Collecting anything and future nature interest

[Chris Raper]

On Tue, 29 Jun 1999 18:04:15 +0100, "Andy Harmer"
<xcj80 at dial.pipex.com> wrote:

>There is definately a cultural difference in America's collecting
>mentality. This type of activity in England is limited to a small amount  of
>academics or schoolboys who grow out of it .

Hang on - I object to being called either of those things :-)  I'm
neither academic nor a schoolboy ... although I might behave like one
sometimes ;-)

But on a more serious note, in the UK there must be very few academic
_butterfly_ collectors and if there were I would expect that they
would probably have good reason for doing it. As for kids, I don't see
anything wrong in kids making a small insect collection - if it is
done responsibly under the guidance of an adult. If we deter kids from
collecting _any_ insects we risk turning them off from more serious
amateur entomology (dipera, hymenoptera etc) in later life.

Best wishes,
Chris R.