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I've not worked with keys and pinned insects since I was a student and even then, we knew there were some groups that would take forever to get even close....!

Things really have moved on with digital photography, though, and a lot of insects do seem identifiable from good, sharp photos, especially when many angles have been taken, and I do know that I need to get clear shots of wing veins for diptera (and am learning more which bristly leg/ hairy eye etc I need to focus on for ID purposes for different families!)

I do wonder if some keys might be adapted/ updated some day soon to be more usable based on photos not specimens... (maybe some already are..) as photo IDs are becoming useful for distribution recording schemes when photos get submitted to experts/ websites by photo enthusiasts without the need for collecting. Within weeks of starting to send out photos to experts and signing up to a few specialist sites, some of my shots of uncommon (or maybe actually just 'rarely recorded') species have already fed into recording schemes for Tephritidae, Conopidae and Ichneumonidae. With insect distributions changing all the time due to habitat loss/ climate change etc, I think that photo-based evidence could potentially become increasingly useful.

I'm sure collecting will still be needed for many IDs where genitalia dissection etc is needed, for reference collections, research etc, but for basic ID/ distribution recording purposes, maybe photo friendly keys might begin to evolve. Maybe that's wishful thinking.... and friends of mine who are museum based entomologists will probably tell me so, but personally I'm not planning to start collecting more than photos. With photo-friendly keys available, my photographic work might help professional/scientific entomologists more. Just a thought!

NickU