Historical Stories and Researches of Insects specimen Entomology
  　　Under Japanese Occupation, the entomology research was focused on the research of insect classification. The large scale insect collection and specimen preservation became a most valuable historical asset in the present insects specimens, in which abound of specimens older than 100 years old and rare species. After the restoration of Taiwan, the specimens collected at that time were separated into two parts and stored in the insect hall of the Botany and Plant Pathology Department (presently Department of Entomology), and the applied Department of Zoology of the Taiwan Agricultural Research Institute (TARI), respectively, at Taiwan National University. The specimens in the TARI mostly belong to Coleoptera, Hymenoptera, Odonata, Lepidoptera, Thysanura, Homoptera and agricultural pests whereas the specimens in the entomology most are moths in Orthoptera, Hemiptera, Diptera, and Lepidoptera. So the amount of collection in the entomology hall and TARI insect hall are paralleled and entitled the biggest insect halls in Taiwan. Their collections are not overlapped, and they house distinctive specimens. It is worth mentioning that most collected specimens are difficult to understand if not studied in detail. Some questions might never be answered, in which the most well-known is Shiraki Collection.

　　Shiraki was the director of the Entomology Department of the Taipei Agricultural Research Institute, and chief of the Applied Zoology Department (the former TARI), and a professor in the sericulture (the former Department of Entomology) of Taipei Emperor University. He was regarded was the most influential scholar in the entomology field during the Japanese Occupation Period. The insect classification and specimen collection headed by him created the fundamental scale in the present insect halls. In 1913, he brought a large batch of insect specimens to the British Museum to undergo the appraisal and classification. He returned to Taiwan in 1916 and was known to bring numerous officially named specimens in Japan and the tropical area. Afterwards, he changed all specimens’ labels for unknown reasons, and it caused the agonizing confusion and disturbance in the academic research of collected specimens at Taiwan National University and TARI during the Japanese Occupation Period. The earliest problem happened in the beetles classification (see Chu and Hsiao(1981): (the so-called Shiraki Collection (the beetle part) summary)) ; However, it happened in the remote past, and most of the involved people had passed away. Besides, the Shiraki Collection is afraid to become an unsettled issue with the loss and damage of the information. In the process of National Taiwan University Insect hall Digital Archives Project, we did discover that many suspicious Shiraki Collection specimens and the main evidences came from obscure collection labels and specimens, which obviously did not originate from Taiwan or were not assigned to store in Taiwan originally. Among them, there were many preserved specimen labeled as the model series. Rational suspects showed that Shiraku brought many model specimens and stored them separately from general specimen, and even labeled them as models and directly put them in the insect hall in Taiwan. It was arduous to deal with these specimens. In order for being loyal to the museum collection, we had to manage them in the same way. However, from a professional view, there were many errors about places of origins, and incorrect labels. As the amount of insect specimens is huge, some doubts cannot be clarified in a short term. Only long-term and professional studies could find out the true identities of the falsified specimens. Maybe scholars all over the world can investigate the origin of the batch of specimens by Internet with the digital archives project, which might work as another function though the erroneous information.