| Name | Mollusc collection of Miquel Bech i Taberner |
| Alternative name | MCNB. Col. Bech |
| Cite as | Museu de Ciències Naturals de Barcelona (MCNB). Mollusc collection of Miquel Bech i Taberner MCNB. Col. Bech |
| Description | Collection of continental molluscs belonging to the Catalan malacologist Miquel Bech i Taberner (1919–2006) donated to the Barcelona Natural History Museum in 2009. This collection is the material manifestation of Bech i Taberner's contribution to malacology, which includes numerous scientific publications, the descriptions of new taxa, and various collaborations with other malacologists and museums. His collection consists of 29 200 dry specimens, grouped into 3144 lots and belonging to around 450 species. Over 95% of the lots consist of gastropods, above all terrestrial; the rest consist of freshwater bivalves. The geological scope is mainly Iberian Spain (92% of lots) and Catalonia (62% of the collection's lots). Also represented are samples from the Balearic and Canary Islands, Morocco and other regions. Many of the specimens were collected and identified by Bech himself; Bech collaborated closely with the Museum and many of his specimens were collected by members of the Museum staff and its collaborators. The collection includes 28 lots of type specimens (344 specimens), the majority corresponding to taxa described by the author, mainly from the families Chondrinidae, Hydrobiidae and Hygromiidae. The whole collection has been registered, documented and computerized to specimen lot level. It can be consulted on-line at the website of the Barcelona Natural History Museum. |
| Provenance | The formation of the collection went hand-in-hand with the author's scientific activities, manifest in numerous publications and collaborations with other malacologists and institutions. Aside from the material gathered by Bech himself, there are also a large number of specimens provided by other collectors and colleagues almost 100), including Carles Altimira, Jacint Altimiras, Josep Vicent González, Francesc Español, Guillem Fernández, Montserrat Gorchs, Yolanda Manga and Arturo Valledor. Bech's connections with the Museum led him to collaborate actively with this institution – but there are also samples in his collection donated to him by other Museum collaborators such as Vicenç Bros, Jordi Cadevall, Albert Orozco and Jordi Nebot (linked to the Invertebrate non-Arthropod section), and Lluís Auroux, Oleguer Escolà and Florentí Fadrique, the latter the providers of specimens from subterranean habitats, principally in Catalonia and Morocco. Of great value are the collection's type specimens (a total of 28 lots and 334 specimens), corresponding to 20 taxa, the majority described by Bech himself. The collection was donated to the Museum by Bech's family in 2009, and its lots were registered, documented and computerized within two years. The revision of the type specimens was carried out by the malacologist Alberto Martínez-Ortí. Some of the specimens have been used in the creation of the Museum's reference collection of the molluscs of Catalonia, a project that is still underway. Other specimens are on display in the Island of Science permanent exhibition in the Museum Blau dedicated to classification and nomenclature. Data from the collection can be consulted on-line at the Barcelona Natural History Museum's website. The scientific bibliography of Miquel Bech is available for consultation in this department. |
