# British Museum Spirit Collection [dialup warning]



## Michael Jacobi (Feb 28, 2007)

I have posted a photo of myself holding the type specimen of _Hysterocrates hercules_ here, but thought I'd share a few more photos of our party of five packing into the BMNH [British Museum of Natural History] spirit collection and lab.

Again, thanks to curator Jan Beccaloni for access to the collection and Stuart Longhorn for a tour of the new Darwin Centre where the old collection is now housed.]

*The grand building...*



















*This display of preserved specimens is in a semi-public private tour section of the Darwin Centre. The specimen of Scolopendra gigantea, which is marked as being collected "off the coast of Venezuela" is bigger around than my very large thumb and every bit of 14 inches in length.*







*Andrew Smith watches Boris Striffler and Richard Gallon*







*Ray Gabriel*







*Andrew speaks with Boris while Richard works on*







*Ray*







*Richard*







*tray of Tapinauchenius*







*Tapinauchenius sanctivincenti*







*Andrew and Boris*







*Richard*







*Richard and Ray in the Theraphosidae aisle*













*Ray holds Xenesthis immanis and the type specimen of Xenesthis montrosus*







*Xenesthis monstrosus type - a big girl*







*me holding the Poecilotheria striata type specimen!*







*the type specimen of Poecilotheria subfusca - my favorite spider - is at Harvard ("P. bara"), so I 'settled' for the paratypes... Quite a thrill, nonetheless*







*inside one of the Theraphosidae cabinets (cupboards) - the yellow jar tops denote type specimens*


----------



## Scourge (Mar 1, 2007)

I did a darwin centre tour only two weeks ago and I never got to see any of that! Some people have all the luck


----------



## Cirith Ungol (Mar 1, 2007)

I wonder if it has so much to do with luck. I'm getting the feeling it has to do with serious research  

Great pics! That must have been some very interesting work you've been doing there!


----------



## PhilR (Mar 1, 2007)

Great pictures Michael. Looks like some good and interesting work was done there 

Last time I was at the BMNH in any serious capacity (attending a lecture it was), they were just starting work on the Darwin Centre  Can't believe it was so long ago!

I knew should have bugged Jan and Stuart more at the dinner LOL


----------



## metallica (Mar 1, 2007)

must have been great to be in a place with so much history (no i don't mean Andrew) and be experienced people!

bet your visit to Amsterdam was the opposit....

Eddy


----------



## Jonathan (Mar 1, 2007)

Hey,
I did the Darwin center tour in November. I wish I would have photographed the original Darwin samples.  I really wanted to see the stuff you have pictures of.  
The building that is the actual BMNH is a sight to behold by itself!
Jon


----------



## Redapache (Jun 11, 2009)

Sorry to bring back such an old thread but I was wondering where I can see these photos now as they are not appearing here.


----------



## Osprey (Jun 11, 2009)

Yeah they aren't appearing


----------



## cacoseraph (Jun 11, 2009)

the pics were hosted on exoticfauna.com, but the directory they lived in no longer exists (or at least, not to the general public)

you can try emailing of PM'ing the OP and see what he says


----------



## DireWolf0384 (Jun 24, 2009)

cacoseraph said:


> the pics were hosted on exoticfauna.com, but the directory they lived in no longer exists (or at least, not to the general public)
> 
> you can try emailing of PM'ing the OP and see what he says



Yeah, I don't see the pics either.


----------



## GoTerps (Jun 27, 2009)

Well, I can't replace Michael's original pictures, but I can at least add some of my own pictures from the British Museum collection....

A typical rack of specimens in the theraphosid collection....






The tray I was most interested in, full of _Tapinauchenius_ specimens...






Not all of them turned out to actually be Tapinauchenius, despite the label... like this one 






Until earlier this year, a theraphosid had not been found in Darwin's collection... the first one was found in this jar:






Myself with the type of _Poecilotheria metallica_...






The type of_ Xenesthis immanis_...






Chris, working through a bunch of Smith's _Aphonopelma_ types...






Chris (photographing some _Aphonopelma_ types) and Richard (examining some _Pterinochilus_)






Stuart, Ray, Chris, and Richard hard at work....






Ahh, the type of a very nice _Aphonopelma_...






Yeah, that's a giant squid...






Eric


----------



## Zoltan (Jun 28, 2009)

Awesome pictures, Eric! Thanks for sharing.


----------



## moose35 (Jun 29, 2009)

cool stuff eric.

thanks for posting some pics for us.



      moose


----------



## Comatose (May 12, 2011)

*Resurrection!*

I guess it's time for the bi-annual resurrection of this thread... Mr. Jacobi, would you be so kind as to re post the above pictures? I'm sure I'm not alone in saying I'm very interested in seeing them!

Thank you!


----------



## JC (May 16, 2011)

Comatose said:


> I guess it's time for the bi-annual resurrection of this thread... Mr. Jacobi, would you be so kind as to re post the above pictures? I'm sure I'm not alone in saying I'm very interested in seeing them!
> 
> Thank you!



+1

:worship:    .


----------

