134 



Illinois Natural History Survey Bulletin 



Vol. 27, Art. 2 



custodian of all the Survey's taxonomic 

 collections of animal groups. 



Over the years several artists have 

 contributed ^reatl\- to the utility and ap- 

 pearance of the Survey's faunistic publi- 

 cations — Lydia \l. Hart, H. K. Knab, 

 C. O. Mohr, Kathryn M. Sommerman, 

 and Elizabeth Maxwell. Miss Hart and 

 Dr. Mohr, especially, have graced Nat- 

 ural History Survey publications with a 

 multitude of remarkably fine total views 

 of insects. 



RESEARCH COLLECTIONS 



The great value of research and refer- 

 ence collections to programs in natural 

 history was stressed in the founding ar- 

 ticles of the Illinois Natural History So- 

 ciety and has been evident ever since in 

 all phases of applied ecology. The 

 Natural History Survey has therefore 

 stressed the assembling and maintenance 

 of adequate research collections of animal 

 groups as a corollary to its faunistic 

 activities. 



The general aims in augmenting the 

 collections have varied over the years, 

 but in recent decades have approached 

 closely the policy expressed at the 1860 

 anniversary meeting of the Natural His- 

 tory Society and have emphasized first 

 the species found in Illinois and then 

 species or additional material from other 

 regions which contribute to analyzing or 

 interpreting the Illinois fauna. 



Taxonomists in other institutions have 

 aided the Illinois Natural History Survey 

 greatly by identifying Surve\' material in 

 their respective specialties. This aid has 

 not only resulted in keeping the Survey 

 collection up-to-date but has afforded 

 needed reference material in many genera 

 or families. 



Vertebrates 



During the early periods of Survey 

 history, Forbes and his assistants built up 

 and maintained a large collection of Illi- 

 nois fishes, but kept only a small reference 

 collection of other groups. Much of the 

 fish collection is intact at present, but 

 the older material of other vertebrate 

 groups has become dissipated. In recent 

 decades emphasis has been placed on build- 

 ing up collections of amphibians and 



reptiles, especially variational series from 

 Illinois and surrounding states; on start- 

 ing reference collections of birds and 

 mammals; and, more recently, on as- 

 sembling fish collections designed to be 

 a basis for a re-study of Illinois fishes. 



Invertebrates Other Than Insects 



In early records of the Survey, there is 

 no indication of the extent of invertebrate 

 collections other than that given by inci- 

 dental mention in a few small published 

 papers. The largest of these collections 

 comprised the molluscs; the aquatic spe- 

 cies were obtained chiefly from river sur- 

 veys and the extensive series of land spe- 

 cies from the collecting of Frank C. 

 Baker and Thural Dale Foster. Early 

 collections of other groups were made, at 

 least of phalangids, crustaceans, and cer- 

 tain protozoans, but only scattered vials 

 or slides of these materials are extant at 

 the present. Since 1930, special Illinois 

 collecting has been initiated for a few 

 groups, and in the pseudoscorpions and 

 ticks excellent Illinois series have been 

 assembled. 



Insects 



From the late 1870's to the present, 

 the insect collections grew steadily. The 

 first oflicial collection was Walsh's pri- 

 vate collection purchased by the State for 

 Le Baron in 1870. Le Baron picked out 

 duplicates for a reference collection in his 

 office and then sent the main Walsh col- 

 lection to the Chicago Academy of 

 Sciences for safekeeping. There it was 

 destroyed in the Chicago fire of 1871. 

 Ironically, some of the material Le Baron 

 selected from the Walsh collection may 

 have persisted and be represented in the 

 present Natural History Survey collec- 

 tion. Since the extant Le Baron specimens 

 lack locality data, however, it is impos- 

 sible to determine their original source. 

 A collection of aphids made by Thomas 

 was preserved, also. 



The insect collection which Forbes be- 

 gan in the State Laboratory was quite 

 small while he was at Normal. As soon 

 as he became established in Urbana in 

 1885, he started to place great emphasis 

 on building it up. About 5 years later 

 Forbes (1890:3) gave the following ac- 

 count of the collection : 



