I apologize in advance for doing what I disapprove of in so
many queries - going to email before searching the literature -
but this just came up, so I thought I'd ask:

Our Natural History Curator is developing an exhibit about
life in a fallen log on the forest floor.  He's designing a
series of window cut-outs, with various ants, beetles, termites,
and whatever in situ [preserved specimens, not live] in
lifelike moving/eating/whatever poses.  Classical entomological
labeling practices for specimens in cabinets are to affix the
label somewhat flag-like at the top of a pin through the insect
and down into the foam base.

In these log views, with lots of small specimens, labels on
each one would obscure the view of the insects.  Are there any
brilliant alternatives to a sketch-type illustration alongside
the log with number codes showing which insects are where?  This
would put the interpretive text in blocks, so visitors could
look back & forth between the text & the log view.

This raises a more general questions about labels in dioramas.
Since every factor in the landscape - soil type, fungi, moss,
invertebrates, and small vertebrates - is a significant component
of the particular setting, what alternatives exist other than:
a) labeling nothing - just having a general interpretive text
b) labeling everything - so the diorama looks more like a
        cemetery full of headstones than a living system;
or the traditional
c) labeling the "important" [i.e., biggest] items - so people
        know that a Roosevelt elk lives among hemlocks, but they
        don't know why all the ferns, voles, fungi, etc. are all
        arond the big items.

Any suggestions?


Fred R. Reenstjerna
Research Librarian
Douglas County Museum of History and Natural History
ROSEBURG, OR USA  97470
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