A month ago I had the great opportunity and honor of visiting Mark Shaw in Scotland, and Kees van Achterberg in the Netherlands. Today I will be writing about my stay with Mark, and what I learned from his extraordinary collection.
The first thing I realized was how few I know on parasitoid biology, especially compared to what Mark knows. It is a humbling experience to listen to him talking about particular species of wasps attacking particular species of caterpillars -and on determined plants, at different moments of the season/year! Here in North America we are light-years away of that kind of knowledge. By comparison, we know nothing.
Another thing I learned was to not be fooled by the appearances. Mark's collection (photos below) might seem a bit rustic... but make no mistake, you are contemplating one of the greatest resources available about biology and ecology of Lepidoptera-parasitoid wasps.
The collection -which in due time will be transferred to proper wooden drawers and deposited in the National Museums of Scotland, in Edinburgh- mostly comprises thousands of specimens collected by Mark during the last 2-3 decades. Decades he spent patiently rearing caterpillars,
mostly in the United Kingdom, but also in many places across Europe.
There are hundreds of new host records, and valuable ecological information on the wasps species, mostly Braconidae, but also Ichneumonidae and a few other families of Hymenoptera parasitoids.
During my 5-days visit I only had time to study 2 genera of Microgastrinae, and could not even finish with them. Going through the collection I was amazed to see the richness of the data gathered by Mark. And, as a greedy person gathering golden coins from a treasure coffin, I spent my last two days frantically recording data and typing notes in my laptop...
