Description
Established in the second half of the 19th century, the MNHN’s collections of myriapods and onychophorans are still stored as one collection, mostly for historical and practical reasons.
The myriapods section is a major collection for myriapodology worldwide, all the groups it includes, and its history. The material comes from all around the world and belongs to the classes Pauropoda (2 extant orders), Symphyla, Chilopoda (5 extant orders) and Diplopoda (16 extant orders), collected from most of the terrestrial ecosystems. About 5000 species of myriapods are represented in the collections, including a high number of historical samples. The myriapods collection comprises 300 000 to 400 000 specimens. Nearly half of it constitutes the reference collection, the other half, which includes a potentially important amount of taxa yet unknown to science, is awaiting further studies. The reference collection gathers about 25 000 to 30 000 batches, each containing from 1 to more than 300 specimens, stored into 4639 jars. The reference collection includes about 3 000 to 3 500 batches containing altogether 15 000 to 20 000 type specimens.
To date, the MNHN-MY dataset has gathered 9 795 batches of myriapods, consisting of 63 617 specimens, which represents 33% to 40% of the reference collection.
The Onychophorans collection, contains invaluable historical material, such as type specimens of species described by Bouvier in the 1900s. The MNHN’s collection of Onychophorans (commonly known as velvet worms) is one of the world’s most important for this group. Although only a small phylum, it is of key importance in several aspects within the Metazoa, particularly regarding phylogenetic relationships between arthropods and other invertebrates (Oliveira & al. 2012). The collection boasts almost a hundred species, represented by 202 batches containing 279 specimens and 43 dissections. This collection is stored into 67 jars. It includes 56 batches containing altogether 73 nomenclatural types (plus 2 dissections of types).
This part of the collection is fully databased and included in the MNHN-MY dataset, and has been since used for studies on the group (Oliveira & al. 2012).
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