NOT the collecting debate :-)

[Chris Durden]

  I think you are right. As a child in England I was shown how to collect
butterflies. My father showed me how to pinch *Maniola jurtina*, but it
took quite a while before I could bring myself to do it. Other children
collected butterflies so I specialized in ground beetles and nomad wasps,
just to be different. I had the benefit of the "Wayside and Woodland"
series for names both Latin and English.
  When I went to Canada at age 12 I found no books to identify the
butterflies so I started collecting them and have ever since. Luckily I had
Gene Munroe as a mentor. I have collected many thousands. I save every
specimen collected. Today I find that I take more photos and spend more
time watching than I do collecting.

At 04:02 PM 1999:06:21 GMT, you wrote:
>
>Hi
>
>The recent discussions about NABA and the pro/anti collecting debate
>go me thinking. So I thought I would post the idea here and see what
>you think.
>
>My question is - are children who are allowed to collect butterfies
>more likely to grow into more serious entomologists - either
>professional or amateur? 
>
>I started collecting insects in match-boxes when I was a child and my
>interest has since developed from butterfly collecting to photograhphy
>through to moth trapping, conservation work, invertebrate recording &
>monitoring and more recently I have started to become interested in
>diptera & parasitic hymenoptera - where collecting is an essential
>part of getting to grips with the groups. I haven't collected
>butterflies in the UK since I was a kid and I have all but stopped
>taking moth vouchers - but I still believe that I wouldn't be as
>interested in general entomology if I hadn't collected insects as a
>child.
>
>My worry is that although butterfly 'watchers' are good for butterfly
>conservation, 'entomology' as a hobby still needs people who are going
>to go further and progress to the, more difficult groups like moths,
>flies and wasps. 
>
>What do you think?
>
>Chris R.
>
>