Luc Leblanc is the Indiana Jones of entomology, said freshman Conn Evans, who works at the Barr Entomological Museum at the University of Idaho.
Leblanc is the current curator of the museum. He began working there in October of 2015.
“I got a permanent job as a curator of an entomological collection, which I’ve always wanted to do over the years,” Leblanc said.
One of Leblanc’s biggest challenges coming into his position was reorganizing the museum. He said there were boxes of things on the floor and on top of the cabinets. In the storage room next door, he said he could barely open the door.
This was a far cry from the clean, organized museum that visitors see today.
Carly Scott | Argonaut
Entomology Museum curator Luc Leblanc pulls out one of many trays of specimens from rooms of large, metal cabinets.
“I have a good sense of assessing things of what to keep, of what is of high scientific value and what should be discarded,” he said.
Leblanc said there were many samples without labels, or only with numerical codes.
“Every specimen needs a label to be scientifically valuable,” Evans said.
For Leblanc, the biggest challenge of the reorganization has been trying to track the people who left behind a lot of the samples.
The bulk of the museum consists of pinned insects. Leblanc said there are over a million samples of this kind.
However, he said right now the Lepidoptera (moth and butterfly) collection is getting the most action. Leblanc said there are over 30,000 moths and butterflies in the collection.
“We have (National Science Foundation) funding to digitize the Lepidoptera collection,” he said. “We have an undergraduate come in 10 hours a week to do this.”
Evans is this undergraduate.
Evans said he has always had a passion for entomology. He was taking classes at UI even before he was accepted. This was when he discovered the museum.
“I’ve loved entomology since I was a kid. I stopped by, and Mr. Luc had recently taken over curatorial duty,” Evans said. “While I was taking classes I stopped by every so often and got to know him, and eventually, he offered me a job.
It was Evans’ passion for entomology that caught Leblanc’s eye in the first place. Leblanc said the first time Evans came into the museum, he was looking at the collections and naming samples from memory. At that moment, Leblanc said that he thought to himself that he had to hire the student.
Evans’ work consists of photographing every butterfly and entering its data into the computer. He said he just finished 1,000 samples. He said it was a lot of work, but compared to the size of the collection, the project will still take years.
“It’s just about logging all that information, organization and compartmentalization,” he said.
One of his favorite things about working at the museum, Evans said is that it’s a hub for many scientists.
“Up until recently, (scientists) have been kind of mythical. Now they’re everywhere, it’s like bug scientists are actually real,” Evans said.
Evans said Leblanc is one of the people that has made the biggest impression on him. Leblanc’s specialty is tropical fruit flies, which takes him all over the world. Leblanc said this sometimes puts his curation work on the backburner.
“He’s lived in more countries than I could possibly name,” Evans said.
Evans said being around someone who is vocationally practicing is nice. He said Leblanc is a big help with things that aren’t related to entomology as well, such as life skills and problem solving.
Digitizing the butterflies is not the only work that still needs to be done at the museum, Leblanc said. One thing he has not gotten to yet are the slides of small insects.
“It’s all mixed. I have to consolidate everything into one, tight collection,” Leblanc said. “There are some slides that have become dried out and unusable.
Leblanc said he’s gone above and beyond his work hours to organize the museum, and there is still a lot to be done.
Though it requires many hours, both Evans and Leblanc said they love their jobs.
“Even though my contributions are small, I’m here to pick up the slack on things,” Evans said. “I’m just really happy to be here, and no matter how repetitive, I just really love my work.
Carly Scott can be reached at [email protected]