Pinned Insect Digitisation

The Museum has over 25 million pinned insects in the collection with extensive taxonomic and geographic information dating back 300 years

i) Standard method (label removal)

The Digital Collections Programme has refined our pinned insect digitisation workflow and increased its efficiency by using temporary labels with Data Matrix barcodes that encode metadata about the specimen. The digitisation team can image up to 200-300 specimens per person per day, depending on the size and curatorial condition of the specimens.

For each pinned insect specimen an image is captured of the top (dorsal view) of the specimen with the labels adjacent. However, for some insect groups an image of the side (lateral) or underneath (ventral) may also be required. During the imaging process temporary metadata labels are imaged alongside the specimen. By using these temporary labels we can encode information in Data Matrix barcodes about the taxonomy, type status and the specimen’s location in the collection. These temporary labels enable us to create an inventory specimen record through semi-automated processes, which speeds up the process and reduces the potential for human error. Additional label data such as the date and locality where the specimen was collected, who collected it etc will need to be transcribed from the specimen labels post-imaging.

ii) ALICE method (no label removal)

‘Angled Label Image Capture and Extraction’ (ALICE) is an innovative workflow developed through the collaboration of the Small Insect Orders Curator Dr Ben Price and Digital Collections Project Manager Dr Steen Dupont. The aim of the ALICE system is to capture an image of a pinned insect specimen and its labels while they remain on the pin. By eliminating the need to remove the labels from the pin this has reduced the amount of specimen handling required, resulting in a breakthrough in the speed of pinned insect digitisation, increasing the average from 200-300 per person per day to 800-1000.

The ALICE system consists of a hexagonal lightbox with six static DSLR cameras that are focused on a centralised spot. These cameras simultaneously capture six images of the pinned insect and its labels as follows: top (dorsal) and side (lateral) view of the specimen and four angled views of the specimen and its labels. This method has been proven to work well for smaller insect specimens such as Diptera (flies) and Hymenoptera (bees, wasps and ants) where the specimen doesn’t obscure the labels.

For the majority of specimens, the upper label contains the most important metadata about the collecting event such as the date, locality and name of the collector. Currently, our Informatics Team and partners are developing software to extract the top label from the four angled images and transform them into a single label image thus eliminating the pin and other artefacts.  

As with the standard pinned insect digitisation method temporary metadata labels are included in the dorsal image, which are used to automate data capture in order to create an inventory specimen record in the museum’s database. Additional label data will need to be transcribed from the specimen labels post-imaging. 

For up to date news on the Museum’s slide digitisation please follow the Digital Collections Programme’s twitter and the Museum’s blog.