History

Section Hemiptera

The oldest parts of the collection of this section are those specimens wich were collected by Ritter Johann Baptist von Spix on his trip through South America in 1817 to 1820. This material was revised by M. Perty.

Species of true bugs and cicadas, collected by J. B. von Spix 1817 – 1820 in Brasil, described by Maximilian Perty (1804 – 1884)

Fur a long time no scientist was in charge of the Heteroptera or Orthoptera. Other scientists took care of these insect groups. Parts of the bug collection were destroyed during the World War II. The section Hemiptera is  separately curated only since 1982. Dr. M. Baehr was in charge of the section from 1982 to 1995, since then Dr. K. Schönitzer is head of the section, now called section Hemiptera. The technical assistant was Mrs. I. Graber until 1996 and from 1997 to 2010 Mrs. T. Kothe.

More recent parts of the section are the collections of F. Lughofer (1891 – 1974), H. H. Weber (1909-1988) and G. Seidenstücker (1912 – 1989). The collection of Seidenstücker contains about 90.000 (mainly determined) Heteroptera predominantly from central Europe and from Turkey.

In 2007 to 2008 the room was completely renewed: the old wooden cupboards were removed and new steel shelves were installed. During the last years more and more data bases were built up and much material was collected in ethanol.

View inside the room with the new steel shelves

Furthermore the collection of Orthoptera (about 10.000 speciemens) from G. H. Schmidt with many types and material from Europe, Northern Africa and Asia is important.

Much material was collected by Dr. M. Baehr in Australia.

During the last years a lot of insects were collected by the members of the staff in South America in the research station “Panguana” in the tropical lowland forest of Peru. Furthermore material from South East Asia (Taiwan, Borneo etc.) was received.

Important new collections

1997: tropical cicada and Heteroptera collected by Dipl.-Ing. Heinrich Schaefer.

1997: Bavarian cicadas collected by Dr. Kurt Harz.

1999: Bavarian true bugs collected by Georg Necker with altogether about 13.000 determined and 16.000 determined Heteroptera.

2000: 5.000 Heteroptera from Gambia collected by W. Schacht; 3.000 Orthoptera from H. Kriegbaum (8.2.1956 – 31.12.1997).

2002: 2.500 Heteroptera, 1.000 Auchenrrhyncha and 350 Orthoptera (s.l.) from NW-Jamaika collected by L. Rezbanyai-Reser

2003: 3.000 Auchenorrhyncha from Taiwan collected by W. Schacht

2006: ca. 1.000 Psyllidae collected by Martin Gossner, determined by D. Burckhardt (mostly in ethanol).

Example of ethanol collection, deposited in another room.

2005 – 2009: 29 Holotypen and 135 Paratypes of Phasmatodea deposited in ZSM by O. Conle und F. Hennemann

2007 – 2009 Collection of Aphidoidea from K. Heinze (Berlin), ca. 9000 slides

2009: Collection from G. H. Schmidt (20.2.1928 – 13.1.2009) (Hannover) 10.000 Orthoptera with ca. 600 species and 21 primary and 28 secundary types.

Literature

Baehr, M.(1992) Die Sektion Rhynchota der Zoologischen Staatssammlung München. Spixiana Suppl. 17: 108-111.

Baehr, M.(1983) Die in der Zoologischen Staatssammlung München vorhandenen, von M. Perty beschriebenen Typen der Ordnungen Mantodea und Saltatoria, Ensifera. Spixiana Suppl. 9: 283- 290. Link…

Burckhardt, D. (2008) The psyllid collection of Theodor Hartig in the Bavarian State Collection of Zoology, Munich (ZSM) (Insecta, Hemiptera, Psylloidea) 31, 207-213.

Burmeister, E.-G. (1983) Vorläufige Erfassung einiger von J. B. v. Spix und C. F. Ph. v. Martius in Brasilien gesammelter Insektengruppen aus der Zoologischen Staatssammlung München, die von M. Perty bearbeitet wurden. Spixiana Suppl. 9: 265-281. Link…

Heiss, E. (1990) In memoriam Gustav Seidenstücker, einem bedeutenden deutschen Entomologen (1912-1989). Nachr.Bl. bayer. Ent. 39: 65-70.

Kothe, T., G. Blazi & K. Schönitzer (2004): Katalog der Wanzen-Typen von Gustav Seidenstücker (1912 – 1989) in der Zoologischen Staatssammlung München (Heteroptera). 61. Bericht der Naturforschenden Ges. Augsburg (219) 1-90.