Hello ,

Entomologists love insects, yet we kill them and stick needles through them so that we can look at them forever. This is often a roadblock for people during their studies that cause them to switch from entomology to zoology or another natural biology degree. The main question though is: Why do we collect insects?

The two main types of insect collections include both a preserved (dead collection) and a living collection. Both these serve different purposes, yet are equally important.

A living collection allows the chance to educate people through live interactions or observations of the insects. It is often an interesting species in a living collection that sparks interest to start an insect keeping hobby!

The importance of Preserved collections is more difficult to explain facing the fact that museums have massive collections, the largest being more than 35 million specimens in the collection (https://naturalhistory.si.edu/research/entomology). As a collection ranges of many years, gives us a look into the past and present with information like distributions, species records and abundance. The data available over a long time period enables us to predict how biodiversity is changing or how an invasive species will spread if it is introduced to a new country.

My interest was set in stone the first time I went to visit the national insect collection housed at the Van Engelen house with a well-renowned Entomologist many years ago!

Weekly Top Shot: Preserved Insects

The latest Video:

Insect Collections: Why? — www.youtube.com

Why do we have massive insect collections? The reasons for massive insect collections differ among the hobbyists and the institutions such as the natural hist...

So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. - James 2:17

So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.