This document discusses various taxonomic procedures for collecting, preserving, and identifying specimens. It describes methods for collecting insects and other organisms using various tools like nets, aspirators, Berlese funnels, and traps. It outlines the processes of sorting, relaxation, pinning, labeling, and storage of specimens. The document emphasizes the importance of proper preservation techniques like drying and use of fumigants to prevent pest damage to collections. It also discusses the roles of curators in cataloging and storing specimens and the methods taxonomists use to identify specimens by comparing them with published species descriptions.
2. Synopsis
Introduction
Taxonomic Collection
Mounting insects and Labelling
Preservation of Collection
Curation and Storage
Identification
References
3. Introduction
Taxonomy
Taxonomy is the science of defining
and naming groups of biological
organisms on the basis of shared
characteristics.
The classification of organisms is
according to hierarchal system or in
taxonomic ranks (eg; domain,
kingdom, phylum class, order, family,
genus and species) based on
phylogenetic relationship established
by genetic analysis.
4. Taxonomic Collection
Biological collection are typically preserved plant or
animals specimens along with specimen documentations
such as labels and notations.
Dry Collection
Dry collections consist of those specimens
that are preserved in a dry state.
Wet Collection
Wet collections are specimens kept in a liquid
preservative to prevent their deterioration.
5. Collection equipment and methods
There are various ways to collect animals. These methods
may be from picking up insects flying towards a torch light
in the evening to trawling or dredging for deep sea animals.
The later method requires elaborate and specifically
designed equipment operated by a crew of sailors and
scientists on an ocean-going vessel.
Now collecting is a highly specialized procedure in which a
collector concentrates only on a group of organisms.
6. Insect Net
It consists of a wire ring, a bag and a handle.
The ring should be 12-15 cm in diameter and
made of about 3mm iron of steel wire. The end
of the wire is straight which can fit into the
grooves of the handles
The bag is either of muslin cloth, fine nylon net
or any other material depending upon the
method and purpose of collection.
The small insects, lepidopterist can be removed
from the net with a killing bottle enclosing the
end of the net. Aquatic insects and other
arthropods are best collected by dip net and
plankton net
7.
8. Aspirator
It is a simple suction apparatus used for small
insects and arachnids. These are of several
designs. Transparent plastic is commanly used
for vial. Vial is sometime opened at one end
only.
The open ends provided with tightly fitting
rubber stoppers to avoid the crushing of small
insects which otherwise may crawl between the
stopper and the wall of the vial. Two glass
tubes of the suction tube for sucking through
the mouth.
Another type of aspirator is the bulb aspirator,
it is quite useful for the collection of mites,
small insects and spiders.
9. Berlese Funnel
It is quite useful in extraction and other small arthropods
from organic soils and leaf liter, It is a simple apparatus
consisting of a metal or plastic funnel having a wire mesh
on its bottom for holding the sample.
The narrow end of the funnel is received in a beaker or
any other container containing 70% alcohol with a few
drops of glycerin to avoid desiccation in case of the alcohol
evaporates.
The funnel in than covered with a lid having a hole in the
middle for an electric bulb. As the upper part of the
sample dries up due to the heat of the bulb, the organism
avoiding heat and start migrating deeper and deeper into
the funnel. They finally fall at the bottom of sample and
collected in a container kept below.
10. Floatation Method
This method is simple and also used to
extract insects, mites, and other
arthropods from the soil or matted
vegetation. It is also good for collecting
eggs and pupae of insects from such
materials.
The sample is thrown up in a basic
solution , containing a mixture of
magnesium sulphate in water in 1:3 ratio.
It is then stirred gently after sometime
the organisms start floating over the
surface of water from where they are
collected on a sieve or filter paper.
11. Killing Agents and Bottles
Cyanide bottle
It consists of a wide-mounted bottles with a well
fitted cork or lid. A layer of granulated potassium
cyanide is spread at the bottom of the bottle then
the powdered dry plaster- of-paris is poured over
it till it forms a layer of 1.5-2 cm thickness and
then 4-5 drops of water is added to it and then it
left for drying upto 20-30 hours.
A blotting paper is then spread over it for
absorbing moisture given out by the cyanide and
to avoid direct contact of specimen with killing
agent because cyanide canmake the insects hard
and brittle besides affecting their colors if left in
bottle for too long.
12. Ethyl acetate killing bottle or Tube
Ethyl acetate is also an effective killing agent
for insects, especialy hymenopterans etc.
Killing bottle is made up of glass having
cotton at the base soaked with killing agent
and then a blotting paper is placed over it.
Then the insects are collected in this bottle
and the bottle is corked tightly.
13. Benzene killing bottle
The method of killing insects and their preservation
depends upon the kind of insects involved. No one
method is satisfactory for all specimens.
Benzene killing bottles can be used to randomly collect
insects in at road side areas.
For the preparation of the killing bottle a layer of cotton
was placed at the bottom of a bottle.
