In the depths of the wet collection in the entomology department at Tāmaki Paenga Hira, a termite collection was recently rediscovered that had been given to the museum by John Mackgill Kelsey in March 1975. J. M. Kelsey was an entomologist, specialising in pasture and crop insects, that worked in the Entomology Division of the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research (D.S.I.R.) in Lincoln. These specimens were mainly from Aotearoa New Zealand, Australia, the Pitcairn Islands and USA and were collected in the 1920s-1940s.

As part of the IDEA project, over 90 new termite species have been added into Tāmaki Paenga Hira’s database, thanks to J. M. Kelsey’s collection. There are three species of termites native to Aotearoa: Kalotermes brouni, Stolotermes ruficeps and S. inopinus. Several Australian species have also been introduced to Aotearoa with the importation of Australian timber (e.g., Kalotermes banksiae, Glyptotermes brevicornis, Coptotermes acinaciformis and Coptotermes frenchi), which are known to cause considerable damage to timber.

Rediscovering this collection is particularly valuable as several of the species in this collection have few georeferenced records in GBIF. At the time of writing Glyptotermes eucalypti only had 1, Neotermes jouteli had 2, Odontotermes vulgaris had 6 and Stolotermes queenslandicus had 7 georeferenced records. Georeferenced records are valuable for understanding a species’ range, including its historical range and predicting range shifts, such as in response to climate changes. This highlights the importance of cataloging the backlog of museum collections to increase the data available for researchers and can aid in species distribution models to predict changes in populations due to environmental factors. This begs the question of how many more specimens and/or objects are waiting to be rediscovered in the depths of museum collections and the hidden value that they hold.

Termite species at Auckland Museum

FURTHER READING

Bain, John & Jenkin, M.J., (1983). Kalotermes banksiae, Glyptotermes brevicornis, and other termites (Isoptera) in New Zealand. New Zealand Entomologist 7 (4) p. 365-371.

Thorne, Barbara L., & Lenz, Michael., (2001) Population and colony structure of Stolotermes inopinus and S. ruficeps (Isoptera: Stolotermitinae) in New Zealand. New Zealand Entomologist 24(1) p. 63-70.

Clark, A. F., (1938) Termites in New Zealand. New Zealand Journal Forestry 4(3) p. 177-179.