
Bloodroot.
Sanguinaria canadensis, in the Jardin Botanique shade gardens, Montreal.

Bloodroot.
Sanguinaria canadensis, in the Jardin Botanique shade gardens, Montreal.

Bloodroot.
Sanguinaria canadensis, in the Jardin Botanique shade gardens, Montreal.

Insect Series, No. 2.

Insect Series, No. 2.

Feed me.
Hand feeding black-capped chickadees (Poecile atricapillus) in the Japanese garden at the Jardin Botanique, Montreal, Quebec.

Feed me.
Hand feeding black-capped chickadees (Poecile atricapillus) in the Japanese garden at the Jardin Botanique, Montreal, Quebec.

Insect Series, No. 1.

Insect Series, No. 1.

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.