Insect collecting

Insect collecting

 

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Because most insects are small and the majority cannot be identified without the examination of minute morphological characters, entomologists often make and maintain insect collections. Very large collections are conserved in museums or colleges and universities where they are maintained and studied by specialists. Many college courses require students to form small collections. There are also amateur entomologists and collectors who keep collections.

Historically insect collecting has been widespread and was in the Victorian age a very popular educational hobby. Insect collecting has left traces in European cultural history, literature and songs (e.g., Georges Brassens's La chasse aux papillons (The Hunt for Butterflies)). The practice is still widespread in many countries, and is particularly common among Japanese youths.

Since most types of insects have hard exoskeletons that retain their form after the insects dies, it is easy and practical to form a collection.

Process

Locating insects

Insects are common in almost every part of world, and may be easily found by looking closely at plant leaves or flowers, under rocks and boards, in water, and so forth.Harry Edwin Jaques lists 60 places in an excellent college level guide.^[1]

Collecting techniques

Insects are passively caught using funnels, pitfall traps, bottle traps, malaise traps, flight interception traps and other passive types of insect traps, some of which are baited with small bits of sweet foods (such as honey). Different designs of ultraviolet light traps such as the Robinson trap are also used by entomologists for collecting nocturnal insects (especially moths) during faunistic survey studies. Aspirators or "pooters" suck up insects too small or delicate to handle with fingers.^[2]

Several different types of nets are commonly used to actively collect insects. Aerial insect nets are used to collect flying insects. The bag of a butterfly net is generally constructed from a lightweight mesh to minimize damage to delicate butterfly wings. A sweep net is used to collect insects from grass and brush. It is similar to a butterfly net, except that the bag is generally constructed from more rugged material.The sweep net is swept back and forth through vegetation quickly turning the opening from side to side and following a shallow figure eight pattern. The collector walks forward while sweeping, and the net is moved through plants and grasses with force.This requires a heavy net fabric such as sailcloth to prevent tearing, although light nets can be used if swept less vigorously. Sweeping continues for some distance and then the net is flipped over, with the bag hanging over the rim, trapping the insects until they can be removed with a pooter. Other types of nets used for collecting insects include beating nets and aquatic nets.^[3] Leaf litter sieves are used by coleopterists and to collect larvae.

Once collected, a killing jar is used to kill required insects before they damage themselves trying to escape.However, killing jars are generally only used on hard-bodied insects. Soft-bodied insects, such as those in the larval stage, are generally fixed in a vial containing an ethanol and water solution.^[4]

Storage and Curation

The usual method of display is in a glass-covered box, with the insects mounted on specially made non corrosive insect pins stuck into foam board (typically Plastazote) or paper covered cork at the bottom of the box. Common pins are not used. Very small insects are either pinned on "minuten" (very tiny pins) into a block of plastazote borne by a standard insect pin or glued to a small piece of card on the pin. There are specific procedures for proper mounting that are used to show off the insects' unique characteristics. Sometimes variations can be used especially if more than one of a species is available. For example, one or both of the wings of a beetle or grasshopper can be pulled open and fanned out to show the wing structure that would otherwise be hidden. At least the date and place of capture should be written or computer printed on to a piece of paper or card transfixed by the pin. This is called a data label.

The entire wiki link can be found at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Insect_collecting