I am with Intermos on Bird Forum. It is all about having a sense of proportion.
If you cut the grass, you kill lots of insects, maybe hundreds, and no-one cries "mass murder" or even cares. Go for a walk in the countryside and you walk on some. Go for a drive and you kill huge numbers, most on the windscreen and some under the tyres. Few of us have a second thought about splatting an irritating fly. So taking a few common beetles (one per species) is no big deal, as long as the habitat is not destroyed, and as long as there are plenty of the species about.
The real problem is that modern agriculture is destroying the habitat, with fields that are little more than deserts of grass for livestock, or deserts of food crops, with pesticides killing the few insects that can live in those deserts. That is why I donate small sums to conservation bodies such as the RSPB.
Personally I would feel ill at ease taking anything uncommon such as a Stag Beetle, which I feel is so magnificent that it should be left. But a Nettle Weavil? Or a common species of Ladybird?
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