November 2005 Releases
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November 10, 2005 – Shirley Luna

Reception to honor insect donors scheduled at SFA


Several thousand beetles and more than1,600 mussels from all over the world have been donated to the Stephen F. Austin State University Insect Collection, and a reception honoring the donors will be held from 2 to 4 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 17, in Miller Science Building, Room 209. Many of the donated specimens will be exhibited during the reception.

Donors to be honored include Robert Nuelle of Spring, donor of a collection of freshwater mussels including 19th century specimens from worldwide locations and several species that are now endangered or extinct. The Houston Museum of Natural Science Cockerel Butterfly Center, donor of a large collection of insects collected in the early 1900s from around the world by E. G. Smyth, will be honored and will be represented by Dr. Nancy Grieg, director of the center. Pamela McKown of Nacogdoches also will be honored.

Pamela McKown of Nacogdoches also will be honored.

"Mrs. McKown has donated her late husband's collection of several thousand beetles," said Dr. William Godwin, SFA faculty member and director of the SFA Insect Collection. "Many are from Mexico and various tropical localities. They are very well curated and a wonderful collection of many large and beautiful beetles."

Godwin said the specimens are extremely valuable as research tools.

"In addition to these Nuelle collections, we will have on display our collections of freshwater mussels collected by H. B. Parks of the Department of Biology in the mid to late 1930s," he said. "This collection is historically important as being the earliest scientific collections made at SFA and scientifically important as a record of the freshwater mussel populations in East Texas before major dam building, stream modification, pesticide use, etc."

Also on exhibit will be the collection's single specimen of the mussel Fusconaia lananensis, discovered in 1901from Lanana Creek in Nacogdoches.

"This species was thought to be extinct until recently," Godwin said.

Print Quality Image [ 420k ]
Dr. William W. Gibson, professor of biology at Stephen F. Austin State University, examines beetles collected by the late Ronald McKown and donated by his wife, Pamela McKown of Nacogdoches, to the SFA Insect Collection. Looking on, from left, are SFA students Katie Fleming, Houston biology major; Olga Minich, biology graduate student from Minsk, Belarus; and Leah Cartwright, environmental science graduate student from Wells, Texas. A reception honoring donors to the collection will be held from 2 to 4 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 17, in Miller Science Building, Room 209.