The Role of Entomological Collections in Research and Education

The role of entomological collections in research and education in Malaysia cannot be overemphasized. Historical collections of specimens provide extremely important baseline information on how the range, abundance and form of species may change over time. The knowledge and information from the specimens collected are indispensable to conservationists involved in the efforts of conserving biodiversity.

Characterization of Biodiversity

The characterization of biodiversity depends critically on the contributions of three scientific disciplines. Taxonomy provides the reference system and depicts the pattern or tree of diversity for all organisms. Genetics gives a direct knowledge of the gene variations found within and between species. Ecology provides knowledge of the varied ecological systems in which taxonomic and genetic diversity is located, and of which it provides the functional components.

Inventorying and monitoring biodiversity: Inventorying is the surveying, sorting, cataloguing, quantifying and mapping of entities such as genes, individuals, populations, species, habitats, biotopes, ecosystems and landscapes or their components. Inventories are therefore more than simply lists of names. They involve the extensive application of systematics, ecology, biogeography and management.

While inventories provide a snapshot of the state of biodiversity and baseline information for the assessment of change, the recording of these changes is monitoring. Succinctly stated, monitoring of biodiversity involves intermittent surveillance of the above entities to ascertain the extent of changes in a system. It is usually goal-oriented and provides a strategic framework for predicting the behavior of key variables for improving management and providing early warning of pending changes within the system.

Biodiversity inventories and monitoring provide the essential biological information for many biological sciences, including systematics, population biology and ecology, as well as for many applied sciences, such as biotechnology, soil science, agriculture, forestry and fisheries science, conservation and environmental sciences. Both inventorying and monitoring are vital for identifying key issues for policy and management goals. They are important in assessing priorities for conservation, land use and sustainable management, pollution control, environmental impact assessment, and for informing policy makers and the public on the state of biodiversity.

Conservation planning and management: In selecting conservation areas such as national parks or nature reserves, the most common procedure has been to produce conventional inventories that cover selected vertebrates or angiosperms for the faunal and floral components respectively. Unfortunately, reserves selected for their contribution to vertebrate or angiosperm diversity do not make equal contributions to the conservation of invertebrate diversity such as the insects and microorganisms. The determination of rarity and endemism among many invertebrate groups is extremely difficult. The discovery of possible rare or endemic insects for instance may necessitate determination of the geographical range of the suspected specimen by comparison across local and regional collections of voucher specimens. Rare species may be sent to the specialist for formal identification who would only be able to do so by comparing the specimen to holotypes housed at museums.

Biosystematics of biological diversity

Biosystematics or taxonomy is the study of the different kinds of living organisms, the variations among and between them, how they are distinguished from one another, and their patterns of relationship. Taxonomy as a discipline is important in providing the core reference system and knowledge base on which all studies on biodiversity depends. It provides the framework within which biodiversity characterization occurs.

Role of taxonomist in characterization of biodiversity: The Convention for Biological Diversity requires signatory nations to "identify components of biodiversity for conservation and sustainable use and monitor through sampling and other techniques, the components of biological diversity identified'. The Convention does not require signatory nations to provide a full inventory of all the components of biological diversity, but only those that are important for conservation and sustainable use be identified. While predictions can be made in the total number of species, they are no substitute to full inventory or enumeration. There appears to be no short cut to full examination of biodiversity. Predictive methods, such as the use of indicator species, latitudinal gradients, and mapping of hotspots, are of limited value when dealing with unique and ecologically rare species.

When faced with such a problem, the critical role of taxonomists becomes apparent. Taxonomists have the task of enumerating which species exist and placing them in a taxonomic hierarchy. The hierarchy is based on observations of comparative features such as morphology, anatomy, chemistry, behavior and life history. Therefore taxonomic hierarchy serves both as a classification used for reference purposes and also provides information on the evolutionary origin of the species.

Role of specimens in taxonomy: Collections of biological specimens serve many important functions in the characterization of biodiversity. The specimens needed by taxonomists cover a wide range of preserved biological materials including plants, animals and microorganisms. The specimens, to the best possible, must be accompanied with associated data such as morphological descriptions, illustrations, chemical compositions, sound recordings and genome sequences. Taxonomists need to see the widest possible range of specimens for the group under study. A full geographical and ecological range, plus specimens of differing life stages and temporal variations are needed. Each specimen collected in the field and deposited in one of the public collections is of potential value far beyond the particular study for which it was collected. One of the main tasks of taxonomy is to characterize the biological specimens so that they can be recognized, used and studied by others. The usage and giving of names is governed by the various international codes of nomenclature, which, for historical and biological reasons, are slightly different for certain groups of organisms. The object of scientific nomenclature is to provide a stable name for each organism.

The importance of scientifically identified and properly preserved specimens has long been appreciated by biologists (Danks, 1988; Earl of Cranbrook (1996). Such collections represent the primary data bank for taxonomic and biological information on our rich biological heritage. Malaysia, being the number four "hot spot or "megadiversity area after China, India and Indonesia, has a major part of its natural resources in the form of rain forest, with its vast range of plant and animal species. The extent of this natural biodiversity cannot be fully appreciated until the description, documentation and inventorying of the flora and fauna are undertaken.