BACKGROUND INFORMATION

The collection includes extensive holdings from throughout the world, is actively being used, is growing, and has a strong complementary tissue component. The curated portion of the collection includes specimens placed in 39,069 three-dram patent lip vials with gray neoprene stoppers and preserved in 70% ethanol. These vials contain an estimated 200,000 specimens. Within each vial is placed the locality label and species identification. The vials are arranged in rows in racks (see Figure 2 below), and the racks are placed within stainless steel cabinets (see Figure 1 below). In addition to the alcohol holdings, there is a small, pinned collection (5 drawers, ~3,000 specimens). Numbers of vials by biogeographic region are as follows: Nearctic (37,030), Palearctic (819), Oriental (506), Australian (92), Ethiopian (46), Neotropical (576).

The strength of the collection is in the large number of adult specimens, which make up nearly 75% of the total. Since most taxonomic characters are based on adult males, a complete, well-curated collection is essential for accurate identifications in the future, and the stabilization of plecopteran classification. This collection includes the largest compilation of stoneflies for DNA based research, and currently the tissue portion of the Plecoptera collection comprises a broad taxonomic coverage of over 5,000 specimens representing approximately 600 collecting events worldwide.

BYU has acquired (or soon will acquire) ~60,000 vials of stoneflies that originated from orphaned/donated collections. Seven of these collections have been in the possession of BYU since 1990, and three will be coming in the next two years. This material is in various states of curation (see Figures 3 & 4 below), from unidentified material in deteriorating vials with specimens that are beginning to dry out, to material that simply needs to be moved to new vials. Only about 60% of this material is identified to the generic and/or specific level. All of this material is from the New World, with a preponderance of material from western North America.

We specifically propose to:

1. Transfer all specimens to new vials with new ethanol.
2. Replace any deteriorating locality and collection labels with new labels that are resistant to deterioration.
3. Identify most nymphal material to the generic level, and all adult material to the species level.

IMAGES

Figure 1: Large steel cabinets that store the collection racks.	Figure 2: Vials arranged into racks in the cabinets.
Figure 3: Many of the orphaned / donated specimens are in need of organization.	Figure 4: Orphaned and donated collections come in various stages of curation. They are in need of organization and curation.