Project Objective

Our purpose in this on-going project, to grow the insect collection and conserve it within Sabancı University, to acknowledge the existence of these organisms and protect their environment. The tasks will include, collecting specimens from the university’s campus, pinning the collected specimens, label the specimen, identify the specimen and generate a digital key.

Insect Pinning and Labeling Techniques

Pinning is the placement of an entomological pin directly into the thorax of a specimen. Firstly, the pin will be placed in the insect thorax in the right position on the top step of the pinning block. The collection label will be positioned on the middle step then the insect identification label will be positioned using the lowest step. Very small insects can either be pinned with tiny needles or glued to tiny paper triangles on their right side. The later procedure will be ‘pointing’. The small insects will be picked up carefully with forceps and will be mounted by touching it on its thorax to the drop of glue. The insects will be adjusted so that it stays in place squarely, then the glue will be allowed to dry. After gathering, pinning and mounting, ‘labeling’ must be performed as soon as possible or important details can be lost. Labels will be created on the computer and printed or will be created with a good penmanship. Two labels will be placed on the pin below each insect specimen. Both labels will be of the same size and will line up parallel to the length of the body of the insect. The labels should be parallel to the length of the point in the case of pointing specimens. The top label should include the county and state in which the insect was gathered, the date of collection and the collector’s name. Finally, the name of the insect should appear on the middle mark.

DNA Barcoding