Insect collecting refers to the collection of
insect
Insects (from Latin ') are pancrustacean hexapod invertebrates of the class Insecta. They are the largest group within the arthropod phylum. Insects have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body ( head, thorax and abdomen), three pairs ...
s and other
arthropod
Arthropods (, (gen. ποδός)) are invertebrate animals with an exoskeleton, a Segmentation (biology), segmented body, and paired jointed appendages. Arthropods form the phylum Arthropoda. They are distinguished by their jointed limbs and Arth ...
s for scientific study or as a
hobby
A hobby is considered to be a regular activity that is done for enjoyment, typically during one's leisure time. Hobbies include collecting themed items and objects, engaging in creative and artistic pursuits, playing Sport, sports, or pursu ...
. Most insects are small and the majority cannot be identified without the examination of minute morphological characters, so
entomologist
Entomology () is the scientific study of insects, a branch of zoology. In the past the term "insect" was less specific, and historically the definition of entomology would also include the study of animals in other arthropod groups, such as arach ...
s often make and maintain insect collections. Very large collections are conserved in
natural history museum
A natural history museum or museum of natural history is a scientific institution with natural history collections that include current and historical records of animals, plants, fungi, ecosystems, geology, paleontology, climatology, and more. ...
s or
universities
A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, t ...
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
In the history of the United Kingdom and the British Empire, the Victorian era was the period of Queen Victoria's reign, from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. The era followed the Georgian period and preceded the Edwardian ...
a very popular educational
hobby
A hobby is considered to be a regular activity that is done for enjoyment, typically during one's leisure time. Hobbies include collecting themed items and objects, engaging in creative and artistic pursuits, playing Sport, sports, or pursu ...
. Insect collecting has left traces in European
cultural history
Cultural history combines the approaches of anthropology and history to examine popular cultural traditions and cultural interpretations of historical experience. It examines the records and narrative descriptions of past matter, encompassing the ...
, literature and songs (e.g.,
Georges Brassens
Georges Charles Brassens (; 22 October 1921 – 29 October 1981) was a French singer-songwriter and poet.
As an iconic figure in France, he achieved fame through his elegant songs with their harmonically complex music for voice and guitar and a ...
's ''La chasse aux papillons'' (''The Hunt for Butterflies'')). The practice is particularly common among
Japan
Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...
ese youths.
Collecting techniques
Insects are passively caught using
funnels
A funnel is a tube or pipe that is wide at the top and narrow at the bottom, used for guiding liquid or powder into a small opening.
Funnels are usually made of stainless steel, aluminium, glass, or plastic. The material used in its construc ...
,
pitfall trap
A pitfall trap is a trapping pit for small animals, such as insects, amphibians and reptiles. Pitfall traps are a sampling technique, mainly used for ecology studies and ecologic pest control. Animals that enter a pitfall trap are unable to esca ...
s,
bottle traps,
malaise traps,
flight interception trap
A flight interception trap (or FIT) is a widely used trapping, killing, and preserving system for flying insects. It is especially well-suited for collecting beetles, since these animals usually drop themselves after flying into an object, s and other passive types of
insect trap
Insect traps are used to monitor or directly reduce populations of insects or other arthropods, by trapping individuals and killing them. They typically use food, visual lures, chemical attractants and pheromones as bait and are installed so that ...
s, 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
Moth traps are devices used by entomologists to capture moths. Most use a light source. Pheromone traps are also used.
All moth traps follow the same basic design - consisting of a mercury vapour or actinic light to attract the moths and a bo ...
are also used by entomologists for collecting nocturnal insects (especially moths) during faunistic survey studies. Aspirators or "
pooter
In entomology, an aspirator, also known as a pooter, is a device used in the collection of insects, crustaceans or other small, fragile organisms, usually for scientific purposes. s" suck up insects too small or delicate to handle with fingers.
