About "The Golden wasps collection at the Staatliches Museum für Naturkunde Stuttgart"

The Collection

The Golden wasps collection at the Staatliches Museum für Naturkunde Stuttgart (SMNS) contains about 780 specimens collected in Baden-Württemberg between 1900 and 2000. It has been expanded by some 30 specimens between 2012 and 2015, mainly through sampling efforts within the frame of the project GBOL (German Barcode of Life). The collection contains 61 species representing more than 50% of the known species spectrum for Middle Europe (120). Chrysidids are parasitoids of other insects, meaning that they kill their hosts at late stages of their development. Some species are cleptoparasites, what means that they use the food carried on by the host as resource for their larvae.

Data Project and Service

The Ministry for Science, Research and the Arts in Baden-Württemberg supported inventory, digitalisation and online access of the collections. Technical support is provided by the IT Center of the Staatliche Naturwissenschaftliche Sammlungen Bayerns within the projects BiNHum (Biodiversity Network of the Humboldt-Ring) and GFBio (German Federation for the Curation of Biological Data), both funded by the German Research Foundation DFG.

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About the collection „Liverworts serving as vectors of symbiotic fungi” at the Staatliches Museum für Naturkunde Stuttgart The collection Liverworts are considered to be the oldest terrestrial plants. They undergo a connection with fungi that represents the oldest symbiosis between plants and fungi. This symbiosis was studied for the very first time in a tropical forest within the frame of the DFG Research Unit 402: Functionality in a Tropical Mountain Rainforest - Diversity, Dynamic Processes and Utilization Potentials under Ecosystem Perspectives. The investigation area is situated in South Ecuador near to the city of Loja and extends from 1.000 to 3.000 m above sea level. Symbiotic fungi were found in 42 liverwort and two hornwort species. Several associations were new for science or for the Tropics. The fungi originate from three related groups: Glomeromycetes (Glomeromycota), ascomycetes/sac fungi (Ascomycota), and basidiomycetes (Basidiomycota). Under the basidiomycetes, the two genera Sebacina and Tulasnella were found. Both genera are new symbionts of liverworts for the Tropics. Over 80% of all terrestrial plant species exhibit a symbiosis with fungi (Mykorrhiza). As liverworts are the first terrestrial plants there is strong indication that this symbiosis arose in them and switched over to clubmosses, ferns and finally to flowering plants/phanerogams. Liverworts are seen for this reason as vectors for symbiotic fungi. These investigations were carried out together with the Institut für spezielle Botanik of the University of Tübingen. They were first possible through a combination of light and electron microscopy with DNA analysis. All vouchers are kept at the herbarium STU of the State Museum for Natural History Stuttgart. The museum holds one of the most valuable collections of moos-fungus-symbiosis worldwide.