This summer I’m digitizing the Syrphidae (Hover Fly) and Aculeata (Stinging wasp and bee) specimens of the Penn State University Collection. It’s my first time imaging insect specimens and their data as a primary focus of work. I’ve enjoyed trying out the gear and set ups here at the Frost Museum.
Below is a photo of the main set up that I use. The red tape lines allow software to sort the sections of the image into different categories: insect specimen, collection information, determination information, unique identifier (unique number and barcode), color and size reference, misc info, and photographer & repository names. The glass dish on the right serves as the unique identifiers pool. I take one out and place it in the photograph with the specimen. When returning the specimen back to it’s place in the collection, I put the unique identifier label on the pin with the original specimen information labels.
Lighting is key to obtaining an ideal image. I surrounded the subject area with white panels to help distribute and soften the light emitted from the fixtures. It doesn’t look very pretty – there are gobs of tape and pins holding different parts together – but it works. It makes a huge difference and greatly contributes to a pretty final image. What ever takes to properly light up the stage!
We came across a hurdle when it came to the color reference pad. The one we had was too big! It took up too much space. The focus is supposed to be on the specimen and information yet the color reference pad took up 1/3 of the frame.
The picture below is of one of the larger vespid wasps in the collection. If the color pad made that look small, there would surely be a size issue when digitizing the much smaller hover flies.
We ordered a smaller color reference pad. This one is about the size of a penny. Vertical space is the limiting factor when it comes to zooming into the image. I’ll probably readjust the arrangement by rotating the ruler to a vertical position and repositioning it to the left or right side of the color reference pad. That would allow me to shift the lower horizontal red border upwards.
We have a GIGAmacro robotic imaging system that we will likely use to collect a higher quality, stacked and stitched, image of a representative of each species. More on that system in a future post!
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Check out this Frost Museum Instagram post that features some of the images that are finished and ready for transcription:
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