Last century I took an entomology class with a requirement to present a collection. Since retirement, I have gotten back into observing bugs and other organisms. I am enjoying trying to identify specimens (mostly arachnids and insects) from the photos I take, but it’s often not possible to get the I…

[image] flowntheloop: I talk to animals that I meet on iNat you would probably be regarded as strange … if you didn’t, talk to the animals ;~))

@DianaStuder @mamestraconfigurata I’m soooo thrilled to be in good company! <3

A number of years ago, I wrote an article summarizing why it’s sometimes important to collect insect specimens. It’s a bit dated now, but mostly still pretty relevant. You can find it here: http://www.albertalepguild.ca/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/Why_we_kill_bugs.pdf If people choose not to collect…

[image] KrisAtkinsonf: And thinking (during this anthropocene age) that we have the right to kill things if they lack a nervous system, You misunderstand me. Mainly, I was trying to counter the thinking that we have the right to kill things even if they have a central nervous system. Nonviole…

[image] jasonhernandez74: The paradox is that the notion of plants being ethically equivalent to animals was promoted mainly by anti-vegetarians who have few qualms about killing either plants or animals. while i am not certain i think this belief has been around in many indigenous groups for…

And I suspect those indigenous groups have few qualms about killing either plants or animals, if they are hunter-gatherers. Perform the right ceremony to honor its spirit, and killing it becomes okay.

i don’t think this conversation is going down a path that is going to lead anywhere good so i am not going to respond further to that.

Another reason to collect specimens that I haven’t seen in this thread (unless I missed it), specimens are the gold standard for documentation. Taxonomy changes, identification errors, or other issues can be addressed if specimens exist. There have been ecological and behavioral studies that lost v…

Good point. Yes, there have been ecological and behavioral studies in which having preserved voucher specimens allowed positive ID of the subject organisms, or allowed correction of the organism IDs that were used in the study but that were misIDed at the time (and sometimes, unfortunately, in a pu…

Here is an article on collecting Lepidoptera digitally and physically. iNaturalist is cited as a source for scientists. https://next.massivesci.com/notes/insect-specimens-database-community-science?__s=n5zfgy1wygsb8z2jtcoo&utm_source=drip&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Save+the+Butterflies+(08-10-21…

Pros and cons of specimen collecting

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Pros and cons of specimen collecting

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