discouraged… sure
I can sense what side of the deabte you would be on!
It is a difficult topic, and there are many viewpoints. For instance, it could be argued that without past collected (vouchered) material, there would be no iNaturalist, as the taxonomic system itself has been built out of studying collected material. In some wonderful future we will have the technology to study and expand our taxonomic knowledge WITHOUT vouchering or killing. We are somewhat between those two extremes at present… And remember too, that most private collections make their way to museums and herbaria etc at some point… and most of the expertise and knowledge that exists on many species is because those experts built private collections for study.
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I assume you are talking about collecting specimens purely as a hobby, rather than the more official collection of voucher specimens for a museum or similar institution. I suspect the vast majority of iNat users would disapprove of this vanity collecting, but I am not sure it’s a matter for iNat to have an official policy on.
If somebody who’s collecting specimens for their personal collection shares the data on iNat in the process, that’s at least better than them collecting the specimens without sharing the data.
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Yeah, there’s no appropriate way for iNat to try to police people’s behavior when it comes to this sort of thing. I actually think the focus on photos as verification for ID reduces the motivation for amateurs (or professionals who aren’t collecting vouchers that day) to kill and retain insects. Before iNat, it was harder to manage data without specimens, at least when it comes to insects and possibly plants. So my guess is iNat reduces people collecting insects, though i can’t prove it!
I would guess almost all of the white-background insects are people documenting bugs at lights, on sheets, or in temporary containers, rather than killing them. If you see a pin through it, it’s dead (or will be soon) but i don’t see much of that here.
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I have a white folder that I keep in my hiking bag to use as a photographic background. It helps the camera focus on the right thing. Sometimes I use my hand for the same reasons, so lots of my observations have my hand in them.
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Yes, I think that in 2019, killing for private collections is no longer appropriate.
Not what I said at all, but feel free to interpret however you want…
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I recently got the new Field Guide to the Flower Flies of Northeastern North America, and the book’s introduction does encourage both keeping a private collection and donating it to a museum when it is no longer needed. This is because there is still so much to learn about this group (ranges, population trends, clarifying the taxonomy, etc.), and also a number of species require dissection or at least looking under a microscope to identify them. It seems like a lot of work so I’m not sure that I’d enjoy it, but I can see the value in it.
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I was referring to when you said you could sense what side of the debate I am on. I was just confirming your assumption about my point of view, wasn’t trying to characterize yours.
If I have a bug in my yard that is running away from me I will pick it up and put it in a white bowl, or a container with white cloth on the bottom. That way I can try to get a good photo of it. I always put them back where I found them (unless it’s a tick).
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yes, please kill all the ticks for your private collection that you want.
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I encourage iNat users to do this sometimes especially for spiders on a web.
Putting a piece of paper behind the web focuses smartphone cameras on the spider rather than the foliage behind it. :)
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Maybe I’m overlooking it, but one technique I don’t see mentioned in this thread is the use of “white box” photographic techniques. In such cases, a photographer will detain a specimen from the “wild” (perhaps off of a moth sheet, for instance) and temporarily confine it to an area (typically a box with white sides) where more complex lighting and flash techniques can be used to photograph the animal. There are a few iNaturalists of which I’m aware who apply this technique to many insects, etc. Depending on the desires and needs of the photographer, the specimen may either be release back into the wild or saved as a documented specimen. The resultant images often have a pure white background surrounding the animal, not simply a white sheet or wall.
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I think the OPer was intimating that we shouldn’t be collecting documented specimens, ie killing insects…
I watch my wife kill cockroaches (when she can’t convince me to do it), spray chemicals to kill bugs en masse, splat flies with a swatter, drown ants with boiling water, and then casually as you please comment on how cruel I am when I freeze a moth and pin it. The world is full of hypocrites!
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The “Meet Your Neighbours” style mentioned earlier is similar to this, and I think a white sheet and a flash or two can achieve a similar effect with some post-processing? But regardless of the name I agree this isn’t an uncommon method of photographing small animals.
I’m gonna give away a friend’s secret…He has a wonderful collection of super macro spider photos with a white background…all photographed in his…bathtub! He captures for the shot, then releases back into their home. By the way he got a spider named after him. Not bad for an amateur naturalist.
Herp folks will often hold their hand over small snakes and lizards, pre-focus the camera, then quickly lift their hand and shoot the photo. The sudden onslaught of light will cause the critter to freeze before scampering away. Works for most insects, too. If you do it on a card stock it helps with focusing, but a boulder makes for a more interesting shot (IMO).
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I can remember being horrified when I first encountered someone putting insects on leaves to get a more “natural” shot. I think it happens more than people realise!
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Some I photograph live at sheets near lights, others I photograph after refrigeration, live on a white platform.
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i remember at a CNC event my mom found a dead moth and i asked the people if i could keep it (since it was in an endangered ecosystem) and the person said sure but before he gave it back to me he propped it up on a tree and took a picture!
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The asking of this question shows a lack of understanding of the difficulty of taxonomic classification of insects, and the vital role both inat and private collectors play in this task. The ONLY reliable means of identifying a large percentage of insects is thru collection and analysis of the specimen, including dissection (especially moths). Insects are so plentiful that no collecting methods will significantly impact insect populations on a local scale. Rather, these collections, if done properly, will yield valuable data for future generations.
I could talk for days about how difficult it is to map out populations without large numbers of collectors contributing to the process. It’s not like sampling large mammals, that cover huge areas and are easily seen if they exist. New species are constantly being discovered in the insect world, and there is no way to accurately describe insect population patterns without loads more data. Insect populations are very cyclical, and go up and down in numbers by huge percentages. It’s impossible to accurately state if a population is expanding or dropping, especially due to some man-made activity without loads more collectors around the world.
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