Wednesday 27 June 2012

PhD week 16: Wellington

New Zealand Tango Festival 2012
The teachers dance at the New Zealand Tango Festival 2012

I spent most of the past week in Wellington, spending a day in the Te Papa insect collection, three days dancing Tango as part of the New Zealand Tango Festival, and the rest of the time wandering around the city and the botanic gardens. All events were extremely pleasant and we arrived back in Christchurch sore and tired from doing too much dancing until too early in the mornings, but extremely pleased that we went.

One of the most exciting things of my time there was the unexpected discovery of the syntypes of a species described by Thomas Broun. These were the first type specimens that I have seen, and it was great finding them, recognising what they were, and being able to put a name to some previously unidentified specimens in my collection. It was also a rather amazing experience to look at specimens that Broun himself had looked at and handled nearly 100 years ago.


Read:
Psalms 68–70,

Websites:
Biodiversity Heritage Library Photostream
Curiosities of biological nomenclature

Watched:
Planet Dinosaur
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Season 4

No comments: