treasures behind at the museum
We’ve got the beetles. And many more stars
Ashleigh Whiffen got the bug for insects while studying forensic science at university.
Now, as assistant curator of entomology at the museum’s collections and research site, she oversees the care and storage of more than two million dead bugs.
She said: “We have 2.2million insects here – beetles, butterflies, moths, wasps, spiders, you name it, we have it.
“Some of them are terribly tiny but others are much bigger than you might expect.
“We have lots of specimens that you will find in Scotland but the rest are from all over the world.
“Visitors are usually drawn to the more famous or colourful specimens, such as morpho butterflies from South America, moon moths from North America, atlas moths from Thailand and birdwing butterflies, the biggest butterflies in the world.
“We’ve got stunning beetles and tarantulas too. Our collection is 230 years old and we even have beetles from Charles Darwin.
“If everything was on display all the time, they would fade considerably.
“There are some insects we don’t like because they would destroy our collection – live moths – so we keep all the specimens in air-tight, sealed drawers and we keep each of the drawers in protected cabinets, which are mostly nice and dark.”