ABSTRACT
Museum collections are essential repositories of taxonomic reference specimens, underlying and substantiating data that inform conservation management decisions. From a taxonomic and education perspective, they are fundamentally important in the process of documenting life on earth, describing species and informing society about the value of biodiversity. Taxonomy is a discipline that is central to interpreting the global biodiversity crisis. Natural history museum collections contain historical biodiversity data spanning both space and time and hence play an essential reference role in long-term insect monitoring and conservation. They are requisite repositories for contemporary inventory survey samples, necessary for assessing rate and impact of global declines in insects, a process that is largely reliant on curation and taxonomic analyses of specimens preserved in museum collections. Often under-valued, biological collections are a key resource that demands funding for the preservation of existing heritage objects, and for ongoing development and expansion of their holdings as part of documenting the rich, but highly threatened, biodiversity on our planet. Escalated recognition of the importance of these largely government-funded museum collections is required to ensure the continued maintenance of a resource that is needed for providing baseline data inputs into effective long-term management and conservation of ecosystems.
