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Methods of collecting museum specimens

Museums specimens are collected from several areas eg soil, forest , water,rocks, air  etc. .  

Methods of collecting includes ;

(c) Hand picking – This method is suitable for large animals  or insects . However this method is tedious and slow .

(d) Betting – Involves use of nets to collect insects  (anthropods )  and aquatic animals . There are various types of nets  ie sweep nets  made of long sticks tied to a net. It is used to collect small animals especially insects

(e) Butterfly net –They are made of mosquito nets. Are used for catching butterflies in flight,

(f) Pond nets,

(g) Drag nets,

(h) Dip nets. They are used for catching water specimens

(i) Beating trays – used to collect insects  which rest on  branches . it is held under a branch  which is then beaten with a stick .for collecting land animals ,the following methods are used

(j) Trapping baits are used which attract animals towards traps  where they will be trapped. Traps normally work well  at night  and in the absence of the collector . There are many types of traps

(k) Sticky traps –for collecting insects that are active  at day and night . They consist of a cylinder  covered with a sticky substance

(l) Light trap – these consist of a bright bulb  placed  inside a standard  special container  . It is normally used for  nocturnal insects

(m)Water traps – consists of shallow trays  of water . The inside of such trays is painted white or yellow to make it attractive . few drops of a detergent   are added to water  to break the surface tension so that the insect  may sink

(n) Pitfall traps – Used for large insects and small animals. This may consist of a wide mouth container or a dark hole which is either left open or covered with a weak / delicate cover. The top of the body is leveled with the ground. As the animal moves across it, the fall into the container where they are collected

(o) Break-back trap or break jaws – They have strings that tightly grip the animal and breaks the animal jaws or backs therefore killing it

(p)  Small animals inside soil can be dug out using jembe, then   sieved and filtered out after mixing the soil with water