Introduction

Insect collecting refers to the collection of insects and other arthropods for scientific
study or as a hobby. Because most insects are small and the majority cannot be identified
without the examination of minute morphological characters, entomologists often make and
maintain insect collections. Very large collections are conserved in natural history museums
or universities where they are maintained and studied by specialists. Many college courses
require students to form small collections. There are also amateur entomologists and
collectors who keep collections.
Historically insect collecting has been widespread and was in the Victorian age a very
popular educational hobby. Insect collecting has left traces in European cultural history,
literature and songs, for example, Georges Brassens's La chasse aux papillons, The Hunt for
Butterflies. The practice is still widespread in many countries, and is particularly common
among Japanese youths.
Entomology is the scientific study of insects, a branch of zoology. In the past the term
"insect" was more vague, and historically the definition of entomology included the study of
terrestrial animals in other arthropod groups or other phyla, such as arachnids, myriapods,
earthworms, land snails, and slugs. This wider meaning may still be encountered in informal
use.
Like several of the other fields that are categorized within zoology, entomology is a
taxon-based category; any form of scientific study in which there is a focus on insect-related
inquiries is, by definition, entomology. Entomology therefore overlaps with a cross-section of
topics as diverse as molecular genetics, behavior, biomechanics, biochemistry, systematics,
physiology, developmental biology, ecology, morphology, paleontology. At some 1.3 million
described species, insects account for more than two-thirds of all known organisms, date back
some 400 million years, and have many kinds of interactions with humans and other forms of
life on earth.
Entomology is rooted in nearly all human cultures from prehistoric times, primarily in
the context of agriculture, especially in biological control and beekeeping, but scientific study
began only as recently as the 16th century.
William Kirby is widely considered as the father of Entomology. In collaboration with
William Spence, he published a definitive entomological encyclopedia, Introduction to
Entomology, regarded as the subject's foundational text. He also helped to found the Royal
Entomological Society in London in 1833, one of the earliest such societies in the world;
earlier antecedents, such as the Aurelian society date back to the 1740s.
Entomology developed rapidly in the 19th and 20th centuries, and was studied by large
numbers of people, including such notable figures as Charles Darwin, Jean-Henri Fabre,
Vladimir Nabokov, Karl von Frisch and two-time Pulitzer Prize winner E. O. Wilson.