Progress to rebuild Brazil’s National Museum (Museu Nacional) is still in the very early stages and the Palace section, where the Orthoptera collection resided, is being treated as an archaeological site. Practically all museum staff are working steadily on recovering the few items that survived the fire and removing the large amounts of debris. This task will take several months to complete. Simultaneously, plans are already underway to replace Orthoptera specimens via new expeditions. In short, there is a lot to do, but we are optimistic!
If you would like to contribute to our efforts you can do so through a financial donation. To do this, one must access the site of Museu Nacional and click on Donations, where it is possible to donate through Paypal. Please note that the currency is Brazilian real (BRL) and the exchange rate is around 3.7 to approximately $1 USD (e.g., R$75 = $20 USD). After you complete the process, please send an email to the museum and copy me with the receipt of the donation, value, and intended destination of the resources (Laboratório de Orthoptera, Departamento de Entomologia), so I can track the transaction.
We are also interested in acquiring donations of specimens for the new collection. Any and all orthopteran taxa are important for us. People can contact me directly to discuss donations of specimens, joint projects, partnerships, etc.
Thank you very much for your support!
Pedro G.B. Souza-Dias, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, BRAZIL