3 Collecting insects

Insects are a very diverse group and can be found in a wide range of habitats. There are many different techniques for collecting and surveying them. This section looks at three examples of insect-collection techniques before moving on to a citizen science case study.

Smaller insects can, of course, be difficult to spot in complex habitats, but your searching will improve with practice. They can be collected using a simple device called a pooter (Figure 12) and then transferred to a tube for later identification.

Figure 12 Collecting small insects with a pooter

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A pooter is used for collecting small insects. A specimen tube has two plastic pipes inserted through the lid. One has a glass mouthpiece attached and sucking on this draws a small insect into the other plastic pipe and down into the specimen tube.

Figure 12 Collecting small insects with a pooter

Activity 6 Survey of larger insects

Timing: Allow about 15 minutes

Watch the following video and identify the survey method being used. List some examples (including one you have already encountered) of where this survey method would be useful.

Download this video clip.Video player: Video 4

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Transcript: Video 4

WOMAN

Susan?

SUSAN BRANDES

Yeah?

WOMAN

Here's one here.

SUSAN BRANDES

Oh, yes.

MATT BAKER

Oh, what's that there?

SUSAN BRANDES

That's one of the blue damselflies. Oh, look, it's washing its head.

MATT BAKER

That's amazing. He's a very flexible chap.

SUSAN BRANDES

He is, isn't he?

MATT BAKER

And very striking.

SUSAN BRANDES

Yes. They're very vivid. It's amazing how quickly they can just disappear when they're so bright. They just disappear behind a leaf and they're gone. I'd walk around the reserve about once a week, or once a fortnight on the same route, looking out for dragonflies to see how many have emerged.

Oh, look, there's another one. That's a Four Spot Chaser.

MATT BAKER

A what?

SUSAN BRANDES

A Four Spot Chaser, much bigger than the damselfly.

MATT BAKER

Yeah.

SUSAN BRANDES

So if you look carefully, you could see it's got four spots on its wings. Well, four spots each side. So I suppose it's eight spots, really. 15 years ago, there were only three species on the moss. But now, there are-- 15 have been seen, of which 11 are regular. So that's improved a lot since the moss has been wetted up. And there's more water for the dragonflies.

And dragonflies are an indicator species. If they're there, then lots of other things will be as well.

MATT BAKER

Yeah. And how long have you been looking at dragonflies there?

SUSAN BRANDES

Since 2002. And it's been interesting to learn about them.

MATT BAKER

Did you know anything them before?

SUSAN BRANDES

I knew nothing at all about dragonflies, apart from they were pretty things that flew around.

End transcript: Video 4

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Answer

The survey method shown in the video is a linear survey, such as that used to observe plants and animals living on a beach. It could also be used for bird surveys, for example.