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

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

The Ferdinand Ochsenheimer collection Material - At the time of writing Macrolepidoptera and Microlepidoptera specimens are kept in two different places. Macrolepidoptera specimens (n = 1,568) are in 30 standard museum drawers, in special tray units according to species and families (Fig. 6). Microlepidoptera specimens (n = 234) are in a single standard museum drawer, which is kept hidden in the TREITSCHKE collection cabinet (SCHMIDT 1923: 58). For many years these specimens were considered to be representing TREITSCHKE material, but a closer examination revealed that they are OCHSENHEIMER's specimens. The drawer contains a large label written by IMRE FRIVALDSZKY "Ochsenheimer féle gyűjtemény" (= collection by OCHSENHEIMER) placed in the upper top centre of the drawer and all the specimens have the label found to be typical for the collection (see below). The specimens are arranged under handwritten curatorial labels with green border, we suspect written by OCHSENHEIMER (Fig. 7). All the specimens possess a small (5x7 mm) black bordered label with the inscription "OCHSN" (printed) in the upper and a handwritten numbering the lower part. All the specimens are pinned on short silver pins commonplace in the 18-19

th centuries (Fig. 8). History - The collection belonged to FERDINAND OCHSENHEIMER (*17 March 1767 in Mainz - t 2 November 1822 in Vienna), a famous actor of his time. He lived in Vienna from 1807, where the collection was created and he was mainly active as a naturalist. Fig. 6. Standard museum drawers on shelf containing OCHSENHEIMER specimens representing papilionids (Papilionidae) and pierids (Pieridae) in special tray units