To the curator of your entomology collection,

I am an intern at the Ouellet-Robert Entomological Collection (QMOR) where I am studying the european wool carder bee Anthidium florentinum as part of a study measuring morphological traits differences between European and Canadian populations. The recent introduction of A. florentinum in North America (Normandin et al. 2017) is an excellent opportunity to study the effect of a possible bottleneck on the size of this bee. This study should lead to a peer-reviewed publication.

I have to measure the intertegular distance (ITD) of collection specimens to compare the size of European populations with each other and with those of Canada. I am under the supervision of Étienne Normandin, coordinator of the collection, and work in the laboratory of Professor Colin Favret.

I am writing to obtain an inventory of Anthidium florentinum specimens in your collection. I would need the date and precise location of capture of each specimen. This will allow me to update the range of this species and assess whether it would then be necessary to borrow specimens from your collection for measurement. If we were to borrow some of them from you at our expenses, you can rest assured that they would be kept in optimal conditions and that I would take great care of them. All borrowed specimens would also be meticulously digitized and the results would be communicated to you.

Many thanks for your assistance!