By Adeline Soulier-Perkins
When I arrived in the Museum of La Plata and was introduced to the Auchenorrhyncha (Hemiptera, Insecta) collection by my colleagues, they gave me some keys to understand how the collection is sorted in order to find my path. There is a main general collection in which all the collections previously constituted by workers of the institution or provided by other collectors were integrated. The specimens coming from those identified nominal collections are labelled with a round label of a chosen colour which indicate to which collection the specimen belonged first. A second choice of importance was made in the curation of the Auchenorrhyncha collection. The type specimens and the specimens labelled “cum Typo Comparat.” (fig.1), meaning compared to type material, are separated from the main collection and kept in a typoteque. Here as well, the specimens coming from a nominal collection are identified by a round coloured labelled. In this well ordered Auchenorrhyncha typoteque, four Nominal collections are represented: Carlos Berg, Juan M. Bosq, Pedro C. Denier and Alexander Oglobin and the associated coloured labels are respectively blue, pink, grey and white. Berg and Oglobin are well represented in this typoteque with respectively 185 and 181 labels pined, then Bosq and Denier with 10 and 4.
La Plata, like most museum I have visited, possesses a collection of Auchenorrhyncha composed of dried materiel mounted on pins. The typoteque is organised in metallic drawers and in each of them four small boxes can be disposed Flat (fig.2). Eight drawers are actually dedicated to the Auchenorrhyncha typoteque and at the moment 19 boxes are occupied. If the identification and the registered type number are generally placed bellow each specimen, there is as well a pin, bearing both information, placed at the head of the line of specimens identified under this name. At the moment this typoteque counts 1086 specimens which represent 270 described species. However, even if they are not Auchenorrhyncha but Sternorrhyncha eleven Psyllidae types can by localised here. Many of the type specimens are referenced as well in five important publications listing them (Foieri & Marino de Remes Lenicov 2019, Marino de Remes Lenicov et al. 2010 and 2015, Paradell et al. 2008 and 2010). Those articles respectively cover the groups Cercopoidea; Membracidae; Cicadidae; Typhlocybinae and Deltocephalinae; and Cicadellinae and Gyponinae. In addition, some Fulgoromorpha families are present as well in the typoteque: the Dictyopharidae (16), Flatidae (9), Delphacidae (338), Fulgoridae (2), Cixiidae (12), Issidae (4), Achilidae (3) and Acanoloniidae (4).
From the nominal collections
Bosq worked between 1930-1950 in the Agricultural Zoology Section of the Institute of Plant Health of the Ministry of Agriculture of the Nation (Lanteri 2021), and his collection was mainly composed of beetles which explain that I encountered few specimens bearing a pink label here. His collection was acquired when Torres was chief of the entomological section and the 10 specimens in the typoteque are cicadas of which Torres was an internationally recognised specialist.
Denier arrived in the National Territory of Chaco in the 1930s as head of the Entomology Laboratory of the Cotton Sanitary Section of the National Cotton Board. He dedicated his life to study and collect insects. Four of them are found in the typoteque, holotypes of species described by Linnavuori in 1959 and belonging to the Cicadellidae, Deltocephalinae.
Ogloblin arrived in Argentina at the end of the 1920s. He lived a while in the experimental station in Loreto before coming back to Buenos Aires. He had numerous epistolary exchanges with Bruch in which he manifests his interest for taxonomy, in particular for the Hymenoptera, and provides information about the context of his sampling in this area rich of fauna. Cicadellidae, Typhocybinae and Deltocephalinae from his collection were described later on by, Beamer in 1943, Torres in 1955 and 1959 and Linnavuory in 1959.
Berg material is well represented in the typoteque. He not only collected Auchenorrhyncha but he described many of them as well and his material seems really to be at the base of the structure of the typoteque collection since it appears as being part of the oldest material collected here.
Who described those types?
Berg again is in the lead with 99 described species. The species were in general described between 1879 and 1885 and as it was often the case at the time, Berg described species from diverse families: Dictyopharidae, Flatidae, Fulgoridae, Delphacidae, Cixiidae, Issidae, Acanoloniidae (Fulgoromorpha), Cicadellidae, Membracidae, Aphrophoridae and Cercopidae (Cicadomorpha).
With Torres we can see an evolution in the practices, his field of description narrower and within the 44 species he described, 31 belong to the same family, the Cicadidae and 3 to the Cicadellidae and all belonging to the Cicadomorpha. Torres described this material from 1942 to 1964. The way of working already changed since Berg’s time, half a century ago. The taxonomists tend to concentrate their efforts on a chosen group, the time when taxonomists were working on all groups of insects is over.
