Matskási István (szerk.): A Magyar Természettudományi Múzeum évkönyve 100. (Budapest 2008)

Bálint, Zs.: Lepidoptera collections of historical importance in the Hungarian Natural History Museum

On the other hand there are collections which are saved from the "fate" of disappearance, and kept intact as a single body. The reason of this "luckiness" is usually the great historical importance of the collection itself (like the collection of CARL LINNAEUS: HONEY & SCOBLE 2001) or a kind of curiosity, which does not allow to unite the specimens with other material. In general, these collections are well known to the museum staff and even for the general public. The present paper gives a general overview of four Lepidoptera collections housed in the Magyar Természettudományi Múzeum (HNHM = Hungarian Natural History Museum), what I regard for having great historical value in the light of lepidopterology in Hungary. Two of them have never been amalgamated with the general HNHM Lepidoptera collection, but the specimens of the other two had or still have to be reassembled from the main collection. Three entries are aimed to briefly describe each of these collections: (1) the entry "material" informs about the physical state and the size of the collection, (2) the entry "history" aims to place the collection discussed under a historical context focusing on how it was accumulated by its owner and how it became the part of a public collection, and (3) the entry "discussion" attempts to underline certain aspects which are unique and try to falsify certain information circulating in the literature regarding the collection under discussion. THE COLLECTIONS The Tobias Koy Collection Material - The collection is housed in a special cabinet with 25 drawers of standard 40 X 50 cm size (Fig. 1). All specimens (n = 935) are preserved in individual glass boxes of four sizes (Fig. 2.), and arranged according to families. The boxes are banded by green paper in the edges, but some of the boxes have a more recent drab paper binder. Many, but not all the glass boxes show the species group name of the relevant taxon in a printed label glued inside the box below the specimen. Additional handwritten labels are glued on the cover or the bottom glass of the boxes, also showing the species group name of the species (Figs 2-5). The specimens are in good conditions in general, but there are damaged or broken individuals too. They are on a short pin, which is pinned into a piece of cork glued to the bottom of the box inside. Certain glass boxes are dirty or smoky, loosing the covering papers glued to their edges or the species group name labels glued to their surface giving the hint that they were affected by fire then water (see below) (Fig. 3).