It is all a matter of scale. If it is a few people doing it as a hobby it’s of miniscule impact, but if it has potential to become an industry with the usual change in motives then there’s a discussion to be had.
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I looked into some insect farms a while ago and there are some interesting conservation stories behind them (or some of them) and the sale of insects in those cases funds things like rainforest protection and promotes protection of those insect species as they become a farmable commodity for indigenous communities. https://www.minibeast.co/Butterfly-Farming-Article
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Ah, yes, there is some very disturbing stuff out there - anthropomorphic taxidermy appears to have been all the rage during Victorian times (search for Walter Potter for some examples), and people still do it today and call it art. Other artists build tiny dioramas showing preserved insects engaging in human activities, so this seems to be something some people enjoy (certainly not everyone’s cup of tea). Gluing insect parts together to create small sculptures 3-4 times a year seems like a fairly innocuous and low impact activity in the grand scheme of things, especially if all the bugs are dead to start with.
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I think this is the only question you raised that matters. Leaving the squeamishness of using body parts aside are there reasons to worry about the sale of dead insects? Yes, of course. If insects are being harvested en-mass from the wild that is a concern. If insects are being bred in captivity does it matter if you feed them to your chickens, eat them yourself, or make art from them? I’d say less so. If rare insects are being harvested from the wild that is another matter entirely.
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I do not believe this is sustainable. Such specimens only depreciate, and the more of them there are, the less any one of them is worth. They aren’t even nonfungible!
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A taxidermist of course will justify their profession. One can hardly argue that taxidermy shows the greatest respect, though. That is reserved for the remains of humans.
There’s a roaring trade in human parts at the moment. Ex-scientific research body parts are fetching premium prices. https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2022/nov/29/jonsbones-tiktok-human-bone-seller-jon-ferry
When (and if they had a choice) someone donates their body to science I’m not sure they consider what happens to it once its use is finished. Probably not sat in some hipster’s oddity collection though.
How are humans different than other animals? When I go to a museum and see a cut through real human I don’t see it any different from drawing intestines of a cut quail in university. And I’m sure taxidermists show more respect than universities in that matter.
There’s no need to justify taxidermy, both from the view of using it for learning and aesthetic.
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Not to derail this discussion into the realm of the utterly disturbing, but human taxidermy does exist and the more ‘exotic’ the specimen the more popular during the Victorian age. People of the past did not necessarily share our modern day sensitivities. Many of these instances happened at the height of the slave trade. Fortunately, keeping stuffed humans on display is now considered highly controversial and I think most of them have finally been laid to rest in their countries of origin. There are still plenty of museums featuring mummies, shrunken heads and other human remains though.
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Well, If I can shop beetle elytra by the 10,000 online, maybe we have some conservation issues, don’t we?
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You will be glad know they are ‘handmade’
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Yikes. There is some suggestion that they are ‘farmed’ somehow or harvested after death but little evidence. They seem to have value and there’s demand so maybe it’s in the seller’s interest to sustain a good population of them. Not that this has ever protected any species in reality. Wikipedia says the beetles are eaten too and that has driven their decline.
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There is some modern, consensual, human taxidermy. Look up the Bodies exhibit
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There has been a small market in Cane Toads (invasive species) stuffed as humanoid creatures playing musical instruments. Absolutely not something I would ever want to own, but at least this involves pests.
Butterflies have been raised, killed, and mounted as whole butterflies in small scenes. Souvenirs. Very attractive. In this case the insects are kept as themselves, but it’s not really morally different from building sculptures out of them. If the butterflies are raised, it’s sustainable.
My concern would be about conservation. If that’s not an issue, this would fall into the large group of things about which I think nothing much.
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It is pretty clear that a good chunk of those parts came from insects that were purchased (there are representatives from Africa, Australia, Philippines, Central/South America, and more just among what I recognize). Also I very much doubt many if any of them were farmed, most are things like Buprestids or weevils that are not particularly easy - if even possible - to raise. I suppose that some, such as the Dynastinae, could have been raised in captivity, but that is unlikely as they are not easily mass-produced. So most if not all of those purchased were caught in the wild, killed, and sold.
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My earlier comment was about economic sustainability.
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There was a popular thing before, made out of buprestid elytrae, there may be more info on how these were received?
Also bowties: https://toadshop.com/cane-toad-leather-bow-tie
and coin pouches: https://toadshop.com/cane-toad-leather-coin-purse
No art is worth the pain, suffering or death of another living organism.
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What you’re describing is purposeful processing of an animal, not fashion, or psuedoartistanal products made by the decedents of colonizers.
I say no, but iNat admins (a number of corporate consultants) will flag and obscure this but this and other critical posts, and screenshots remain.