Tag: insect collection

Insect Series: I will be posting a long, occasional series of insect photos, taken at the Insectarium Montreal. All of the photos are of pinned insects, and were taken through glass with a handheld camera, in museum lighting. 

I have ambivalent thoughts about insect collecting. As a student I was required to make collections for systematics and survey classes, and collection was an essential part of much of the stream ecology research I was involved in in later years. Lately I’ve become skeptical of the value of most student collection (I don’t suffer dilettantes gladly), and I don’t see the point in collecting at all without a sound and carefully articulated scientific or educational rationale. Today I’m mostly a wouldn’t-harm-a-fly kind of person, though I don’t hesitate to swat at insects that carry disease or contaminate my food.

Insect Series: I will be posting a long, occasional series of insect photos, taken at the Insectarium Montreal. All of the photos are of pinned insects, and were taken through glass with a handheld camera, in museum lighting. 

I have ambivalent thoughts about insect collecting. As a student I was required to make collections for systematics and survey classes, and collection was an essential part of much of the stream ecology research I was involved in in later years. Lately I’ve become skeptical of the value of most student collection (I don’t suffer dilettantes gladly), and I don’t see the point in collecting at all without a sound and carefully articulated scientific or educational rationale. Today I’m mostly a wouldn’t-harm-a-fly kind of person, though I don’t hesitate to swat at insects that carry disease or contaminate my food.