Collecting, Preserving and Studying Insects

Collecting insects may be either an end or a beginning.

Taken at its simplest level, just to build up and arrange a collection appeals to an instinct that is present in all of us. Compared with, say, stamp-collecting, it has the advantage of taking the collector out of doors, to spend sunny days in the country. Like photography and painting, with which it may compete in interest, it develops keen accurate observation, which adds enormously to anyone’s pleasure in the countryside. Whether these are suitable activities for an adult depends on whether we bring an adult mind to bear on them.

Nothing could be further from the truth. No one knows how many different kinds there are in the British Isles, and the figures for the world, given in Chapter IX, are a pure guess. What is more, te great majority of insects are little more than names even to specialist professional entomologists…