Progress with reference shell collection for the Natural History Museum: Update, February 2013

 
 

 

UPDATE 6 FEBRUARY 2013:  The total of species received so far has recently topped 225 - a magnificent result, thanks to the great kindness of John Fisher, Jan Light, David McKay, Terry O'Connor, Graham Saunders and Bryan Wasson. Many thanks to them.  A second wants list will be posted soon. 

 

Calliostoma zizyphinum     Calliostoma zizyphinum

 

We need your help  to build up a reference shell collection for the Angela Marmont Centre at the Natural History Museum. 

The Angela Marmont Centre for UK Biodiversity is a new venture at the Natural History Museum, with a range of resources – including reference books, microscopes and other equipment, and reference collections – to help amateur naturalists and encourage people to get involved.  One of the gaps in its reference collections at the moment is UK marine molluscs.    

The Conchological Society is grateful that  the Angela Marmont Centre lets us hold our meetings at the Centre;  together with the British Shell Collectors Society, we would like to help the Centre build up its UK marine mollusc reference collection.

What we need – as a first priority – are specimens of larger species (i.e. over 4-6 mm).  Please see the wants list, which will be updated as species are offered and received to save duplication of effort. As a start, for each species we are trying to get at least 3-6 specimens including larger and smaller individuals, and showing some of the variation shown by the species.    Specimens with good locality data will be preferred, but for rarer species we will take what we can get. 

Turritella communis
Turritella communis

Labels should include the folowing information: 

Species name; 
Locality, Collector and Date of collection (if known); 
Live/Dead when collected (if known); 
Number of specimens; 
Approximate size range (max. dimension in mm.);
Any other comments list with the following information:
              
Any help is much appreciated;  shells for the reference collection can either be brought to the next meeting at the Natural History Museum, or posted to me at:  The Mill House, Clifford Bridge, Drewsteignton, Exeter EX6 6QE.  
 
Specimens taken into the collection will include your name as donor on the label unless you do not want this, and the logos of both societies.  Please note that specimens will be accessioned into the Museum’s collection, and so cannot be returned.
 
Many thanks for any help.
 
 
Bas Payne  
 
The Mill House, Clifford Bridge, Drewsteignton, Exeter EX6 6QE
01647 24515