From the Curator of Museum Services at the University of Dundee :
Our next free talk in the D’Arcy Thompson Zoology Museum will be on Tuesday 16th May at 6pm, when Georgia Carr and David Lampard will be speaking on Garden Tigers, Gold Spangles and Burnished Brass: Digitising the Kenneth Tod Moth Collection.
Did you know there are over 2 500 species of moths in the UK compared to 59 species of butterfly? Or that not all moths fly at night? Some moths have ears, some don’t have mouths!
Little is known about moths in Angus and Dundee yet there is a wealth of information hiding in our museum stores. The Kenneth Tod Collection at the University of Dundee holds rare, localised Alpine species which are of particular concern in times of changing climate. Learn how digitising museum collections across the county gives the global scientific community access to historical, geographic and taxonomic specimen data that can help answer our greatest ecological and conservation questions. Find out how Tod discovered new and unusual locations for the Small Dark Yellow Underwing and the Northern Dart, and how Tod’s fear of other collectors means these locations are a secret to this day.
The Angus Moth Project is an 18-month digitisation project funded by Museums Galleries Scotland. Over the course of the project three historical moth collections at the McManus, Montrose Museum and the University of Dundee have been digitised, photographed, conserved and rehoused. All data pertaining to specimens collected in Watsonian Vice County 90, the historic county of Forfarshire, has been sent to Butterfly Conservation for use in the 2018 National Moth Atlas. Data and specimens are now easily accessible to the scientific community and the wider public.
David Lampard is the Natural History Curator of Invertebrates and Geology at The McManus: Dundee's Art Gallery & Museum. He is the Butterfly Conservation moth recorder for the County of Angus.
Georgia Carr has a background in ecological and conservation management and is the Angus Moth Project officer based at the McManus.
Admission is free but it would be very helpful if you could book a place here.
Refreshments will be served after the talk. Please enter by the main front door of the Carnelley Building. Latecomers may not be admitted.