Whilst most Sir Hans Sloane's natural history specimens took flight to @NHM_London in the 1880s some remained @britishmuseum and came instead to @britishlibrary
Quite the trail for these little beasts - still preserved in this 17th-century 'Insectorum'
#collectionsunited

The book 'Insectorum sive minimorum animalium theatrum' printed in London in 1634, is in very fragile condition. We have many books with plant specimens, few (maybe just this one) with bugs. With @BL_CollCare & @BL_Digitisation we are carefully conserving and digitising the item

We are taking very good care of the Gadfly - perhaps a contender for one of the #smallest items @britishlibrary ?!

The volume is recorded on the Library's online catalogue
http://explore.bl.uk/BLVU1:LSCOP-ALL:BLL01002567712 but had no note about the specimens. Brief catalogue records are one of the problems with such large historical collections and it's not surprising it missed the trip to @NHM_London

As many of Sloane's books have been dispersed throughout collections, work is under way to indentify them and catalogue them. This particular volume is recorded on The Sloane Printed Books Catalogue: a 'Virtual reconstruction' of Sloane's Library:
https://www.bl.uk/catalogues/sloane/FullDisplay.aspx?RecordId=025-000000714&QueryID=2&Type=0

Collection moves, reorganisations; sales of duplicates (to raise money for new acquisitions in the past) mean some of Sloane's books can be found in other libraries around the world. 42,000 have been identified for the catalogue; we continue to trace them
https://www.bl.uk/projects/sloane-printed-books

#collectionsunited #DYK you might find some of Sloane's books in ... @NLNZ (Alexander Turnbull Library); @RareBooksOfBod; @BPLBoston; @No1Cathedral; @ChelsPhysicGdn; @EdUniLibraries; @FolgerLibrary; @UofGlasgowASC; @ransomcenter; @TheJohnRylands; @subugoe; @MorganLibrary & others