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Vorisek Weevil Collection at the Natural History Museum

The Voříšek collection of more than 45,000 weevils has arrived at the Natural History Museum and some have been put on display. With 4,500 different weevil species, the collection is the largest of its kind and almost half of the species are new to the Museum’s collections.

‘Our collection is one of the largest and most comprehensive in the world,’ says Museum beetle expert Max Barclay.

‘Hundreds of scientists visit it because it is so complete. It is kept alive by acquiring new material, and this is the most important acquisition of its kind in half a century.’

The weevils were collected from across Europe and the former Soviet states, areas that are poorly represented in the Museum’s collections.

The Voříšek collection also includes 750 type specimens. These are the actual specimens used to describe new species.

The Museum’s Entomology Department will incorporate the weevils into the huge insect collection of more than 28 million specimens. They will be studied by Museum scientists and researchers from around the world.

www.nhm.ac.uk

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