A drawer of moths from the donation of Mr John Campbell Keast.

Donation of the Mr John Campbell Keast Collection

The Australian National Insect Collection (ANIC) accepts donations of insect specimens.

• 1 April 2004 | Updated 14 October 2011

Mr John Campbell Keast, a solicitor by profession, had a love of moths since the age of seven.

In over 50 years, he built up a large collection of 85 drawers of meticulously set Lepidoptera, mainly moths.

Mr Keast was a friend and collecting companion of Mr Len Willan and Mr Ted Edwards for many years.

After Mr Keast's untimely death, his son Mr Simon Keast donated this valuable collection to the Australian National Insect Collection (ANIC).

Mr Ted Edwards and Dr Marianne Horak of the ANIC have recently transported the six cabinets of specimens to the ANIC in Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, where the material will gradually be integrated into the Collection.

Mr Keast's knowledge and his targeted collecting enriched his collection with a long list of rare geometrid and noctuid species, poorly represented in the ANIC. For example, a splendidly marked pink Oenochroma sp. from Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, area is only the second specimen for the ANIC.

Mr Keast's two specimens of Parepisparis dumigani will join the single Holotype already in the ANIC.

Find out more about Donating to the Australian National Insect Collection.