[Martin, J.E.H. 1977. Collecting, preparing and preserving insects, mites, and spiders. The Insects and Arachnids of Canada, Part 1. Publ. 1643, Res. Br., Canada Dep. Agric., Ottawa, ON]
Archived PDF
/ref>
Several different types of nets are commonly used actively to 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
Butterflies are insects in the macrolepidopteran clade Rhopalocera from the Order (biology), order Lepidoptera, which also includes moths. Adult butterflies have large, often brightly coloured wings, and conspicuous, fluttering flight. The ...
wings. A sweep net
Insect collecting refers to the collection of insects and other arthropods for scientific study or as a hobby. Most insects are small and the majority cannot be identified without the examination of minute morphological characters, so entomol ...
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 net
A beating net, also known as beating sheet, beat sheet or beating tray, is a device used to collect insects. It consists of a white cloth stretched out on a circular or rectangular frame which may be dismantled for transport. The beating tray is ...
s and aquatic nets.Charles Valentine Riley
Charles Valentine Riley (18 September 1843 – 14 September 1895) was a British-born American entomologist and artist. He was one of the first individuals to use biological pest control and authored over 2,400 publications. He convinced Congress ...
, 1892 ''Directions for collecting and preserving insects'' Bulletin (United States National Museum) no. 39, pt. F. Washington,Govt. Printing Off
Full text online here
/ref> Leaf litter sieve
A leaf litter sieve is a piece of equipment used by entomologists, in particular by coleopterists (beetle collectors) (Cooter 1991, page 7) as an aid to finding invertebrates in leaf litter.
A typical leaf litter sieve consists of a gauze with h ...
s are used by coleopterists
Beetles are insects that form the order Coleoptera (), in the superorder Endopterygota. Their front pair of wings are hardened into wing-cases, elytra, distinguishing them from most other insects. The Coleoptera, with about 400,000 described ...
and to collect larvae.
Once collected, a killing jar
A killing jar (or killing bottle) is a device used by entomologists to kill captured insects quickly and with minimum damage. The jar, typically glass, must be hermetically sealable and one design has a thin layer of hardened plaster of Paris on ...
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
A larva (; plural larvae ) is a distinct juvenile form many animals undergo before metamorphosis into adults. Animals with indirect development such as insects, amphibians, or cnidarians typically have a larval phase of their life cycle.
The l ...
stage, are generally fixed
Fixed may refer to:
* ''Fixed'' (EP), EP by Nine Inch Nails
* ''Fixed'', an upcoming 2D adult animated film directed by Genndy Tartakovsky
* Fixed (typeface), a collection of monospace bitmap fonts that is distributed with the X Window System
* ...
in a vial containing an ethanol
Ethanol (abbr. EtOH; also called ethyl alcohol, grain alcohol, drinking alcohol, or simply alcohol) is an organic compound. It is an Alcohol (chemistry), alcohol with the chemical formula . Its formula can be also written as or (an ethyl ...
and water solution.[Hongfu, Zhu, 1949 ''How to know the immature insects; an illustrated key for identifying the orders and families of many of the immature insects with suggestions for collecting, rearing and studying them, by H. F. Chu.'' Pictured key nature series Dubuque, Iowa,W. C. Brown C]
Full text online here
Another (now mostly historical) approach is caterpillar inflation, where the innards were removed and the skin dried.
Storage and curation
There are several different preservation methods that are used; some of which include: dried preservation (pinning), liquid preservation, slide mounts, other various preservation methods. Dried preservation is by far the most common form of insect preservation. The large majority of the time insects are pinned vertically through their mesothorax and slightly off-center to the right of the mid-line. It is better to pin an insect that has died recently enough that they have not dried yet because it allows the thoracic muscles to adhere to the pin (previously dried specimens must have glue applied to the pin location to avoid spinning). The pin should sit with 1/4 of the pin above the insect as to allow enough room for labels to be readable underneath. When pinning insects with wings for display it is important to display them properly: Lepidoptera wings should always be spread. Orthopteroids often have left wings spread. In scientific collections it is often found that the insect's wings, legs, and antenna are tucked underneath it to conserve space. When pin-mounting small insects the insect is glued to a piece of non acidic, triangle paper. This is called pointing. When drying an insect the relaxed insect is spread out accordingly using pins on a foam block where it can dry and retain its positioning. When drying insects with wings such as butterflies setting paper is used to position the wings. When labeling insects the labels are presented in this order top down: Locality, additional locality/voucher label/accession numbers, insect identification.[V.M. Uys & R.P. Urban (Eds.): "How to Collect and Preserve Insects and Arachnids". Pretoria 2006. 112 p. ]
Rare insects, or those from distant parts of the world, may also be acquired from dealers or by trading. Some noted insect collections have been sold at auction
An auction is usually a process of buying and selling goods or services by offering them up for bids, taking bids, and then selling the item to the highest bidder or buying the item from the lowest bidder. Some exceptions to this definition ex ...
