Labels

All of the pinned/carded specimens in my storeboxes have accompanying data labels, apart from some 1930s butterflies and a couple of Green Tiger Beetles that I inherited from an elderly chap (it was either that or they were going into a bonfire). In the early days these labels were gangly great handwritten things, often dwarfing the specimen itself. 

A couple of years ago Ali kindly provided me with some Skye-centric bespoke labels, which lasted surprisingly well, though ultimately I almost ran out. Thankfully Ali sent me extras last year which kept me going until quite recently. Since then, I've depleted stocks down to the point of almost non-existence. Happily, I finally managed to find someone with a printer and tonight all has been put right once more. I realise that this is a somewhat niche subject matter, but hopefully it will be appreciated by anybody reading this who has their own specimen collection. 

My data labels, in all of their glory. I should maybe mention now that henceforth I'm going to be recording the month in Roman numerals. There are different methods of transcribing dates across the world and the chances of transposing the months with the days is a real risk. I'm not reinventing the wheel here, this has been standard for some time. I've just finally gotten around to catching up.

First the where, when, who labels - I think I've covered my options with the following templates

NG3963 - my beloved home monad

NG4063 - the adjacent monad where I also spend a lot of my free time

Skye (without locality) - for all of the other sites I frequent on this magical isle

And the final site option - anywhere that isn't on Skye!

So that's the sites done, what else is there? Ah yes, the species and determiner.

Genus and species with me as collector and determiner

Genus and species where I'm the collector but somebody else is the determiner

Edit - CRAP!!!! Can't believe I've got the genus and species the wrong way around...cue more printing. What a complete and utter knobber!!!!

And a pic for scale, each label is 13x7mm in size, considerably smaller than my existing labels - ALL of which I'm going to replace with these new ones. Mark Telfer, upon seeing my 'travelling storebox' of specimens last month, quietly mentioned that the data labels ought not be larger than the card the specimen itself is mounted upon. I hadn't appreciated this, my collection must appear a hideous abomination to any self-respecting entomologist.  

Not much life left in that nib, looks like I'll be replacing my pen too!

I'm also changing ALL of the data label pins for these 38mm insect pins in an attempt to standardise my collection with other collections. Because, as Max Barclay once commented to me, "there are only two types of collection. Those that end up in a museum and those that end up in a skip". It's not something I've really given much thought to, but there may be a local museum that might like to receive my assortment of badly pinned and wonkily carded specimens someday. I'm not getting any younger after all, despite the Peter Pan nickname I was given some 15 odd years back. If nothing else, they can be used as an example to students of how not to card and pin specimens, ha! 

Right, you've been very patient reading through that drivel. Here's some beetle porn for you as reward

I'm sure everyone will instantly recognise this as being the aedeagus of a Quedius (Staphylinidae) beetle. My question is, does it look a better fit for fuliginosus or curtipennis (it keys through to this pair)? I'm (marginally) favouring the latter but would really appreciate your thoughts, guys. Comment below, please. Apologies for the big blob of glue in the lower image, I didn't realise it was there until after I reviewed the pic.

Now here's a song that always makes me smile. Firstly because it resonates with me on a deep yet calming level, and secondly because of the opening lines 

Once a label is on something

It becomes an 'it'

Like it's no longer alive