Museum specimen identification thread

[animaltoyforum]

A thread to post museum specimens of animals where help is needed to identify them! My pics will all be from the Nottingham Natural History Museum.

How about this isopod from the Antarctic Ocean?

[Isidro]

What a great idea for a thread! They will be difficult to ID most of times, but try is free! Unfortunatelty I have no idea about the isopod (I think that the recent thread about the new toy of Giant Isopod gave you that idea?)

Here are the critters that was unlabeled at museum and needed to ID. Most are from König Museum in Bonn, Germany:


Unknon amblypygid


Amblypygid in the genus Heterophrynus, unknown species


Spider of genus Caerostris, unfortunately without location data


Unknown Solifugae


Tenebrionid, maybe genus Stips?


Two cercopids of the same species. Location unknown


Sesiid moth of the genus Mellittia, exhibited in a display about mimicry



And now the ones from other museums:


This one is a photo taken by my parent at Bohol National Museum, Philippines. Tentatively I've ID it as Hormurus boholiensis, but I'm completely unsure!


This one is from the big insect collection exposed at Faunia in a single building. Maybe it cannot be considered a "museum"; but it's a public permanent collection of preserved expecimens, so I would include it as a "museum". It's a romaleid grasshopper but which one?


Flatid hopper, from Natural Science National Museum, Madrid, Spain


And this one is also from the same museum in Madrid. An Hetaerina sp. without locality, in need of species name

[animaltoyforum]

Yes, I got the idea from that thread.  But, I am also genuinely trying to identify objects in the collection where I work as part of an interpretation plan I am working on.

I have been to the Koening Museum, it is wonderful, I posted about it here: http://animaltoyforum.com/index.php?topic=1129.0. An inspiration, really.

[Beetle guy]

Damselfly could be: Hetaerina occisa (male) or Hetaerina rosea.
But that's both not spain of course. How do you know it is from spain if I might ask?

[Isidro]

Damselfly could be: Hetaerina occisa (male). But that is not spain of course. How do you know it is from spain if I might ask?

I'm a bit confused by this reply. The museum that hold and show the specimen is in Spain. The specimen obviously is not caught in Spain nor Europe, where there are not species of this genus.
About the identification, shamefully it's impossible, after consulting several experts in dragonflies and people that photographed specific-identified Hetaerina in the wild. Without location is not possible an ID, but I put it here for stuffing the thread hopefully all the other requested specimens would be possible to ID, as I didn't tried so hardly as with the damsel.

[Beetle guy]

I did not read your post well and started searching

Will leave this thread to you experts!

[animaltoyforum]

A thread to post museum specimens of animals where help is needed to identify them! My pics will all be from the Nottingham Natural History Museum.

How about this isopod from the Antarctic Ocean?

So, is it Bathynomus giganteus? It is just labelled as giant isopod, but I wondered how many species of giant isopods are there?

[Isidro]

The only thing I know for sure, is that is not in the genus Bathynomus. Probably not even in the same family.

[bmathison1972]

The only thing I know for sure, is that is not in the genus Bathynomus. Probably not even in the same family.

I agree and honestly, bunched up in a jar you are unlikely to get a reliable ID...If @brontodocus ever comes back, this is his specialty group.

[Isidro]

I will add some pics from my recent visit to Belgium. Not in a museum actually, but in a zoo. They're preserved specimens tough, so fits with the thread. The shame is that absolutely none of them have the least label with procedence (much less a name):

-Galatheid squat lobster
-Lithodid crab with very long process in chelae
-Dromiid? crab
-Leucosiid crab

[Isidro]

More crustaceans:
-Sea acorn
-Giant isopod Bathynomus sp.
-Another giant isopod, but half of the size of the previous one, and more slender. Also Bathynomus?
-Deep sea isopod with long spines

[Isidro]

Hello! Crustaceans in previous two messages was mostly identified as far as possible after consulting experts (Munida rugosa, Lopholithodes foraminatus, Dromia dormia, Heterolithadia fallax, Chelonibia testudinaria, Bathynomus giganteus, Bathynomus sp, Serolis sp).

A recent conversation with Blaine made me think again in this old thread. I put here some beetles photographed in my recent visit to Harvard Museum of Natural History for identification.

a) Anthribidae (I think)

b) Brentidae. I've saw in Google an image of an individual with same head shape (also unidentified) and photographed in Brazil, so the pinned specimen must be South American too. (Smaller one at left is Bulbogaster ctenostomoides for size comparison)

c) Brentidae. Somebody suggested Eutrachelus temminckii female. But mine have more numerous, more vivid and differently arranged orange spots on elytra. Maybe something in same genus?

d) Buprestidae. Castiarina-sized, Castiarina-coloured, but it's Castiarina? And if so, which one?

e) Cetoniidae, collected in Madagascar.

f) Looks like maybe a Platyphora?

g) Somebody said it's Hispinae. And really it could be, but I didn't know any "nosed" Hispinae (nor Chrysomelidae in general). First I tought it could be a salpingid. The label for location is not very clear

h) Cryptocephalinae, Fulcidacini from Brazil

i) Erotylidae with no data

[Isidro]

A thread to post museum specimens of animals where help is needed to identify them! My pics will all be from the Nottingham Natural History Museum.

How about this isopod from the Antarctic Ocean?

Just found it now!!! Found it casually, inmediately tough in this thread and came to solve the mystery!
It's Glyptonotus antarcticus