.["A rich and diverse ]fauna
Fauna is all of the animal life present in a particular region or time. The corresponding term for plants is ''flora'', and for fungi, it is '' funga''. Flora, fauna, funga and other forms of life are collectively referred to as '' biota''. Zoo ...
: the history of the Australian National Insect Collection
The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) is an Australian Government agency responsible for scientific research.
CSIRO works with leading organisations around the world. From its headquarters in Canberra, CSIRO ...
; 1926–1991". Melbourne
Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...
: CSIRO, 1997. 386 p.
In popular culture
''Pokémon
(an abbreviation for in Japan) is a Japanese media franchise managed by The Pokémon Company, founded by Nintendo, Game Freak, and Creatures (company), Creatures, the owners of the trademark and copyright of the franchise.
In terms of ...
'' creator Satoshi Tajiri
is a Japanese video game designer and director best known for being the creator of the ''Pokémon'' franchise and one of the founders, and president of video game developer Game Freak. A fan of arcade games, Tajiri wrote for and edited his own v ...
's childhood hobby of insect collecting is the inspiration behind the popular video game series.Pokémon inspired from creator’s bug collection hobby
inshorts
A beetle collection becomes a source of fascination for a mentally disturbed woman in Chapter XI of MacKinlay Kantor's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel '' Andersonville'' (1955).
See also
*Identification key
In biology, an identification key, taxonomic key, or biological key is a printed or computer-aided device that aids the identification of biological entities, such as plants, animals, fossils, microorganisms, and pollen grains. Identification k ...
*Killing jar
A killing jar (or killing bottle) is a device used by entomologists to kill captured insects quickly and with minimum damage. The jar, typically glass, must be hermetically sealable and one design has a thin layer of hardened plaster of Paris on ...
References
Further reading
Picture Guide series For college students. Out of date but very useful for beginners.
*Harry Edwin Jaques, 1941 ''How to know the insects; an illustrated key to the more common families of insects, with suggestions for collecting, mounting and studying them''. His Pictured-key nature series Mt. Pleasant, Ia.,The autho
Full text online here
Excellent college level guide
*Hongfu, Zhu, 1949 ''How to know the immature insects; an illustrated key for identifying the orders and families of many of the immature insects with suggestions for collecting, rearing and studying them, by H. F. Chu.'' Pictured key nature series Dubuque, Iowa,W. C. Brown C
Full text online here
External links
Intermediate level
ttp://www.ars.usda.gov/SP2UserFiles/ad_hoc/12754100CollectingandPreservingInsectsandMites/collpres.pdf PDFComprehensive, detailed download. Advanced level.
How to make an insect collection; containing suggestions and hints designed to aid the beginning and less advanced collector (Wards Natural Science Establishment 1945)
How to collect and preserve insects (H. H. Ross)
Full text of 1962 printing
Expedition Insect Manual PDF
Chris Raper Insect Collecting
Easy to read Excellent illustrations]
Insect Collection Manual
Australian Museum introductory guide.Beginner level
Curation Of Insect Specimens N P S
Beginner level
Museum handbook
Butterfly mounting.
Devices for Ichneumonidae collecting.Advanced
Why We Kill Bugs- The Case for Collecting Insects
Rationale for insect collecting
{{DEFAULTSORT:Insect Collecting
Insect-related occupations or hobbies, Collecting
Collecting
Natural history
Cultural history