[Taxacom] European locality?

Thu Jan 15 11:11:21 CST 2015

Is the label handwritten, or transcribed from a handwritten label?
It could be Locarno in Ticino.

Frank

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-----Original Message-----
From: Taxacom [mailto:taxacom-bounces at mailman.nhm.ku.edu] On Behalf Of Robin Leech
Sent: Thursday, January 15, 2015 8:24 AM
To: 'Barry OConnor'; taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu; 'Entomology Discussion List'
Subject: Re: [Taxacom] European locality?

Hi Barry, 

I cannot offer THE solution, but I can suggest A solution.
In the western US up until roads were built, people relied on travel by train.  So, they would come west, get off at a particular site that the RR company said was Podunk Junction, or at a site many miles west of Podunk Junction.  The collector may have collected many many specimens many miles from Podunk, but all the labels will read "Podunk Junction", mainly because there was no other identifiable location.

The other thing that happened was that major collectors would come west, and they would work out of say Los Angeles.  But they would pay various local west coast collectors for specimens.  All specimens went to Los Angeles, and they would be labelled "Los Angeles, California", even though the specimens might have been collected in Portland or Seattle. When the specimens were sent to eastern US museums, all the material from this main collector would have been labelled "Los Angeles".

I cite the following example from my own work.  A specimen labelled "Amaurobius angeles" from Los Angeles (holotype label), a female, but no males.  In doing my digging for locations, I found more females, and males from northern Calif.

Hope this helps.

Robin

-----Original Message-----
From: Taxacom [mailto:taxacom-bounces at mailman.nhm.ku.edu] On Behalf Of Barry OConnor
Sent: January-15-15 7:47 AM
To: taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu; Entomology Discussion List
Subject: [Taxacom] European locality?

I have a beetle specimen from which I have recovered mites of some interest. However, the locality information is odd. The label reads:
"SUISSE/Livorno/29-V-1886".
I haven't been able to locate a "Livorno" in Switzerland, however Livorno Ferraris is a town in northern Italy (45.281693, 8.084914). I checked an old map, but the Swiss border from that era appears to be the same as today's. I'd appreciate any help in tracking this down.
All the best! - Barry

--
-So many mites, so little time!

Barry M. OConnor
Professor  & Curator
Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology
University of Michigan                  phone: 734-763-4354
1109 Geddes Ave.                          fax: 734-763-4080
Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1079          e-mail: bmoc at umich.edu
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