By Helensburgh entomologist Dr Chris Reid

Christmas is coming and the goose is getting fat

Please put a penny in the old man’s hat

If you haven’t got a penny a ha’penny will do

If you haven’t got a ha’penny, God bless you

Yes, Christmas is coming. I used to sing that with my brother at the doors of our neighbours in Yorkshire. It seems like a million years ago in terms of the technological change that has happened since. The reason for this reminiscence is that I was recently asked by an eight-year-old for help with studying and collecting insects.

My own eight-year-old self was inspired by museum displays and my grandfather’s books. I set up an elaborate ‘real-life’ display in an old fish tank with carefully arranged and labelled dead insects on sticks and soil and some dried leaves and moss. It was in my bedroom. Everything went mouldy, of course, and got thrown out.

Maybe what I’m saying is – if you are keen on making an insect collection, do some homework!

The most significant change since I was eight is the internet. It is the great leveller – information is available to everybody who has access to it, from the home. Back to that later. But to make a collection you still need the same sorts of materials that have been used for the last 200 years. A net, a killing jar or liquid (or a ‘modern’ invention, the freezer), some mounting boards, some good quality pins that don’t rust, sealed boxes that keep insect pests out, a basic microscope or mounted strong lens, good quality paper for labels and a room with low humidity. The oldest insects curated like this in Australia are about 250 years old, in the Macleay Collection in Sydney University. So, if properly prepared, they keep well. Much as perfectly preserved flesh-eating beetles have been found in mummy wrappings in Egypt.

There are numerous sites on the internet providing advice about insect collecting. For some reason, I like the one I was involved in making, so here it is: www.discoverlife.org/png/collecting_insects.html. It was written for PNG students but works just as well for here.

But nowadays it is just as easy and useful to make an online collection of insect photographs, which experts from around the world can identify for you. The Chew family in Brisbane were pioneers in this field (www.brisbaneinsects.com) but such sites have to be set up individually and noticed. Now there is a worldwide forum for insect photographs and identification on iNaturalist.

I’m involved in a project on iNaturalist to record as many observations of Christmas Beetles as possible, so that we can start to get a handle on the decline of this beetle. Interestingly, by far the most commonly recorded species is an introduced one from South America, the Argentine Lawn scarab. This project is based on the Australian Museum’s Christmas Beetle ID app (download it on the App Store or Google Play).

I invite you to contribute! Have a great holiday break. 

For general insect enquiries, visit australianmuseum.net.au/learn/species-identification/
Email questions for Chris to editor@2508mag.com.au