Basics 1: Collecting with Evan Waite

In part 1 of Taxonomy Basics, Evan Waite from Arizona State University teaches us all about collecting entomological specimens. From which traps to use to tips on sharing your collection with others, Evan gives us all of the details with some great stories along the way.

Evan is a coleopterist and PhD Candidate at Arizona State University. His work focuses on ground beetles, but he’s broadly interested in beetle diversity and has a personal collection that includes over 2,000 specimens from all across the arthropod world. His collecting and taxonomic work has taken him across the country to many unique habitats, as well as a variety of entomological collections. 

Taxonomy Basics is a three part series on basic components of species description including collecting, preserving, and describing new species. This series focuses on entomological specimens, but has concepts that work across disciplines. Listen in as Evan Waite, Ashleigh Wiffin, and Marc Milne share their guidelines and discuss important concepts in taxonomy, curation, and beyond. 

Connect with Evan online: @Evantomology on all platforms

Read Evan’s paper about collecting bias, including a case study:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10323768/

Watch Evan’s talk “A Journey from Bugs to Birds” here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=asZWkrmAXZ4&t=3s

Chris Grinter’s website with a guide to collecting permits:

https://www.theskepticalmoth.com/collecting-permits/

UC Davis guide: How to Collect Insects: https://bohart.ucdavis.edu/how-collect-insects

A transcript of this episode can be found here:

Evan Waite - Transcript

Episode image credit: Evan Waite

Be sure to follow New Species on Twitter (@PodcastSpecies) and Instagram (@NewSpeciesPodcast) and like the podcast page on Facebook (www.facebook.com/NewSpeciesPodcast)

Music in this podcast is "No More (Instrumental)," by HaTom (https://fanlink.to/HaTom)

If you have questions or feedback about this podcast, please e-mail us at [email protected]

If you would like to support this podcast, please consider doing so at https://www.patreon.com/NewSpeciesPod