Then a thin filter paper was kept over the cotton
Then 3-4 drops of benzene was added on top of the filter
paper to narcotize the insects
3-4 drops of benzene was added after every 15 minutes
of collection of insects for effective results
14. Traps
Anything that impedes or stops the
progress of as organisms to called a
trap. The performance of a trap
depends on factors such as its
construction, location,
timeرweather, temperature, and
type of attractant used if any. There
are many types of traps such as
window pane traps, Malaise traps,
Pitfall and dish یهtraps, Moericke
traps and other color traps,
Emergence and rearing traps, Light
draps, sticky traps,snap traps etc
15. Beating sheets
A beating sheet should be made up of durable cloth, preferably
white attached to a forame of about 1 meter square, with two
pieces of wood crossing each other and fitted in to the pocket of
each corner of thecloat .
The beating sheet should be placed under a free shrubs and
sharply beat the branches with a stick or club. The specimens
will falls on the sheet and can be removed with hands by picking
or by an aspirator or by moistened brush forceps .
Beating sheets are especially used for collecting beetles, true
bugs and larvae of Lepidoptera. Beating sheets is one the of the
best method of collection because it helps for collection when the
weather becomes cold or early and late in the day, when
normally active insects seek shelter in vegetation and are
otherwise difficult to defect.
16.
17. Sorting
Insects collected were sorted according to
their orders. Envelope were made up of
butter papers in which the insects sorted
were kept.
Date of collection, day or night collection,
area name and orders were written with
pencil on the envelope.
Envelopes containing insects of different
orders were kept together for further
process.
18. Relaxation
While insects should be pinned on the same
day they were collected, this is not always
possible. So before pinning these specimens
left in the killing jar too long, to restore
their flexibility, it is necessary to "relax"
them.
By placing them in a relaxing jar at high
humidity for a few days we can restore their
flexibility enough to allow pinning without
damage to the specimens.
19. Mounting
Pinning
Rest the specimen on a pinning block and steady
the insect by either holding it with your fingers or
holding it in place with a forceps. Place the insect
pin into the insect body. Insects are generally
pinned through the thorax on the right side.
Approximately 3/8 inch of the pin should be
showing above the insect body, enough so you can
comfortably hold the pin with little risk of
accidentally touching the specimen.
Once the insect is pinned you can spread the wings
by placing it on the spreading board so the wings
are level with the top of the board.
22. Drying
After the process of pinning the pinning board were kept in
oven for 3 days at 37 degree Celsius.
23. Preservation of Collection
Your collection should be stored in wooden storage boxes or
cabinets with trays. Boxes and trays are lined with cork or
foam. Wooden cigar boxes may also be used in which to store
your collection.
Your collection must be sealed tightly with a fumigant in
order to keep pests from destroying it. A fumigant such as
naphthalene (mothballs) or paradichlorobenzene* will deter
most pests, but your collection should be checked monthly for
damage.
25. Labelling
An unlabeled specimen is incomplete and unacceptable. Labels should
not be larger than 6x16 mm. Labels should be written in pencil, or
computer-generated. Every specimen must have the following
information on the label:
Specimen number and order
Geographic locality
Date
Stage (adult male, female or immature form)
Altitude or Depth
Host
Habitat
Name of collector
27. Curation
Once the animals are collected, labelled and preserved, the
next important job is of their safe custody, cataloguing, etc.
This is the work of a curator. Curating is a very important
task a taxonomist, especially when one day he is likely to
become the in-charge of a museum to look after the whole
collection. Curating is an extreme varied business that takes a
lot of time of most taxonomists. A curator then needs to have
an expert knowledge of his collection, the groups of animals
in which collections are needed, areas which need to be
urgently sampled , and the various policies with regard to the
use of such collections. His primary responsibility is to
*preserve the collection, to accumulate, maintain and
conserve a documented record of his collection.
28. Storage
Storage building should be:-
Fireproof, Dustproof, Earthquake resistant, Air-
conditioned.
Special care for type specimens:-
Type specimens should not be allowed to be handled
frequently. They should only be examined by experts. Avoid
their transport as far as possible. They should be stored
separately from general collection. They should be clearly
labelled in distinct colours.
30. Identification
The main purpose of identification is to determine what kind of
organism, a given specimen is.The process of odentification may
vary according to the stature of identifier.A professional worker
would like to go upto the level of species. Also the identification
of a specimen must be necessarily precede the filng of the
specimen into a scheme of classification. Thus, there is no sharp
distinction between identification and classification in
taxonomic practices.
Methods g Identification - After the collection, the specimens are
sorted out first and atleast identified up to order, family or
generic level. After this, the collection is studied by specialist for
precise identification
31. There is difference in the nature of identification by
specialist and non -specialist. The non specialist
includes those who plans to study taxonomy or
those who are specializing in a group or those who
requires names of a particuter species for other
kinds of works and studies. Such non-specialists
should seek the help of specialists for better
identifications. The basic function of the identifies
is to compare the specimens with the published
description of that species.
There are different methods available for
identification. All these methods are based on
comparison
32. Reference
Goswami S.C. 2004, Methedology Of Collection And
Identification, pp 55-67
Dalella And Sharma, Text Book Of Taxonomy, pp25-48
https://www.google.co.in
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Insect_collecting
