Digitising heritage for science: the Medical Entomology Museum as a platform for entomological biodiversity research and vector-borne disease surveillance

What this was about

Eunice Jamesboy presented the century-old Medical Entomology Museum at South Africa's National Institute for Communicable Diseases, rooted in the 1925 entomology department's response to malaria. The museum holds about 60,000 medically important insect specimens, including about 12,000 Anopheles, and about 80% of the mosquito collection is digitised through a workflow of inventory, transcription, taxonomic standardisation, georeferencing and quality control aimed at FAIR, interoperable data. She argued that digitised vouchers provide historical baselines that strengthen contemporary vector surveillance, stressed rescue of orphaned collections and training, and summarised the approach as 'preserve the specimen, mobilize the data, extend science'.

Why it matters. Shows a direct public-health use case for natural history collection digitisation in malaria-affected regions.

In the room

• The Department of Entomology was established in 1925; early mosquito surveys in malaria areas generated the core collection.
• About 60,000 specimens including around 12,000 Anopheles; pinned, slide-mounted and fluid specimens, type material and vouchers.
• About 80% of the mosquito collection, including Anopheles, is digitised.
• Workflow: inventory/accessioning, label transcription, taxonomic standardisation, georeferencing, QC, publication.
• Museum data do not replace contemporary surveillance but provide historical context and verifiable vouchers.
• Orphaned collections need condition assessment, accessioning, metadata recovery and integration.
• Sustainability depends on training people in taxonomy, curation, georeferencing and informatics.

Notable moments