The third important descriptor in this typoteque is Marino de Remes Lenicov. She described in total 41 species between 1970 and 2018. Disciple of De Santis who managed the Entomology division from 1966 to 1983 (Lanteri 2021), with her long career in taxonomy another changes and evolution in the practice of taxonomists can be observed. She collaborates with students and colleagues and publishes new species with them. Until now she described species in four families Dictyopharidae, Delphacidae (Fulgoromorpha) and Cicadellidae and Membracidae (Cicadomorpha). Her name is part of the species name sometime alone, for 29 species described, but for the 19 others her name is associated with various authors. It is very likely through collaborations that she has also extended her expertise in several families.
It is also interesting to notice that except with Berg, the collectors are not necessarily the descriptors. And often, it is only after the accumulation in the collections of material from various missions that a specialist of a given group can then taxonomically work on it and describe several species.
This tipoteque is exclusively constituted with species found in south America. The majority of the species were collected in Argentina. In Addition, few species were collected in Uruguay, Paraguay, Bolivia, Chili, Venezuela, Peru, Ecuador and Brazil. The richest province, in term of species number, appears to be Buenos Aires with 65 species, then come some provinces of the northern part of the country: Misiones, (25), Corrientes (17), Chaco (14), Salta (14), Tucumán (13) and Cordoba (13). If intuitively there is some logic to think that a gradient south-north where the richness in species increases when getting closer to the tropic, the large number of species described from Buenos Aires is more likely the result of greater number of exploration and collection rather than a greater richness is species in comparison to the rest of the country. The fact that no species has been described from Chubut or Santa Cruz point in fact the need of exploration in these provinces. They are large provinces in which new species can be expected to be found even if they are very south. Tierra del Fuego is at the extreme south of the country but explorations were conducted there and 4 species were described from this province.
The exploration of this tipoteque could shade light on the history of its composition, who worked and composed it with their work on exploring, collecting and describing the biodiversity of Argentina and its surrounding. It allows as well to get some hint on which direction should be aimed the next efforts of exploration and study.
Acknowledgements
I would like to express here all my gratitude to Pablo Dellape who allowed me to access to the collections, to Susana Paradell and Jorges Salas who accompanied me during my stay and guided me so generously in my investigations with Alvaro Foieri and Ana Marino de Remes Lenicov. Thanks to Sara Montemayor who always helped and shared her good humour. Thank you to all for your kindness and for sharing your knowledge. This mission was carried out as part of the European SciCoMove project (MSCA-RISE).
References
Foieri, A. & Marino de Remes Lenicov, A. 2019. Cercopoidea types (Hemiptera-Cicadomorpha) housed at the Museo de la Plata entomological collection (Argentina). Papéis Avulsos de Zoologia, v.59: e20195916. http://doi.org/10.11606/1807-0205/2019.59.16
Lanteri, A. 2021. Museo de La Plata testimonio del pasado que se proyecta hacia el futuro. Edulp (eds), Buenos Aires, Argentina, 448pp.
Marino de Remes Lenicov, A.M. de; Mariani, R.; Scelsio, N. & Gutierrez, A. 2010. Membracidae types (Hemiptera-Membracoidea) housed at the Museo de La Plata entomological collection (Argentina). Zootaxa, 2566: 21‑38.
Marino de Remes Lenicov, A.M. de; Maciá, A. & Pianzola, B. 2015. Cicadidae types (Hemiptera-Cicadomorpha) housed at the Museo de La Plata entomological collection (Argentina). Zootaxa, 3974(3): 301‑327.
Paradell, S.L.; Dellapé, G. & Catalano, M.I. 2008. Los ejemplares tipo de Typhlocybinae y Deltocephalinae (Hemiptera: Auchenorrhyncha: Cicadellidae) depositados en el Museo de La Plata, Argentina. Revista de la Sociedad Entomológica Argentina, 67(3‑4): 37‑43.
Paradell, S.L.; Dellapé, G.; Catalano, M.I. & Defea, B. 2010. Los ejemplares tipo de Cicadellinae y Gyponinae (Hemiptera: Auchenorrhyncha: Cicadellidae) depositados en el Museo de La Plata, Argentina. Revista de la Sociedad Entomológica Argentina, 69(1‑2): 1‑7.

Figure 1: labels: cum typo comparat. and blue round label of Ber’s collection.

Figure 2: drawers and boxes containing the types specimens
OpenEdition suggests that you cite this post as follows:
alexiacomte (October 20, 2023). What the type collection of Auchenorrhyncha in the museum of La Plata tells us? SciCoMove — Scientific Collections on the Move. Retrieved April 28, 2025 from https://doi.org/10.58079/twv1