum; and two syntypes of the extinct Long-tailed Hopping Mouse of Western Australia. There is also material collected by many distinguished collectors including Captain James Cook and Charles Darwin. The vertebrate osteology collection includes material from many extinct species such as the Dodo, Great Auk, Falkland Islands Warrah (Wolf) and the Australian Thylacine (Tasmanian wolf). Mammals also include over 2,000 bats acquired in the 1970s to 1990s and some mammals preserved in spirit. There are also c30,000 clutches of birds' eggs. Other vertebrate groups include a small fish collection of worldwide scope, including some types from the Challenger expedition and also from South America. Of note is a rare 1920s collection of tumerous fish from the Irish Sea assembled by James Johnstone at the University of Liverpool. Reptiles and amphibians include two important collections from recent fieldwork expeditions in the Bale Mountains of Ethiopia and the coastal forests of Congo Brazzaville.
The arachnid collection includes c.160,000 specimens of British spiders and harvestmen, with over 82% of species represented and some type specimens. Foreign arachnids include c 5,000 specimens mainly from recent fieldwork in Turkey and Europe. There is also a collection of c 4,000 ticks of worldwide origin and acquired from Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine in 1986. There is also a small collection of local mite pest species associated with stored food products. The spider collection also includes the most extensive pseudoscorpion collection in Britain, comprising c.14,000 spirit and slide-mounted specimens. Overall, the arachnid collection (spiders, scorpions, mites and ticks) rates second only to the collections at the Natural History Museum in the UK. The museum also holds the world's finest library of 15,000 reference works on spiders (reprints) on behalf of the British Arachnological Society.
The insect collections consist of about 700,000 specimens and serves as a nationally significant resource. Lepidoptera (butterflies and moths) comprise the largest group with over 50,000 British micro-lepidoptera and 120,000 British macro-Lepidoptera. There are also 23,000 foreign specimens and a rapidly developing collection of palaearctic Lepidoptera (c 40,000 specimens) including type material. The museum also houses and curates the Lancashire and Cheshire Entomological Society collection. Coleoptera (beetles) consist of c.103,000 specimens representing 87% of British species. The collection contains the internationally important F. Chevrier (1801 - 1885) collection of European beetles.
Other main groups of insects include Hymenoptera (bees and wasps) and c.50,000 British specimens of Diptera (two-winged flies), Foreign Diptera mainly comprise 35,000 specimens of medically important species acquired from the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine collection. There is an almost comprehensive British collection of Hemiptera (true bugs and hoppers), and other well-represented groups such as British aquatic groups e.g. caddis flies and worldwide dragonfly larvae. A major recent acquisition was the 61,000 ant specimens from the C A Collingwood collection.
The worldwide conchology collections are primarily the result of post-war acquisitions (original collections having been lost during the blitz) and represent the largest of such collection in the UK, comprising mostly of dry shell material. Of the marine and non-marine shells from Britain and Ireland, the H C Winckworth marine shell collection is the most important. Significant land molluscs include the A W Stelfox collection of land shells from Ireland and the J W Jackson material from N W England. Foreign shells include the F P Marrat Olive shell collection, incorporating figured and type specimens and an early collection from the Liverpool Royal Institution possibly of 18th century origin. Of the other marine invertebrate groups there are type specimens of sponges from the Argo expedition to the West Indies, collected by Henry Higgins and a few surviving items from the Challenger expedition.
The Natural Science collections include many specimens of international taxonomic and historical importance and have been developed around the collections acquired from the 13th Earl of Derby and the Liverpool Botanic Gardens. | Subjects: | Reptiles Mammals Plants Fish Birds Insects Biology | Source: | Cornucopia - Discovering UK Collections | Address: | William Brown Street
Liverpool,
L3 8EN | FAX: | 0151 478 4390 | Telephone: | 0151 207 0001 | Identifier: | oai:www.cornucopia.org.uk:2109 | Go to resource |
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