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by Martin H VilletHow to Collect and Preserve Insects and Arachnids. 2nd Edition. V.M. Uys & R.P. Urban (Eds.). Plant Protection Research Institute Handbook No 7. Agricultural Research Council, Pretoria, South Africa. 2006. iv + 112 pp. (softcover, spiral binding). ISBN 1-86849-311-3. This guide is a compilation of the combined and authoritative expertise of twelve of the staff of the National Collection of Insects, housed within the Agricultural Research Council in Pretoria. Its first edition appeared in 1996 and was reprinted in 1998, and has proved popular enough to warrant further printing. Since the first edition, the increasing need to preserve specimens for molecular analysis and the discovery in South Africa of two new groups, the Mantophasmatodea and the Palpigradi, have made merited a second edition. The book contains two parts: a guide to the higher classification of insects and arachnids, and five chapters on collecting and curation of specimens. The guides to classification of insects and arachnids are annotated lists of the orders occurring in Southern Africa that are not easy to use because they are alphabetical (by technical name) rather than phylogenetic (which would at least facilitate identification because similar taxa would be closer together). They are illustrated with only a few simple drawings. Fortunately, the accompanying keys for identifying the orders compensate for these anomalies. The section also contains short, quirky bibliographies that include superficial pocket guides, authoritative general texts and narrow specialist journal articles. Chapter 1 of Part 2 is a comprehensive catalogue of nets, traps and rearing paraphernalia that are described and illustrated in sufficient detail that most people would be able to make and deploy them successfully. A useful list of recommended techniques for each order completes the chapter. The next chapter details various killing and storage techniques, and the third chapter gives drawings, photographs and detailed notes on the preservation of specimens, with useful recommendations for standard methods for each order. Chapter 4 covers the disparate subjects of labels and labelling standards, and the dispatching of specimens, principally by mail or courier. Finally, Chapter 5 gives advice on permanent storage and the curation of collections, including pest control. Each chapter ends with a relevant bibliography. The information and advice in this Part is excellent, and provides a very good grounding for anyone interested in making a collection, whether as a hobby, to create voucher material for a consulting contract, or to enhance a museum or research institution. A few appendices present a code of ethical practice for collectors; notes on geographical co-ordinates; recipes for some preservatives; contact details for entomological suppliers and societies; and a glossary of morphological terms. The index provides adequate access to the text. The spiral-bound format is useful because it allows the book to lie open on a workbench so that one can consult it while practicing a preservation technique. I thought of a few changes to the layout of the book that might make it even easier to use, but as things stand, it is a valuable resource in a subject area where most of the texts are out of print and hard to acquire. The Agricultural Research Council is to be congratulated for keeping this book in print. More information:
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Professor Martin
H. Villet is a contributor to Science in Africa magazine and is with the
Department of Zoology & Entomology at Rhodes University in Grahamstown, South Africa.