Here is another "rare in collections" incident:
 
At 12:04 PM 5/24/99 -0400, you wrote:
>Rare in collections is usually a stupid assumption (no offense, Ken).  One
>example comes to mind.  The common toad in Pakistan is Bufo something
>another.  A fellow at the British Museum was looking into using the toxin
>from a toad's parotid glands to examine phylogeny so he asked us to bring
>him some.  When we mentioned Bufo something another he said, "Oh, don't
>take any of those from the wild.  They must be rare.  We only have two in
>our collections."  The darned thing was so common, you could hardly keep
>from stepping on them.  And this provincial attitude is not restricted to
>foreign species.  Very common American species are often poorly represented
>in museum collections for one reason or another and perhaps thought to be
>rare by some sedentary enthusiasts and professionals.
>
>So, species should only be referred to as rare in the wild or in
>collections when very good collecting has been done. I agree that the terms
>are used too frequently, but if collecting really hasn't been done, then
>the species can rightfully be termed as rare in collections (Ken makes a
>good point) and it may actually be naturally rare as well.
>
 
In the late 1960's I was doing a lot of collecting in "sand" pits being dug
in the Virginia Beach-Norfolk (eastern Virginia) area in support of
building the interstate system which was mainly elevated in the area.  In
one of the pits one day on a south facing wall, I saw about 10 feet above
my head in a marine bed (with a marine fauna in it) a small pointed brown
oval "thing" sticking out of the wall.  Well I climbed my way up and found
3 of the things and one had a broken end on it, but did not have my hand
lense with me.
 
Well, at home I put the broken one under the microscope and saw a small
head of an insect!!  Wow, I had found fossil insect cocoons in Pleistocene
marine beds!!!!  Sent my discovery off to one of the Smithsonian Museum
specialists that I knew at that time and had him forward it to the "insect"
people.  Well I got a very exciting phone call a few days later from the
"insect" man.  No, I had not found insect cocoons deposited in marine beds,
but I had found cocoons of a type of wasp that occurs along the SE Atlantic
coast of the U.S.  They apparently burrow deep into sand banks that face
south for the warming effect and lay their eggs.  The cocoons developed 1-2
ft deep in the sand until the wasp emerges, so it is "rare" to ever find a
cocoon with the pupa inside - in fact the USNM did not have any in their
collection and wanted mine because they were "so rare", in tact.  I found
mine because the sand pit was still being actively mined and the wall had
been cut back some.  As people have said, "rareness" is in your ability to
know where to look for whatever you are trying to collect!
 
Paul