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Still odd one's reaction to seeing a neat living creature is to immediately kill it and mount it.

toss1 4y ago
Yes, especially these days when we are driving the 6th mass extinction event, and we have all kinds of other options for documentation. It was one thing a century and a half ago when wildlife was still close to plentiful. Now, take some photos and videos, log the location & conditions, and let it live... Killing & mounting isn't science anymore, it's a snuff fetish. EDIT: Yes, I get it, it was one insect and in this case he didn't even realize it was rare until years later, and often getting hand-on DNA helps, and overlighting, pollution, habitat destruction are far larger drivers. But teaching the habit of collecting and mounting bugs goes far beyond the handfuls of PhD entomologists. I remember being taught about it and encouraged in something like 6th grade. It's not harmless like collecting stamps and, unless you're going to actually do DNA analysis on that sample, still seems to me like more of a cargo-cult/fetish activity, so I'd hope we could get beyond it.
- ceejayoz 4y ago
  > Now, take some photos and videos, log the location & conditions, and let it live... From the article, a microscope and DNA testing were required to confirm: > "We were watching what Dr. Skvarla saw under his microscope and he's talking about the features and then just kinda stops," said Codey Mathis, a doctoral candidate in entomology at Penn State. "We all realized together that the insect was not what it was labeled and was in fact a super-rare giant lacewing. I still remember the feeling. It was so gratifying to know that the excitement doesn't dim, the wonder isn't lost. Here we were making a true discovery in the middle of an online lab course." > For additional confirmation, Skvarla and his colleagues performed molecular DNA analyses on the specimen. Since confirming its true identity, Skvarla has deposited the insect safely in the collections of the Frost Entomological Museum at Penn State, where scientists and students will have access to it for further research.
- adrianN 4y ago
  I bet there are a lot of sciency things you can do to a specimen that you can't do to a photograph of a specimen. And it's not like a few thousand specimens in museums are driving mass extinction. It's habitat destruction and climate change.
  - atkailash 4y ago
    [dead]
- AlexandrB 4y ago
  When it comes to insects, I think your anger is misplaced. Capturing and mounting a specimen hardly makes a dent compared to how many die on car windshields, due to pesticide use, or from loss of habitat. Adult insects also tend to have a short life - for many species only one season. And in this case the collection was done for a valid scientific purpose, not just for funsies.
  - reaperducer 4y ago
    Capturing and mounting a specimen hardly makes a dent compared to how many die on car windshields Well, the point here is that this was a "rare" insect. Comparing the number of a particular rare insect to the number of common mosquitoes doesn't make sense.
    - blendergeek 4y ago
      And when he captured and mounted it, he thought it was a common insect. He only realized it was a rare insect 8 years later.
    - sokoloff 4y ago
      The predation load on the insect population from all entomologists worldwide is infinitesimal. Capturing and mounting an insect will almost surely not change the course of that species' survival.
  - positr0n 4y ago
    Plus, most insects lay thousands and thousands of eggs. Whatever the carrying capacity of the local environment is, insects will fill it quickly. Pesticide use and loss of habitat make that carrying capacity smaller. Smashing bugs on your car windshield and collecting specimens just makes room for more juvenile bugs to survive to adulthood in a few hours/days.
sliken 4y ago
Heh, well driving a car at 60 mph during on the wrong day on the wrong road would kill 100x more bugs than a entomologist does in their entire career.
stevenwoo 4y ago
Reminds me of the guy killing the oldest extant tree specimen to get their core sampler out. https://www.radiolab.org/episodes/91722-be-careful-what-you-plan-for https://www.radiolab.org/episodes/91722-be-careful-what-you-...
subsubzero 4y ago
As an aspiring entomologist (when I was younger) its very common. I would have put it in a jar when I got home and observed it but you have to know that insects have very short lives and one in a polluted urban setting would not live long anyways. I think people conflate insects lifespans with mammals(which can be as long or longer than humans).

Yes, especially these days when we are driving the 6th mass extinction event, and we have all kinds of other options for documentation. It was one thing a century and a half ago when wildlife was still close to plentiful. Now, take some photos and videos, log the location & conditions, and let it live... Killing & mounting isn't science anymore, it's a snuff fetish. EDIT: Yes, I get it, it was one insect and in this case he didn't even realize it was rare until years later, and often getting hand-on DNA helps, and overlighting, pollution, habitat destruction are far larger drivers. But teaching the habit of collecting and mounting bugs goes far beyond the handfuls of PhD entomologists. I remember being taught about it and encouraged in something like 6th grade. It's not harmless like collecting stamps and, unless you're going to actually do DNA analysis on that sample, still seems to me like more of a cargo-cult/fetish activity, so I'd hope we could get beyond it.

ceejayoz 4y ago
> Now, take some photos and videos, log the location & conditions, and let it live... From the article, a microscope and DNA testing were required to confirm: > "We were watching what Dr. Skvarla saw under his microscope and he's talking about the features and then just kinda stops," said Codey Mathis, a doctoral candidate in entomology at Penn State. "We all realized together that the insect was not what it was labeled and was in fact a super-rare giant lacewing. I still remember the feeling. It was so gratifying to know that the excitement doesn't dim, the wonder isn't lost. Here we were making a true discovery in the middle of an online lab course." > For additional confirmation, Skvarla and his colleagues performed molecular DNA analyses on the specimen. Since confirming its true identity, Skvarla has deposited the insect safely in the collections of the Frost Entomological Museum at Penn State, where scientists and students will have access to it for further research.
adrianN 4y ago
I bet there are a lot of sciency things you can do to a specimen that you can't do to a photograph of a specimen. And it's not like a few thousand specimens in museums are driving mass extinction. It's habitat destruction and climate change.
- atkailash 4y ago
  [dead]
AlexandrB 4y ago
When it comes to insects, I think your anger is misplaced. Capturing and mounting a specimen hardly makes a dent compared to how many die on car windshields, due to pesticide use, or from loss of habitat. Adult insects also tend to have a short life - for many species only one season. And in this case the collection was done for a valid scientific purpose, not just for funsies.
- reaperducer 4y ago
  Capturing and mounting a specimen hardly makes a dent compared to how many die on car windshields Well, the point here is that this was a "rare" insect. Comparing the number of a particular rare insect to the number of common mosquitoes doesn't make sense.
  - blendergeek 4y ago
    And when he captured and mounted it, he thought it was a common insect. He only realized it was a rare insect 8 years later.
  - sokoloff 4y ago
    The predation load on the insect population from all entomologists worldwide is infinitesimal. Capturing and mounting an insect will almost surely not change the course of that species' survival.
- positr0n 4y ago
  Plus, most insects lay thousands and thousands of eggs. Whatever the carrying capacity of the local environment is, insects will fill it quickly. Pesticide use and loss of habitat make that carrying capacity smaller. Smashing bugs on your car windshield and collecting specimens just makes room for more juvenile bugs to survive to adulthood in a few hours/days.

sliken 4y ago

Heh, well driving a car at 60 mph during on the wrong day on the wrong road would kill 100x more bugs than a entomologist does in their entire career.

stevenwoo 4y ago

Reminds me of the guy killing the oldest extant tree specimen to get their core sampler out. https://www.radiolab.org/episodes/91722-be-careful-what-you-plan-for https://www.radiolab.org/episodes/91722-be-careful-what-you-...

subsubzero 4y ago

As an aspiring entomologist (when I was younger) its very common. I would have put it in a jar when I got home and observed it but you have to know that insects have very short lives and one in a polluted urban setting would not live long anyways. I think people conflate insects lifespans with mammals(which can be as long or longer than humans).