An overview of the Severin-McDaniel Insect Research Collection

South Dakota State UniversityBrookings, SD

Paul J. Johnson, PhD. Insect Biodiversity Lab, Curator-Director SMIRC, SDSU paul.johnson@sdstate.edu

Rita I. Velez M.Sc., Ph.D. student, Graduate Research Assistant, Collection Manager SMIRC, SDSU

rita.velez@sdstate.edu

SMIRC History• 1886 → I.H. Orcutt, M.D., Ph.D.• 1888 → John M. Aldrich (contributor)• 1892 – 1894 → Thomas Albert Williams• 1895 – 1903 → De Alton Saunders, A.M.• 1903 – 1906 → William Archie Wheeler, M.S.• 1906 → Robert Matheson, B.S.A.

• 1909 → H.C. Severin “no collection of insects in the college worthy of the name”– 1918 – 1954 → head of Dep. Entomology-Zoology– 1917 – 1943 → George I. Gilbertson

• 1965 → Edward U. Balsbaugh, Jr. curator• Burrus Mc Daniel, Ph.D. (1966) → curator 1976

• 1990 → Severin-McDaniel Insect Research Collection

• 1993 → Paul J. Johnson, Ph.D.

SMIRC Now

SMIRC Staff

• Director-Curator: Paul J. Johnson, Ph.D.• Collection Manager: Rita I. Velez, M.Sc. • Graduate Students: – Veronica Calles Torrez– David Drons– Laura Winkler

• Undergraduate Students (7)

SMIRC Now

• 1.2 million specimens

• Collection of Pheletus C. Truman ($2000 by 1911)• Collection of G.M. Marrone (2009 – 2010)

• Largest collection of insects from the Black Hills

• Increasing 7000-9000 specimens per year

SMIRC Now

• 110 cabinets• 2128 drawer maximum capacity• 57 steel or wood cabinets (1930’s – 1940’s)

SMIRC Now

• IPM= Quarantine freezer + Sanitation → New cabinetry, drawers and unit trays

• 2010 new collection room• 2011 new collection manager

SMIRC in the InvertNet project

• Digitization of the specimens → images available through Internet.

– Improved pest and environmental management– Identification of unsorted specimens– Updating of nomenclature– “Cleaning efforts”– Data imagining

The future of the SMIRC looks positive …

• Update labels, unit trays and drawers• Taxonomic update• Digitization of the specimens - Specify6 • Data imagining • Increment 9000 specimens/year

Voucher collection of the Northern Great Plains!

Rita I. Velez, rita.velez@sdstate.edu Dr. Paul J. Johnson, paul.johnson@sdstate.edu