Insect Collections as a Reservoir of Insect Genetic Resources

Abstract

Insect museums across the globe are gaining immense attention post issues of biodiversity loss estimation. The biggest question during the present times is the accurate assessment of insect species diversity and biodiversity accountability in terms of what amount of insect biodiversity is lost due to anthropogenic factors. However, many of the countries still do not possess a precise and standard dataset of their insect biodiversity and thus it is not possible to assess the loss holistically. Here comes the inevitable role of insect museums in documentation of the species present in their collections and furthermore translation of their dataset into extant and extinct species. This paper presents the role of insect collections and their databases in Insect Genetic Resources.