Barta IV通过Flickr

描绘现代博物学家

2014年期刊的社论自然标题为'自然下降’rightly emphasized a lack of natural history components in modern education. However, this editorial created an unnecessary dichotomy between those naturalists who engage in specimen collection, such as the scientist with the butterfly net shown below, and those who “clutch not sample jars but smartphones.” This distinction seemingly confirms or even strengthens the widely and publicly accepted prejudice that taking real specimens is outdated, while stating that “biological collections are on the wane as well.”

在说明自然历史活动和濒危物种研究时，我认为我们应该始终尝试画一张自然主义者的照片，这些照片超出了专门的观察​​者，他们“在智能手机上玩大角的猫头鹰的呼唤”。

收藏家和观察者：不相互排斥

对于许多当代制度和公民科学计划，现代观察和经典收集方法（而不是孤立）都特别有用。使用智能手机和适当的应用程序有助于现场研究人员在框架条件下记录许多重要数据 - 至少确切的观察日期和地点，也许是有机体的摄影记录，并且可以立即将这些数据发送到数据平台。但是，技术无法完全取代采用标本的某些好处，该标本提供1）对生物体的结论性识别，2）对困难或稀有物种的必要物理数据，以及3）选择在以后的研究中返回标本的选项，以防万一例如，物种状态改变或需要澄清。

一种n example from Europe is the often hard to identify Wood White Butterfly. For more than two decades we have known that there are two nearly morphologically identical species occurring in many sites in Central Europe:Leptidea sinapis和L. Juvernica（在西南欧洲的较小地区，甚至三分之一几乎相同的物种发生了：L. Reali）。Even with pictures, for example within butterfly monitoring schemes, it is hard to differentiate the species’ identity, and access to specimens from older records is critical to determine which species were present at these times, through precise identification.

收集文化和保护

昆虫(和probably other organisms as well), specimen collecting contributes to an immaterial cultural heritage that is increasingly threatened. Movement against collection has emerged from a misconception that taking voucher specimens would have negative consequences for populations in the wild. As a result, new regulations now prohibit many sample collection activities, especially by private collectors, conceivably with the aim of aiding conservation efforts. However, these negative impacts are likely overestimated, at least for the vast majority of insects, and do not necessarily outweigh the benefits of collection.

私有收藏远远超出了生物样品的范围，这增加了国家的努力，并以一种博物馆的方式促进了该传统的各种保存，而这是无法实现的。因此，数百年来，收藏家保护了文化遗产，并提供了我们今天仍然可以研究的基线样品。可以开采这些收集的数据，以发现随着时间的变化的更深入的了解 - 例如，这些因素可能导致物种受到威胁。可以简单地保护昆虫保护昆虫免受收藏家的假设可能还可以实现分散注意力的注意力来自最直接的问题：栖息地的巨大而迅速的破坏。

一种最近的研究由Habel等人作者。（2016年）保护生物学bob电子体育竞技阐述了蝴蝶种群下降的因素，得出了文献以及公共和私人收藏的结论 - 证明了收藏家和保护生物学家的协调努力，以对受威胁物种的保护类似。