(rant?)
Please actually do your research before buying insect specimens online and taxidermy. Please.
"Ethically sourced" is an extremely subjective statement and it's also one sellers will slap onto their products in order to appeal to buyers more.
The same goes for "naturally dead" / "naturally sourced." This isn't always true.
The large majority of insect specimens and taxidermy you buy online will have come from insects that were killed for this purpose. Some of these insects will have been farmed/bred for this, mostly Lepidoptera (moths and butterflies) as they're easy to breed in captivity.
However, plenty of insects cannot be farmed on a large enough scale/ not farmed at all and so will have been wild caught just for the purpose to be sold. For example, cicadas or dragonflies.
There's a reason why shops seem to have a ton of perfect insects available for sale. A lot of insects are difficult to find already dead in the wild and it's also not unusual for insects to be damaged after natural death. This is for example one of the reasons why in entomology, insects have to be killed for study rather then found dead. But this isn't a post about scientific collecting/collecting for study.
Instead of being honest about how their insects are sourced, shops would rather lie and hide behind the label of "ethical" instead of being upfront about their sourcing.
There's also the issues of sketchy practices going behind the scenes. The owner of Bic bugs, one of the biggest specimen shops, was previously caught smuggling protected and endangered butterfly specimens into the USA.
https://www.cbsnews.com/losangeles/news/irvine-native-to-face-federal-charges-of-trying-to-smuggle-endangered-butterflies-into-u-s/
Oh and don't even get me started on how a lot of shops are seemingly allergic to listing their sources. They will say things like "we get our insects from farms/breeders/universities/museums etc" but not once have I seen a shop actually state their sources. Never. I've never heard of anyone get told by a shop this information either. These shops seem to never have any collection data either, no location, no collector info.. no nothing. They're scientifically worthless and it also just seems like a way to avoid being honest about sourcing.
Final thing, avoid any shop that sells bat specimens. These are always sourced through killing and this does include poaching. There's concerns of bat populations being threatened by this practice and also concerns over how these bats are being preserved and the risk of disease being spread thanks to the bat specimen trade.
Personally, I'd also consider any dried reptile and amphibian specimens as red flags aswell as there's a good chance these are sourced like bats.
https://unfortunatecadaver.com/pages/the-unethical-impact-of-bat-taxidermy
https://www.australiangeographic.com.au/nature-wildlife/2021/12/stop-buying-these-bats-scientists-and-conservationists-plead/
Please do your research before buying specimens if you're unsure and think twice before buying them. Don't impulse buy.
There's plenty of small collectors in entomology groups who might be willing to give away specimens they've found dead or collected themselves that they don't want anymore. There's breeders who might have dead insects they don't want. There's pet owners who might be happy to give away their deceased pets.
Do your research!!!!
