Beetles #0045

 The collector: Dr Udo Schmidt, Germany.

The collection: Beetles.

The story behind the collection...

I studied veterinary medicine and then worked in meat research until my retirement in 1996. I have been interested in nature since my youth and dealt regularly with plants and animals. I find the world of insects with its variety of shapes and colours particularly fascinating. In early 1971 I devoted myself to the beetle species and started to build a collection. While collecting beetles in various biotopes I took every opportunity to collect butterflies, snails and plants as well.

 

Despite their uniform physique, beetles show a variety of shapes and colours which can't be explained by practicality or evolutionary adaptation. Darwinists and Neo-Darwinists come under pressure for failing to offer an explanation if  the beetles'  overwhelming variety of shapes and colours, combined with beauty and elegance, is solely traced back to the fact of random mutations and natural selection.

Compared with butterflies beetles are easier to dissect and you can find and collect them at any time of the year. However the classification of beetles is very difficult and often only conducted by specialists, especially if it is a non-European species. At the moment there are many species which cannot be classified at all.

My collection has grown to about 6000 species with over 30,000 specimens. Whereas I initially collected more locally, in the last 20 years I have extended my activity to more distant and tropical countries. Unfortunately as I have got older my opportunities for travelling have become more restricted.  In recent years I have mostly focused on the photography of beetles, both from my own collection and from the collections of museums and colleagues. With the invention of digital photography it became possible to take photos of a satisfying quality and share them through the internet.

Since more than 350,000 species of beetles have been classified, and so far I have published photos of just 1600 of them, there is absolutely no danger that I will run out of work. Besides, I have also started sharing the photographs of my little mollusc collection with the public.

Images © Udo Schmidt and used with his kind permission. Interview translated by Moritz Amelung.

Udo's websites: www.kaefer-der-welt.de and www.schnecken-der-welt.de.