Type catalogue of the Orthoptera collection in the Steinhardt Museum of Natural History, Tel Aviv University, Israel

Abstract

Types represent the most important specimens in natural history museums as they define a species and should usually be studied within the framework of revisions and new taxon descriptions, hence their documentation is of high importance. Orthoptera is a medium-size order of insects, but its members are important in many food chains as herbivores and as food for other animals. While the documentation of types in Orthoptera is overall very good thanks to the Orthoptera Species File site, there are still many gaps that need to be filled. The Steinhardt Museum of Natural History in Tel Aviv University holds an interesting collection of orthopterans with a focus on local endemics, which have not or only incompletely been documented in the past. Here, we provide a complete annotated catalogue of the 136 type specimens belonging to 29 orthopteran species in the Museum (SMNHTAU, historically TAU), consisting of 21 holotypes and 115 paratypes. The types of Gryllotalpa tali and Myrmecophilus wahrmani, which should be in the collection according to their original descriptions, were not found despite thorough research, and must be considered lost. This catalogue is an important resource for studies on the local fauna as well as for Orthoptera taxonomic research in general.