By Steven Scarpa
Entomology collections manager Larry Gall has been preparing and preserving insects for study and research for decades. He is, by any definition, an expert at his craft.
Gall spoke plainly when asked how his work compared to that of Matthew Noll. “I am a rank amateur,” Gall said.
The Yale Peabody Museum received Noll’s collection of about 10,000 insects this year, adding an important piece to the museum’s extensive holdings. Noll died in 2024 at the age of 45 and his family sought a home for his meticulously cared for insects. Through a circuitous route – a friend heard of Noll’s work and then reached out to the Peabody – the collection found its way to Gall.
Noll’s collection met many of the criteria for inclusion at the Peabody, Gall explained. He focused his collection on one particular geographic region of curatorial interest, in this case San Diego County in California. Charles L. Remington, who founded the Peabody’s entomology collection in 1948, had a particular interest in the insects of California’s Channel Islands and in that state more generally.
Noll was also relatively indiscriminate in the species he sought, perhaps thanks to his work in pest control. He had over 220 families of insects represented in his collection, representing a sizeable chunk of the insect biodiversity in San Diego County. “He’s a little bit different from many entomologists in that they focus on one particular group,” Gall said.
Occasionally collectors will do what’s called a bio blitz, which is an effort to collect as much biodiversity as you can in a single day. “What Noll did was effective to be a bio blitzer over a 30-year period. People just don’t do this at that scale,” Gall said.
But the real draw of Noll’s collection is condition of the bugs themselves. The specimens are, as they say in the museum business, “charismatic.” They are meticulously prepared, every part of the creature carefully shaped, wings, legs, and antennae extended. The vibrant insects look as if they are poised to take off.
“They are artistically gorgeous and they are absolutely ready for scientific research in a way that many specimens are not. You can see all of the pieces (of the insects), except for the internal structures. They are all visible to you,” Gall said. “(Noll’s work) is an entomological unicorn.”
To illustrate the difference between ordinary preparation and Noll’s work, Gall opened up a case and pulled out a box of mounted moth specimens. The limbs and wings were visible, albeit a bit wilted. “They are pretty well prepared. Nothing really wrong with them, totally serviceable,” he said.
Still, they looked delicate and quite dead. Nothing like a Noll preparation. “Noll had some kind of secret sauce or better understanding than many of us do,” Gall said.
Gall believes that the key to effective insect preparation is to start the work quickly after the specimen’s demise. “Once something expires, the clock starts ticking. The joints start to seize up. It starts to dry out and desiccate, and as that process happens it becomes more difficult to prepare it without damage,” Gall said.
Noll is a bit of a throwback to the era of the amateur scientist, when they collected parts of nature, insects, plants, birds, or whatever caught their fancy. And he was a collector of all kinds of objects – coins, shot glasses, and baseball cards, according to his obituary.
It appears though that insects captured Noll’s imagination, same as Gall. His collection included copious documentation, field guides, scrapbooks with some of his drawings, but nothing written that says why he chose this particular hobby.
“I would have loved to have interviewed him. He would have been at the top of my list of people that I would want to speak to,” Gall said.
