Turkish 'insects museum' collecting bugs for 82 years

By Ayse Busra Erkec and Mehmet Kara

ISTANBUL (AA) - An "insects museum" in Turkey has been keeping and displaying bugs collected from around Turkey since 1937 in Istanbul University Cerrahpasa Faculty of Forestry.

Erdem Hizal, an academician in the department of Forest Entomology and Protection, told Anadolu Agency that samples obtained are being examined at the laboratory under appropriate conditions and are getting further transformed into the biological museum materials.

"Insects had always been my first love," Hizal said, adding that he spent his childhood "in touch with nature" in a village, and decided to specialize in this area because of his love of nature.

As part of forest entomology, Hizal said he conducted research and studies on the distribution, biology and damages of insects that cause harm in forests, and kept exchanging ideas in this field with his colleagues and scientists from around the globe.

He currently he works on invasive species that are particularly important implications for forest and agricultural areas in Turkey.

Pointing out that it is compulsory to obtain special permission from Turkey's General Directorate of Nature Protection and National Parks for conducting scientific studies in the field, Hizal said collecting bugs without a permission is a "serious crime" forbidden by law and is considered bio-smuggling.

"There are around 1 million identified insect species in the world, and even more are waiting to be identified," he said.

Noting that it is not an easy job to analyze insects, Hizal said: "When you pick up an insect, you may think it's a species you know, but after the examination we observe that there are huge differences."

He said entomologists have specialized in certain areas due to the huge variety of insects in nature and they send species to experts when examining for accurate results.

"A mis-examination means mis-naming," he added.

He underlined that the technique of sticking is used in small insects, while the needling technique is being implemented in large insects for transforming them into biological museum material in the laboratory.

"All limbs need to be complete and accurate, and after the diagnostic work, we keep these samples and collections history," Hizal said, stressing that the samples in the collection vary according to the storage conditions.

* Writing by Jeyhun Aliyev