Methods of photographing living Insects

Abstract

When teaching Entomology under University conditions, it is difficult to avoid giving students the impression that the principal, and perhaps the only, function of an entomologist is the examination of insect-corpses in great detail. Some years ago, when appointed lecturer on Entomology at the University of Sydney, I was faced with the problem of how to deal with this difficulty. Eventually I came to the conclusion that the only satisfactory solution of the problem was to obtain photographs of living insects with which to illustrate lectures, for it is almost impossible to arrange for students actually to handle more than a very small number of living insects. As the number of suitable photographs which have been published is small and quite inadequate for lecturing purposes, I found it necessary to take the photographs myself.