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Written by Viranna Frank
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 Given the enormous size of the Natal Museum’s Mollusca collection, there are few South African land snail species which are not represented in our museum. Only rarely do our malacologists get to add such species to the collection, as occurred when Dai Herbert and Linda Davis returned from a field trip to the Western Cape in October. Together with other much needed research material, Dai and Linda added three South African species new to our collection, Trachycystis gilliana, Trachycystis hartvigiana and Chlamydephorus purcelli. The first, pictured here, is one of our largest pinwheel snails, measuring over 20 mm in shell diameter. The last is a species which Dai has been trying to find for many years to fill a gap in his dataset for this interesting group of carnivorous slugs.
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Written by Ntombi Mkhize, Juthika Baijoo
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Priscilla Muthwa, Patricia Birkett, Juthika Baijoo and Ntombi Mkhize recently attended a Natural History Collections Workshop in Cape Town, organised by the South African Museum's Association (SAMA). The 5-day workshop aimed to provide us with the necessary theoretical and practical guides to help us better understand our daily tasks and functions.
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Written by Patricia Birkett
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The Fourth Annual Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) Science Symposium was held in Cape Town on the 5th and 6th of April. The symposium explored the role of GBIF and other new technologies in conservation and monitoring of biodiversity change world-wide.
GBIF provides biodiversity information which enables decisions to be made within the fields of conservation science, by allowing free access to a wide range of biodiversity data, through collaborations with more than 75 countries and other international organizations.
These data are vital since they allow for the management of various natural ecosystems and their resources. The Natal Museum's wealth of biological specimens, particularly within the groups of earthworms, arthropods, molluscs, amphibians and reptiles, was represented in the form of posters and pamphlets.
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Written by Dai Herbert
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In late February, Linda Davis and I joined colleagues from the East London Museum for an excursion to the Transkei region of the E. Cape. The area of interest included the forests on the escarpment inland of Mthatha (previously Umtata).
Although heavily impacted by commercial forestry, we managed to find some exciting molluscs, including an undescribed tail-wagger snail (genus Sheldonia) belonging to a completely new clade within this complex genus.
Coincidentally, Prof. Michelle Hamer has recently also found another representative of this clade in the Prentjiesberg near Maclear, during an EarthWatch expedition to the forests of the Maluti-Drakensberg World Heritage Site.
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Written by Greg Davies
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One of the main functions of the Museum research departments is augmenting our unique research collections by undertaking field-work. During August-September 2005 I travelled to Namaqualand in the Northern Cape to sample insects for the Museum.
Why travel all the way to Namaqualand to catch bugs? There are many reasons.
First, it ensures that our collections are not biased to KwaZulu-Natal alone, but take in the biodiversity of the whole country. Many of the insects that occur in the Northern Cape are not found in KZN and so fieldwork like this ensures a comprehensive coverage when our scientists, research associates and other colleagues come to revise the various insect groups.
Second, the insects that occur in Namaqualand have particular relevance to many of the research projects that have been undertaken in the Arthropoda Department. With reference to myself, Namaqualand is an acknowledged 'hot-spot' for bees. That is to say, bees are especially common and diversified in that region as opposed to elsewhere in the country.
The bees that are the subject of my Masters research are mainly localized to Namaqualand, and it was important for me to see them first-hand.
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