Insect collecting

Storage and curation

There are several different preservation methods that are used; some of which include: dried preservation (pinning), liquid preservation, or slide mounts. Another (now mostly historical) approach is caterpillar inflation, where the innards were removed and the skin dried. Pinning is by far the most common form of insect preservation.

It is better to pin an insect that has died recently enough that it has 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 large majority of the time insects are pinned vertically through their mesothorax and slightly off-center to the right of the mid-line. 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, it is important to display them properly: Lepidoptera wings should always be spread. When drying insects with wings such as butterflies, setting paper is used to position the wings.

Orthopteroids often have their left wings spread. In scientific collections, the insect's wings, legs, and antennae are tucked underneath it to conserve space.

When point-mounting small insects the insect is glued to a small piece of non acidic, triangle paper. 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 labeling insects the labels are presented in this order top down: Locality, additional locality/voucher label/accession numbers, insect identification.

Insect pins

Insect pins are used by entomologists for mounting insect specimens.

As standard, they are 38 millimetres (1.5 in) long and come in sizes from 000 (the smallest diameter), through 00, 0, and 1, to 8 (the largest diameter). The most generally useful size in entomology is size 2, which is 0.46 millimetres (0.018 in) in diameter, with sizes 1 and 3 being the next most useful.

They were once commonly made from brass or silver, but these would corrode from contact with insect bodies and are no longer commonly used. Instead they are nickel-plated brass, yielding "white" or "black" enamelling, or even made from stainless steel. Similarly, the smallest sizes from 000 to 1 used to be impractical for mounting until plastic and polyethylene became commonly used for pinning bases.

There are also micropins, which are 10–15 millimetres (0.39–0.59 in) long. minutens are headless micropins that are generally only made of stainless steel, used for double-mounting, where the insect is mounted on the minuten, which is pinned to a small block of soft material, which is in turn mounted on a standard, larger, insect pin.

Pinning of entomological specimens

• Entomological pins. Continental pins, so called for historical reasons, are used internationally by museums and collectors. They are made of stainless steel for preference, especially for very long-term storage of specimens, but blackened steel also is used. The pins have round plastic or solid metal heads. Continental pins are of a standard length (40mm), but they are available in thicknesses numbered 000 (the thinnest), 00, 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 (the thickest). This standard pin length is sufficient to accommodate an adequate number of data labels and to permit convenient handling with suitably curved forceps or tweezers, referred to as 'entomological forceps'.

As an exception to this standard, there also are pins of size 7, extra-long and very strong pins for very large beetles; they are 52mm long and thicker than size 6 pins.

• Direct pinning. Direct pinning is the insertion of an entomological pin directly through the thorax of a specimen. The insects are pinned vertically through the thorax with a suitably sized pin, but by convention they are not pinned on the midline, but to the right, so as to leave at least one side undamaged.
• Point. A point is a triangular piece of white card. Specially designed point punches permit the production of large numbers of points of standard sizes as required. To use a point, a pin is inserted through the broad base of the triangle. To mount the specimen, a tiny amount of glue is placed on the tip and applied to the right side of the insect's thorax. If appropriate the tip of the point may be bent at the necessary angle to hold the body of the specimen horizontal when the pin is vertical, with the long axis of the insect at right angles to the point.

• Minuten pins. Insect pins without heads, 12mm long. They are used for double mounting (staging) very small insects. They also may be used profitably for staging insects of moderate size, where they have the advantage of being less damaging to the specimen. For best effect in that respect, the pin is inserted from below through the staging card, well into the thorax, but not all the way through. Alternatively the minuten pin can be inserted laterally into one side of the thorax, again preferably not all the way through.
• Carding. Insects (especially Coleoptera and Hemiptera) are glued to rectangular pieces of acid free card or Bristol board providing a stage. Typical sizes are 4.5 x 11 mm;5 x 14 mm;6 x 17 mm;10 x 21 mm;13 x 30 mm. Printed lines allow uniform placement of the entomological pin. Though this is convenient, it is dubious practice at best, because it obscures features that might be necessary for taxonomic or morphological studies. In any case, at the very least the glue should be sufficiently conveniently soluble to be removed with solvents when necessary. With such considerations in mind, Canada balsam is about as good an adhesive as any.

• Staging. When specimens are mounted on a smaller support which in turn is supported on a normal full-sized entomological pin, this is called staging. For example a specimen might be mounted on a minuten pin, typically being pinned on its side (lateral pinning) or upright (direct pinning) with the minuten pin driven into a stage, a strip of suitable material such as dried plant pith or plastic foam supported in a horizontal position on the main entomological pin; as a rule a number 3 pin is convenient. Other forms of stage include card mounts and point mounts.

The stage usually is positioned at such a distance up the vertical stage-pin, as to put the specimen at the same height as a directly pinned insect; this normally allows room for labels beneath and to allow handling of the specimen without damage.

If insects are side-pinned by pins that pass right through the specimens, then the minuten should be at such an angle that different features are damaged on the opposite sides of the thorax. Competent staging protects small specimens and displays most features conveniently. The stage-pin then is easy to manipulate when moving the specimen and the stage absorbs vibrations.

History

Insect collecting was popular in Victorian Britain. As travel options improved during this era (such as with the expansion of the railway network), insect collecting was better facilitated. Collectors reported to entomological magazines that they could collect hundreds of butterfly specimens in a single day. It was a hobby enjoyed by both children and adults. One prominent figure who enjoyed insect collecting was Charles Darwin, who was introduced to the hobby by his cousin William Darwin Fox. Darwin was well-known by his classmates at the University of Cambridge for his passion for insect collecting. He wrote, "It was the mere passion for collecting; for I did not dissect them, and rarely compared with their external characters with published descriptions, but got them named anyhow. Two boxes of Darwin's early collections of British beetles survive: one is held by the University Museum of Zoology, and one is held at Down House.

Victorians also collected insects so they could be used in fashion. For example, women wore fireflies in their hair and pinned beetles to their bodices, and, in 1863, Godey's Lady's Book praised the designs of Madame Tilman of Paris, who incorporated real insect specimens into her clothing pieces. When one Englishwoman travelled to Brazil, she reported her astonishment at seeing living insects which she had only previously seen in jewellery. Amelia Sloth has connected the Victorian interest in insect collecting to colonialism: to meet the demand for insect jewellery, the labour of enslaved people was used. This demand also expedited the extinction of some species of insects.

In popular culture

Insect collecting inspired the video game franchise Pokémon, in which the player catches animal characters, some of which are inspired by insects. As a child, the creator of Pokémon, Satoshi Tajiri, enjoyed collecting insects from the fields surrounding Tokyo and would index his collection in a notebook. Tajiri was so passionate about insect collecting that his classmates reportedly nicknamed him "Mr. Bug".