National Museums Scotland volunteer and author of Meetings with Moths on documenting British Lepidoptera
MEET THE VOLUNTEER
The entomology collection of National Museums Scotland is held at the National Museum of Scotland’s Collections Centre in Edinburgh. Ecologist Katty Baird works as a volunteer with the British Lepidoptera collection, documenting the number of different specimens onto a database. “This helps the museum know what material they have and where it is housed in the collections centre,” she says. “This makes it much easier for researchers to find the butterflies and moths they are looking for.” Katty also documents the details of some specimens – when and where they were caught – and adds these to the National Moth Recording Scheme.
“I have a particular interest in the moths collected by Alice Blanche Balfour, a naturalist who lived in East Lothian about 100 years ago. She recorded butterflies and moths in the same places that I now record moths. Her specimens and her notebooks are cared for by National Museums Scotland,” explains Katty. “It has been fascinating to compare not only the species she saw, but also the equipment and techniques she used.” Working at the museum has improved Katty’s knowledge of UK moths and she has also learnt a lot about how entomological collections are cared for.
“My main interest is in moths. I spend a lot of time recording them in the fiel
