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Post by obiwankenobi55555 on Apr 1, 2015 18:28:58 GMT
Hello to all,
I started this thread because I just want to know and see how you organize your drawers.
I'm just setting new drawers and making new look. Commonly all of you sort insects by genus. But someone sort specimens by size, value and so on. Every collector has final touch in their collections what makes every collection unique, I won't pick up your ideas, but I really want to see your drawer look.
When I was amateur, this organizing makes me largest dillema, because I had lot of spreaded insects, but I had vision about how my collection needs to look like.
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Post by deliasfanatic on Apr 1, 2015 20:26:28 GMT
To some extent it depends on your goal and the size of your collection, but I would always place "like with like", i.e. related species together. I collect some groups seriously, and others more casually...naturally, I have more specimens in those groups that I collect seriously. They're placed in phylogenetic order as much as possible. For example, in Delias and Papilionidae, I keep series, which are grouped together in columns. Subspecies of a species are grouped together, arranged west to east and north to south as necessary. If more than one species is in a drawer, they will be those that are most closely related. This arrangement continues through the whole collection, ranging through genera and families. In another group that I don't collect extensively - let's say a small genera of Nymphalidae - I will still use the same arrangement, placing the most closely related species together.  delias drawer27 1120 by D B, on Flickr |
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Post by Paul K on Apr 2, 2015 6:20:22 GMT
I organize my drawers by closely related species and also by locality they have been collected . For example here is my drawer of Sphingidae moths from French Guiana  and Nymphalidae family , Subfamily Morphinae, Morpho sp.  It is all up to one preference how to set up the drawers and how big is the collection too. Paul |
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Post by wollastoni on Apr 2, 2015 8:13:30 GMT
I also organize my drawers by genetic proximities. It is very useful to better understand differences and links between species and subspecies, evolution paths and so on. It helps me discover that some species/ssp are only forms of other species for example.  I should add some species labels like Danny, but it would be a huge task... and I would need more drawers/space. |
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Post by Adam Cotton on Apr 2, 2015 8:19:56 GMT
I agree with the replies above, it really does depend on the size and aims of your collection. The best way to arrange it is in a way that you personally find pleasing, useful and easy to find the specimens you want to look at.
Interesting that deliasfanatic arranges subspecies from east to west. I arrange mine from west to east.
Adam.
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Post by obiwankenobi55555 on Apr 2, 2015 13:18:59 GMT
Very interesting guys. It is very interesting this way of arranging by sides of world.
Can someone explain me, I saw lots of drawers, and 90% of them doesn't have labels with name, location, date and other data below specimens, like in museums. For me that is very nice because when lots of people want to see your collections, they look paper with data which is below specimen and they can freely read everything about that butterfly for example where are they from and etc. But most collector arrange their drawers without that detail, why? Maybe that data taking too much space or?
Thank you.
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Post by deliasfanatic on Apr 2, 2015 13:38:26 GMT
Good catch, Adam - that was an error. I meant to say "west to east" and I've now corrected it!
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Post by Adam Cotton on Apr 2, 2015 16:06:35 GMT
Ah, I thought that maybe it was a Delias 'thing' or perhaps the way they do it in the US.
Adam.
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Post by Adam Cotton on Apr 2, 2015 16:21:07 GMT
Very interesting guys. It is very interesting this way of arranging by sides of world. Can someone explain me, I saw lots of drawers, and 90% of them doesn't have labels with name, location, date and other data below specimens, like in museums. For me that is very nice because when lots of people want to see your collections, they look paper with data which is below specimen and they can freely read everything about that butterfly for example where are they from and etc. But most collector arrange their drawers without that detail, why? Maybe that data taking too much space or? Thank you. There are many types of butterfly collectors, some of whom value the data almost more than the actual specimen, and at the other end of the spectrum are those who are only interested in the butterflies for their appearance and are not interested in data or any labels at all. There can be two types of label in a draw as well, the specimen data label and a determination label, as visible in Danny's draw of Delias. My specimen labels actually combine a determination in the same label. As for "arranging by sides of world", perhaps I was not clear in my explanation. I arrange my species in classification order (so, Baronia is in the first draw, but subspecies are arranged west to east (or north to south) within each species as far as possible. Of course it is not always possible to arrange subspecies precisely in this manner, so for example with species found in mainland Asia and Australasia generally I will arrange the mainland subspecies first (including Japan here) and then work through the Malay Peninsula and Indonesia eastwards. Adam. |
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Post by deliasfanatic on Apr 2, 2015 17:22:10 GMT
I arrange Asian subspecies in exactly the same manner as Adam.
On specimen labels, I also include determination as part of the data label. I like using the taxon labels pinned to the drawer bottom, but I only use them for the groups that I collect seriously. In other groups, for example various Nymphalidae or other Pieridae, I dabble to various degrees but usually don't collect series. It doesn't make sense (to my way of thinking) to pin labels into the drawer if I have only one of this and one of that, but it would be foolish not to include the determination (taxon name) as part of the specimen label data. Otherwise, one may spend considerable time determining proper identification with look-alike species, only to forget it later if it's not part of the label data.
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Post by deliasfanatic on Apr 2, 2015 17:31:53 GMT
Here are a few examples that better illustrate my arrangement of Asian subspecies. I presently have 3 drawers containing Graphium sarpedon s.l. (it was divided into 8 separate species in a recent revision, which I've followed here); most of these 8 species are comprised of various subspecies, and I've arranged them as Adam and I have described above. It's not always possible to follow this method precisely if one wants to use drawer space efficiently, but in general I do it as closely as possible.  G sarpedon drawer1 1081 by D B, on Flickr  G sarpedon drawer2 1082 by D B, on Flickr  G sarpedon drawer3 1083 by D B, on Flickr |
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Post by trehopr1 on Apr 2, 2015 18:32:27 GMT
I can only say ------WOW ! That is some impeccable and admirable curation in my book..... Beautiful !
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Post by obiwankenobi55555 on Apr 8, 2015 9:20:58 GMT
One more question which is maybe out of theme I apologize. wollastoni, deliasfanatic and other collectors. Do you use glue to avoid torsion of specimen, or some other tehniques?
Thank you.
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Post by wollastoni on Apr 8, 2015 9:37:11 GMT
I never use glue.
I let my specimens one month on the spreading board and don't have problems of folding wings... except when I spread some leps that aren't relaxed enough.
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Post by Paul K on Apr 8, 2015 10:08:33 GMT
I used glue for some species which I had to reset due to folding wings ( small Noctuidae moths and some small Danainae from south and central Amarica ) , but they seems to be very staborn and fold down or up their wings even with the glue on again! I think to start use silica gel inside drawers to control better humidity which I think may cause dry insects to move in very not disire directions
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